[Romeo_Mike]

I am sure the study has many amazing insights but the headline is honestly a moronic one.

Indian cars are parked 95% of the time as opposed to what? Only 50% in Utopia? Did they consider the fact that the drivers of the cars have to sleep an avg of 33% (8 hrs a day) of the time?

Now let's analyze what a hypothetical 50% parking time will imply-

1. The drivers of the cars are spending 75% of the their total awake time driving around.
2. That would be true if all the cars belonged to people who are professional drivers.
3. Wait a minute! Oh s**t!! They have looked into the future and printed the stats 100 yrs early!!!

[ramzsys]

It's an environment institute, so the report is very pertinent; the perspective has to change from what it is to the individual to what is happening in the collectivist point of view.

Apart from the resources being un-utilized/under-utilized in the form of a parked car, the amount of fuel we burn in the urban crawl, idling in traffic and at toll gates is also a matter of concern. Engines that are designed to run for 3-5 lakh km without overhaul tend to emit blue smoke when nearing the 1L mark in these operating conditions.

First world machines, second world infrastructure, third world road mannerisms. What could go wrong, right?

[Gansan]

Then the way forward obviously should be public transport, cabs such as Ola/Uber and self drive rentals like Zoom. Individual owned cars in any part of the world will be idle for most part of the day, not only in India.

[KMT]

Perhaps these guys should also conduct research on the number of attached toilets in each house.

They are used for only 30 minutes a day. If we follow this line of thinking, we need to get rid of attached toilets in our houses also and go in for communal ones.

For a lot of products/investments, hours run is not a suitable metric to measure utility.

For example Dams are designed for peak load, the peak capacity is not used for 99% of the time but in the 1% of time it is necessary the latent capacity HAS to be available.

Such articles and research is frequently used to push an (socialist) agenda.

The vast majority of us indians are a value/cost conscious lot, we will not spend money unless we perceive we are getting adequate value from it.

I hope the day does not come when I will have to replace my car/s with the likes of a Zoomcar /Uber .

The actual take away for me from this article is that the road infrastructure is so poor that the unfortunate car owner does get an opportunity to use his machine/investment.

[noopster]

This thread has a very click-baitish title, in all honesty. I did a quick calculation for my own car: average one-way commute of 1 hour means that on any given day my car is parked (either at home, work or, on weekends, legally in the street somewhere) for an astonishing 91.67% of the time. So given the number of cars that are not used as a daily driver, the 95% figure is really not as shocking as it seems to be.

More annoyingly, the title will distract people from reading the actual report instead. The PAMP outlined in the report actually has some good suggestions, which I wholly support. Illegal street parking MUST be cracked down upon especially in congested metropolitan areas. Bundling parking with apartments must be stopped and people should be sold parking lots at market rates as per their requirements (some households own 3 cars, some none). The need of the hour is to sensitize people to the fact that parking is NOT a right, it's a privilege...and you damn well better pay for it!

One hopeful thing is the emergence of metro rail networks in most major Indian cities. I for one look forward to the day when I can commute to work by metro and use the car only in emergencies or on weekends. It will probably obliviate the need for a second car as well.

[Arwin07]

The only way for cars to be used >90% of time is when common man doesn't own a car and when autonomous cars are the norm.
For daily commutes, summon a car using app from among the autonomous cars available in neighborhood at that moment.
If you don't want to miss the pleasure of driving yourself, turn off 'auto-pilot' and drive it yourself. Leave the car at your office parking lot to be picked up by another user who needs at that moment.
AI will learn of the peak time demands such as when office time ends in a huge IT park and mobilises the anticipated number cars in advance and includes car pooling.
During low demand times, the electric cars can get charged in nearby outlets.

Or there is an easier way: Build world class public transportation with last mile connectivity.

[emkay.india]

This gives a whole different perspective of my car usage. Mine is 11 years old with an odo of ~70k kms. Considering an average speed of 45 kmph, my usage of my car in a year is 1.7%

[Jeroen]

This thread could make for an interesting study on how the internet is used and how people respond to the internet.

Lets start with the title; Indian cars are parked 95% of the time.

That is not the title, nor the conclusion of the study. Would this thread have attracted the same attraction, less alone the same kind of responses if it had used the same title as the actual study:

PAMPering Cities: How to manage Urban India’s parking needs?

