In recent years, traffic congestion, traffic accidents, and deterioration of the environment because of growing population, increasing urbanization, and increasing car ownership have become serious problems in the urban areas. Mumbai was ranked as the most traffic-congested city in the world for the second straight year, while Delhi was at fourth place as part of the Traffic Index 2018 published by TomTom, an Amsterdam-based company.

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Traffic congestion means there are more vehicles trying to use a given road facility than it can handle- without exceeding acceptable levels of delay or inconvenience. Congestion and the associated slow urban mobility can have a huge adverse impact on both the quality of life and the economy.

Effects of the Urban traffic congestion:

Economic impacts:

• Since the 1990s the spur in economic growth has created a huge demand for transport infrastructure and services.
• Despite increasing level of urban mobility in Indian cities, urban transportation is becoming increasingly difficult in terms of convenience, cost and time
• It is concerned with the monetary value of the time spent sitting in traffic.
• Congestion in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, and Kolkata costs the economy Rs 1.47 lakh crore annually, according to a study conducted by a global consultancy firm.
• Traffic congestion in Bangalore alone costs the city approximately 5% of its economic output.
• Unaffordability of private transport and lack of proper public transit option has become a major concern, especially for the urban poor.

Quality of Life:

• Environmental concerns like Increasing air and noise pollution.
• In 2016, a World Health Organisation (WHO) study found that fourteen of the twenty world’s most polluted cities belonged to India.
• According to CPCB (Central Pollution Control board), around 180 Indian cities face severe pollution concentration. In Indore, transport contributes 30 percent of PM10 but 46 percent of PM 2.5, while in Chennai it is 20 percent of PM10 and 35 percent of PM2.5. Air pollution is the fifth leading cause of death in Indian cities
• Road accidents: India experiences 120,000 deaths per year due to traffic fatalities, more than any other country.
• Delhi has the highest accident rate in India and third-highest in the world.
• Blocked traffic also interferes with the passage of emergency vehicles etc.
• Safety or the lack thereof, is the single biggest factor constraining women’s mobility. According to Action Aid UK, 79% of women in major Indian cities reported being harassed on streets.

Measures needed:

• Better Integrated Urban Planning: Currently, urban transport policies are regulated by city municipalities in the country. At the national level, the Government of India’s Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) mandated to transform urban areas,  particularly  urban  transport
• Promotion and integration of Public Transport: The Working  Group  on  Urban  Transport  for  12th  Plan  period  recognizes  the  important  of  public    In India, metro rail transport is already in operation in cities like New Delhi and Bangalore. The same facilities are also underway in other major cities like Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Jaipur and Kolkata.
• Intelligent signalization system: instead of  using  conventional  old  signalization  we  must  go  for  automated  signalization  in  the  mega cities. Intersections are the major sources of the congestion and this system could relief a much amount of congestion
• Strict lane management: Different lanes for different types of vehicles should be marked on the roads and law i.e. financial penalty should be imposed to make the drivers maintain the lane discipline
• Supply and demand: Congestion can be reduced by either increasing road capacity (supply) or by reducing traffic (demand) revealed that road capacity can be increased in a number of ways such as adding more capacity over the whole of a route or at  bottlenecks,  creating  new  routes,  and  improvements  for  traffic    Reduction  of  demand  can include,  parking  restriction,  park  and  ride,  congestion  pricing,  road  space  rationing,  incentives  to  use  public transport and introduction  of  e-education,  e-shopping  and  home-based  working  options  will  reduce  the  number  of  people travelling.
• Effective Traffic Policies like Street usage capacity, Area licensing System, Electronic Road Pricing, Quota for new vehicle system, Weekend car system etc must be implemented.

Conclusion:

There is requirement of integrated urban transport policies to reduce the congestion on urban roads. Continuous vehicle purchasing due to high income in the mega cities also should be  addressed  and  there  should  be  birth  of  new  rules  and  regulations  for  registering  a  new  vehicle  the  major urban  congested  cities  like  Delhi, Mumbai etc  State  and  city  public  transport  undertaking  need  to  be strengthened  to  attract  the  public  to  use  the  public  transport.  Introducing a rapid and efficient public transport and promoting it to a national levels leads to some relief in the major congestion problems in the urban cities. In the mega cities there is a need of strict rules of parking and uniform charges of vehicles so that no one can park their vehicles on the busy roads.