Feasibility assessment of an integrated green urban transportation system for Kathmandu Valley

Abstract

Kathmandu Valley faces acute urban mobility challenges, including severe traffic congestion, a disproportionately high share of fossil fuel dependent private vehicles, severely degraded pedestrian and cycling infrastructure, and decades of unplanned urban expansion that has consumed road reserves and public space. These conditions impose measurable costs on public health, economic productivity, and environmental sustainability, and they require a structured, evidence informed response grounded in local spatial conditions rather than generic policy templates. This study presents a planning level feasibility assessment for an integrated green urban transportation system specifically tailored to the Kathmandu Valley context, with the Gaushala-Ratopul corridor selected as a representative pilot study area. Field observations were conducted at four locations within the corridor during weekday morning peak hours (8:00–9:00 am), recording vehicle counts ranging from approximately 85 vehicles per hour at the heritage adjacent Jaya Bageshwori Road to approximately 560 vehicles per hour on the Ring Road segment, with motorcycles and microbuses constituting the dominant modes. An Origin and Destination (O&D) survey engaged 35 respondents across five stakeholder categories: daily commuters, shop owners, students, transport workers, and traffic police through purposive sampling at key corridor nodes. A pedestrianisation acceptance survey administered to eight accessible residents and business operators along Jaya Bageshwori Road recorded positive opinions from six respondents (75%), treated as an exploratory qualitative indicator rather than a statistically representative finding. Based on these field observations and secondary evidence from international case studies, the study proposes a phased framework of interventions encompassing pedestrian zone creation, dedicated cycling infrastructure across three spatial typologies, Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) corridor development on two proposed routes, electric vehicle (EV) adoption incentives, smart traffic management through Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR), and integrated digital mobility platforms. Alignment with Sustainable Development Goals 6, 7, and 11 is articulated through measurable indicator linkages supported by international precedent evidence. The proposed framework explicitly acknowledges the absence of transport simulation, emission modelling, and demand forecasting limitations that constrain the study to a planning level contribution and identifies these as priorities for future engineering level investigation.