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30th April 2011, 23:05 | #31 | |
Senior - BHPian Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Ban Chang
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| Re: Should a few of us stop owning cars?! Quote:
However you will block some other mall goer's parking spot. It is not easy to get parking spot in a mall on weekends or holidays. Better to choose a road that is (1) parkable (2) reasonably near destination (3) easy to get auto/bus to and fro | |
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30th April 2011, 23:54 | #32 | |
Senior - BHPian Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Ghaziabad/Hyderabad/Mysore
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| Re: Should a few of us stop owning cars?! Quote:
But then, as you mentioned in your earlier post itself the problem is exacerbated due to another reason - each household owning several cars. Also, I'm not blaming the old genration. I know it for a fact that people "add" rooms by building into verandahs etc. into the work of the old generations (who built beautiful houses with plenty of open spase inside the house) It beats me where that ingenuity goes when it comes to car parkings. For example in the houses in the picture you sent removing the front wall (leave a couple of pillars - it can be done without demolishing the whole house) would reduce the drawing room size but gain you a parking of even two cars. When people don't do that then it is all their greed. Blaming the govt. is fashionable of course. Multistory parking is a good idea, but let me ask you how much are people willing to pay for it? Obviously it can not be free or even subsidised for people who already own several cars (In fact why should ANY car owner get a subsidy. Otherwise, and I think you'll agree, this is a handout to the rich). If a reasonable fee (decided by the cost of providing that service and a reasonable return on capital) is possible then I'm sure some entrepreneur (why not you for example) can buy some land in the area (may be buy and demolish a few houses) and build a multistory parking on that land. One reason that doesn't happen is that everyone knows nobody will pay when they can just park in the land - govt. is not to be blamed for this, nor planning (if the previous generation could not foresee the flood of cars, then how could the previous generation's govt.?) If you were parking the cars in front of your houses earlier, then so can you do now. I don't understand what you were writing about earlier then (that a govt. babu took away the land and turned it into a park for your kids to play)? If on the other hand you were using some portion of the park land then that is encroachment and that is illegal. | |
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1st May 2011, 00:01 | #33 |
BHPian Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: India
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| Re: Should a few of us stop owning cars?! I would ask a different question. Rather than stopping car ownership maybe what folks should do is move to cities where infrastructure is better shape. I was in bangalore for the first 2.5 years/next 3 odd years in NY and the past 1 year in chennai. One thing about the indian metros is infrastructure/public transport/distance between work/residential area is in bad shape and things are going to become worse before they become better. I thought hard about this and decided to move to TVM. Been a month and half after the move and guess what the standard of living/quality of life is much better now. I have space to park my car in my own house and the traffic is better and the job conditions are better than what they were in chennai/bangalore(because of lack of 1-1.5 hr commute that was the norm). As long as i stay with my current employer there is no real difference between working in bangalore/chennai or tvm. Dare say that prospects in this city is better. If the infrastructure/public transport was as good as it was in NY i wouldn't ever miss my car but in india it's not going to get there any time soon.In NY my commute time was 30 minutes in the metro/Chennai was 1.5 hrs+ stressful driving/Bangalore was again 1 hr with stressful driving and in TVM it is 15 minutes . Last edited by vishnurp99 : 1st May 2011 at 00:03. |
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1st May 2011, 00:02 | #34 | |
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| Re: Should a few of us stop owning cars?! Quote:
regards vina | |
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1st May 2011, 00:07 | #35 |
BHPian Join Date: Apr 2011 Location: Mumbai
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| Re: Should a few of us stop owning cars?! Multi-storey parking is a nice idea but I think it is not feasible, atleast in Mumbai. It will require lots of space and the charges will also be higher. I think nowdays buildings are being built with proper planning for parking. However for old buildings the problem persists. The number of cars are increasing day by day whereas the space is almost the same. In some areas in Mumbai I have seen a group of people managing parking for that Area. It is not an area specialised for parking or so but in that part these people will be there and they manage parking over there. One such road was near Churchgate, near Jai hind college. I think many such areas has to be identified and given to people who can manage parking. One might say that if parking is available shouldnt we park it ourselves. I think keeping others in charge of parking will lead to better use of space. Ofcourse I am not saying this will solve all problems but atleast this will help parking in some areas. P.S - How about encouraging people to use two-wheelers? Last edited by Saanil : 1st May 2011 at 00:09. |
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1st May 2011, 00:07 | #36 | |
Senior - BHPian Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Ghaziabad/Hyderabad/Mysore
