AQI Steering: Car Culture’s Long History of Scapegoating
- Rakshith Muthukumar
- Dec 2
- 3 min read
Sri City: Delhi has been well known in the public sphere for multiple topics, its night life, its old
culture dating back to the mughal era, the city being the national capital, but most notoriously has been its air pollution. For decades between November to December, AQI (Air quality index) readings often reach between 300 to 400 AQI with substances like smoke, dust, and soot (Categorised as ‘PM2.5’ air pollution) being credited as significant contributors. In 2023 it was recorded that nearly 15% of all deaths in the city were caused by air pollution, with the addition of other diseases like diabetes and high blood pressure that have ties to heat and air quality, the percentage increases significantly. These disconcerting figures evoke disappointment but often a lack of surprise from environmentalists and from medical professionals.
Traditionally, when seasonal rises in AQIs are brought up, Delhi’s residents point to Diwali and New year celebrations with their heavy use of fireworks, and state negligence with a recent investigation by Newslaundry reporting that water being sprayed at AQI sensors within Delhi to supposedly ‘reduce the readings’; actions that have been welcomed by online mockery. However, an additional and often handwaved contributor to worsening AQIs has been overdependency on cars, and cities being constructed to favour car dependency and the social atomisation and exclusion it has been bringing.
A 2024 documentary by The Quint highlighted how India’s streets are not pedestrian friendly and additionally many civilians are forced and incentivised to buy their own car due to poor quality pedestrian infrastructure from Mumbai, to Bengaluru, to Kolkata shown by independent researchers; and Delhi is no exception to shrinkage in pedestrian spaces which affect not just on foot computers, but specifically senior citizens and people with disabilities in navigating cities. Some pedestrians, particularly women and poor backgrounds, have opted for buses and 2 wheelers (motorcycles) as a means of transport, but even those options are shrinking due to urban planning. A 2022 article by The Economist provides insight that roads are not being built for 2 wheelers and therefore encourages residents to switch to having their own car due to lack of insightful urban planning. A rise in crowdedness of buses and therefore unsafe conditions in Delhi, have incentivised many residents to purchase private cars, and thus incentivises road projects. In September 2025, the central government approved an increase in road construction projects with the argument that ‘Roads are arteries of the modern city’ indicating it as a force of progress.
Transportation in the forum of CO2 emissions produces 10% of India’s emissions with urban areas expected to be higher in terms of emissions compared to rural regions. Although public transport exists like the Delhi metro since 2002, it has been seen as an unaffordable option due to price hikes for many commuters. The class divide that evidently is created from both incentivisation of road infrastructure, and unaffordable public transportation additionally creates a hostile cycle of dependency and exclusion. Car dependency and culture finds itself contributing to pollution and worsening health outcomes in Delhi, and at the same time economically excludes and marginalises large sections of city residents from low income families to migrant workers with the common denominator of not having a car.
Accusations however become even worse, due to car culture being ingrained as part of daily life, AQI readings aren’t viewed holistically. In the aftermath of Diwali celebrations and fireworks, many social media users would be observed blaming farmers in Punjab and Haryana as the sole perpetrators of air pollution in Delhi due to stubble burning, with a recent television broadcast by India Today legitimising this sentiment despite farmers having their unique circumstances in growing crops. Since the 2000s, the addition of new roads and by that extent, infrastructure projects with demands for land has also meant the forceful eviction of communities and slum demolition in the name of progress and supposedly against encroachment which often displaced low income and minority communities. Car induced demand combined with institutional prejudice effectively created a class divide between car riders and encroachments and communities against forces of progress.
Delhi’s car culture finds itself untouched in AQI discussions despite it contributing to a hostile environment of dependency and scapegoating where changes in car policy causes outcries and major inconveniences witnessed back in the 2000s and 2010s with a shift towards natural gas from diesel, and in recent rows over switches to ethanol based fuel with accusations and allegations of corruption especially towards Nitin Gadkari’s (Minister of Highways) son having an ethanol company. Unless municipal governments provide an alternative to commuters that are both reliable and affordable to de-incentivise car usage, the costs of a car culture will be piling grievances from Delhi’s marginalised, and an unchanging trend of ever decreasing standard of health in the form of cancer and cardiovascular diseases, for decades in the city.