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| Re: Should a few of us stop owning cars?! Quote:
A majority of people don't/can't buy a car and just because you can make a down-payment and pay the EMI doesn't mean you can afford it. Govt. providing parking etc. is frankly a subsidy and that is unfair on those who do think about this issue before they buy a car. | |
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1st May 2011, 00:14 | #37 | |
Senior - BHPian Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Ban Chang
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| Re: Should a few of us stop owning cars?! Quote:
Come to think of it, if an ideal taxi service existed, would not need a car myself. But then again, real world is different. Right now as I write this post, my wife is spending some torrential times as ecabs blundered at Mumbai airport where they were supposed to pick up my in-laws. I mean they gave their word on certain things but that never happened. And, lets not even go to those rape cases. We will probably keep the car around. | |
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1st May 2011, 00:46 | #38 |
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| Re: Should a few of us stop owning cars?! 1) Why should we stop owning cars ? Car is for our own personal comfort, safety and utility. No chance we do away with cars. Never. 2) Lack of public transport. This can in a big way reduce the traffic nuisance. The no. of vehicles plying on the road will go down drastically. But what about quality of public transport ? Can public transport offer car-like level of comfort ? Safety ? Security ? Lack of discipline in India is biggest factor against public transport. Once the general public is disciplined, things will get better even as far as cars go. 3) Lack of parking place ? There is concept of urban planning. Where was it ? Is it implemented even now ? 4-5 inch rain = flooding and water lodging on road. Do we follow natural descent of a city ? No, we dont. I am sure, we can have much less of a problem if we have urban planning implemented. What about encroachment ? There are people in so called general public who first of all have illegal space occupied and then use contacts to prevent the same from coming down. Yes, lack of parking space is a problem, but coming to a conclusion about reason for the same is wrong IMO. 4) Using bike. For getting bullied by cars ? For getting dirty and drenched in rains ? For lack of safety ? If one can afford a car, there is no reason why should one use a bike. Occasionally for fun, not as a regular transport. I use bike a lot ( more than 1200 kms. a month ) and I am aware of quite a bit of negatives and positives. Positives are only a few and eventually look good only on paper. We dont have that discipline, that kind of roads where we can state that bike is safe. Nano exists because its safer than bike. 5) Giving out more tax for owning car, etc. is like denying right. Large financial inequality, perceptions, etc. come in way when we buy the largest possible car in the planned budget. The lower middle class who has always suffered in buses will for sure love to have a car. This issue is not just about NOT owning cars, but it runs deeper into India and public thinking. Much more complex than having a post/thread here. Last edited by aaggoswami : 1st May 2011 at 00:48. |
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The following BHPian Thanks aaggoswami for this useful post: | gaurav_chopra04 |
1st May 2011, 01:36 | #39 | |||
Senior - BHPian Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Ghaziabad/Hyderabad/Mysore
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| Quote:
Several years ago very few people in my locality owned a car and we used taxis extensively. I had to go to the airport and the taxi guy didn't come. So a neighbor dropped me in his car (and we were not on talking terms till that day for years). In a way the unreliability of the taxi guy helped us break the ice that day. I'll not go into the other terrible things you mention - but that is why Meru kind of services are more important - you reduce the likelihood of such events to below what can be expected if you were using your own vehicle. Quote:
clearly this is an issue close to your heart. We hope to have a lively discussion with you. Quote:
Regarding the comments above, (I might be completely wrong here) I believe on the roads inside residential areas in front of houses (but not apartment buildings) "roadside parking" is allowed for residents giving them preferential rights over others. the residents pay property taxes and this use is included in that (however small the property taxes may be). Of course if a resident needs more parking than the front of his house allows (and also if the house front is a major or minor traffic route, not an internal road likely to be used only by residents) then he is responsible for it himself. Note from Team-Bhp Support: Kindly avoid back-to-back posts within 20 minutes. Take another look at the forum rules. Last edited by Amartya : 1st May 2011 at 21:58. Reason: Merged the back-to-back posts. Please read the forum rules once more, this is clearly laid out. | |||
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1st May 2011, 02:17 | #40 |
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| Re: Should a few of us stop owning cars?! A very intriguing topic, but quite worth it. We might have come a long away from cars being status symbols to a more utilitarian one, but there is still a lot to change. Most people use the cars for going to office. Not using a car lands them with public transport. Now thats not something to be very proud of in many cities but is improving. I have lived in NCR and now in Kolkata, both of them have a robust (in number not quality) public transport. NCR has improved a lot with Metro but Kolkata public buses are no fit to go to office. One of my colleague comes in a T shirt and changes to a shirt in office as he cant be decently dressed after an hour of local train travel on Sealdah route (kolkata'ns will know). So no cars is a tough decision for office. Chartered buses and Volvo's may be are a decent option.Again not every city. Thanks to umpteen number of malls, shopping visits are still getting better on cars, but the occasional local markets, its a nightmare for parking. In kolkata, there are places where even parking a bike is a matter of luck. So a tough ask, but my suggestion is to use public transport to the max, it saves a lot of effort. Enjoy the cars on drives. Might do some good to the earth too. |
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1st May 2011, 02:17 | #41 | |||
Senior - BHPian | Re: Should a few of us stop owning cars?! Quote:
For the babu, he was from horticulture department and took over complete park and didnt leave space for parking, which was used by everyone as a whole and that by no chance was used by us because our cars were always standing in front of the house. So for the encroachment bit, the land was for public use and we anyways didnt use it, But it got us i trouble as people used to park in front of our house when it became unavailable. And lastly, I cool with the way you replied, thanks . Quote:
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EDIT: @VINU, you are absolutely right with residential property rights for parking. Thanks for sharing. Last edited by gaurav_chopra04 : 1st May 2011 at 02:40. | |||
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1st May 2011, 02:31 | #42 | |
Senior - BHPian Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Ghaziabad/Hyderabad/Mysore
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| Re: Should a few of us stop owning cars?! Quote:
thanks for being patient with me. I must say I misunderstood your first post. I thought you were using the parking. Again sorry for that. The horticulture guys are responsible for upkeep of parks, and while in this case it caused bother for you, in a way you should be happy that finally these guys are getting around to what they should have been doing in the first place - govt. efficiency is improving (and those who deal with govt. regularly know that inefficiency and incompetence of govt. employees is a bigger problem than corruption itself). I really don't have anything to say here except that you should check the local municipal rules. You actually may have preferential rights to using the space in front of your house as parking. I am not sure but I think in several old localities in Delhi that is the case (DDA advertised some developments as "parking on road"). If so, then the NO PARKING sign you put is perfectly legal. | |
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1st May 2011, 02:38 | #43 | |
Senior - BHPian | Re: Should a few of us stop owning cars?! Nice thread and quite some interesting responses. Really appreciate those that have either given up their cars or have reduced usage - hopefully this thread would inspire me to opt for office-cab, thereby reducing 1 car on the congested Chennai road and also saving 3.5L of precious fuel daily. This topic is something we all would be pondering on seriously sooner than later, given the rising number of cars in our metros. While I am not thinking of selling off our cars (with my bike sold, I have only the Baleno left at Chennai), I am not thinking of buying any more cars. We have a Swift at Kerala, which is sparingly used as Dad prefers his Scooty for short runs. Wifey has started driving and while she also has a Scooty, in the interest of safety, I would like her to use a car for anything that involves travel on the busy main road which is 1km away from home. It would make immense sense for her to drive the (unused) Swift, but she says it is too big, less FE compared to a small car etc etc and wants an Alto. Though I think the real reason for her reluctance is that the car belongs to my Dad, who is posessive about it and she is worried about any damage to it, since she is a new driver. Being in a small town in Kerala (no flats - independent homes on huge plots), parking-space is a non-issue. Neither is getting a new car an issue. But when we have a car at home that is just sitting in the garage, it does not make sense to get another. Everytime I try to make her understand this, she responds that I am finding excuses not to get her a car. Now I have a solution finally - just point her to this thread. Quote:
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1st May 2011, 02:51 | #44 | |
Senior - BHPian Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Ghaziabad/Hyderabad/Mysore
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| Re: Should a few of us stop owning cars?! Quote:
you are right, even if there are rules they are not clear. | |
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1st May 2011, 07:19 | #45 |
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| Re: Should a few of us stop owning cars?! A major bulk of the cars that are driven on the roads are those that belong to office-goers on their daily commute. If these offices take responsibility for the commuting needs of their employees, it would improve traffic conditions significantly. My company in Mumbai, for example, has buses that operate on both the Eastern and Western express highways. Thus many car owners who drove through these stretches, now simply hire autos to the nearest bus pickup point and are now dropped directly at our gates. No hassle and stress of daily driving. Even organising car pooling among employees can help things considerably. If 3-4 car owners working in the same company and living within the same area of the city can pool their cars together, it would mean that fuel costs drop at least by 50% and driving just about 1-2 times in a week is something that most office-goers would love. Make no mistake, a personal vehicle is no longer a luxury in today's world and having a car or a 2-wheeler at one's disposal is always convenient and even necessary. The key is to reduce our day to day usage. This requires proactive measures from each and every one of us. |
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