I wonder how many of our esteemed members have actually gone through the trouble of clicking on the link and glancing through the actual report? Maybe we need to commission a study?

The headline of that thread is likely to read: 95% of the public does not read beyond head line.

I leave you with a actual quote from the conclusion on page 68:

As there is already oversupply of parking—in fact supply exceeds demand— there is no need for more standalone parking structures in the area.

If this thread had used this one liner, this thread might have attracted even more comments. Quoting single lines, might provoke a reaction, but it doesn’t even come close to hitting the proverbial nail on the head. It does, as this thread shows, attract attention, but rarely starts a good discussion.

The report is actually very interesting and well written. It is devoid of jargon and anybody can easily read it. And make up your mind what you think of it. But you have to go beyond catchy headlines!

Jeroen

[landcruiser123]

I think people won't fall into the guilt trap. Cars will be used for 1-5% of the total hours. So will a pressure cooker in many families- it will be used for 1 hour daily (about 5% of the day.) Doesn't mean you can get rid of both. You need to have viable alternatives.

I'd love to see the 2 studies titled-
1. x % of Indians have a public bus stop/metro station within 500m of their house
2. y % of Indians can commute to CBD from their house in under 1 hour using public transit options

Traffic can't be reduced by building more roads or charging more taxes/fees.

[antz.bin]

I am a Millennial. I had 2 cars in my household so never was there a need for me to buy. After I moved cities, I used Uber for 1.5 years and though cheaper, it was not remotely as convenient.

I bought my first car about 2.5 months back and I understand that I am spending 5x (including everything) as compared to what I spent on Uber + 2 wheeler. But I am getting a lot more out of it.

The biggest thing we save is time. We can earn more money and buy conveniences but it is impossible to buy time. Buying a car is like buying time, and spending the bought time with your loved ones.

A sample use case for this is me going to my parent's place from Pune to Nashik. Door to door from my office / home in Pune on a Friday evening at 6PM, it takes me 4hr 30min with one tea+stretch break to reach my home in Nashik by 10:30 PM, in time for dinner with my family.

By contrast, if I take an Uber + Public transport, it will take me the following:
20 min: Waiting for cab.
40 min: to Cab ride to Bus stand.
30 min: buffer time before the bus starts
6 hrs: Bus ride in an AC Shivshahi (speed limited to 80kmph) to Nashik including stop at a rubbish dhaba for dinner.
10 min: waiting for someone from home for pickup
5 min: car ride home

So a total door to door time of 7hr 45min. From a starting time of 6PM, this means that I would reach at 1:45AM, too late for dinner, too late for a meaningful conversation with anyone.

It depends on how much we value time spent with loved ones. Millennials are thrifty, but not stupid. They will figure it out eventually. The problem is that the government kept misusing Road Tax funds elsewhere instead of using it for what it was paid for in the first place and then they now blame congestion on car owners, who apparently don't even use their cars ~95% of the time .

[Sankar]

Originally Posted by noopster

This thread has a very click-baitish title, in all honesty.

Originally Posted by Jeroen

TBut you have to go beyond catchy headlines!

I agree. Not the first one I have come across recently on Tbhp. I hope the trend does not continue.

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by blackwasp

According to a study by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), an Indian car is parked for over 95% of the time and is driven for less than 5%.

This is not new information. The worldwide average is actually 96%, the Indian number is slightly less because we have lot less cars per capita.

I had posted this in 2016:

Originally Posted by Samurai

Right now, on average private cars spend 96% of their time parked somewhere. Yes, the utilization of private car is about 4%. And they spend this time parked in expensive real estate called parking lot.

[Hayek]

Lots of folks have hit the nail on the head by citing the fact that cars are not the only item we underuse.

The entire idea that parking is a waste is incorrect - ultimately, it gets costed into the price of homes and offices. You could argue that parking should not be bundled with homes - but if it is not, people will still buy cars and park on roads. Am all for building multi stories lots, and banning parking on streets. But you can’t assume away parked cars.

Antz made a very valid point - cars are about saving time. Post the BKC connector starting up, my journey home is on an average not much longer than the waiting time for an Uber. I certainly value the time saved and hence would always have my own car.

[searacer932]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

The report is actually very interesting and well written. It is devoid of jargon and anybody can easily read it. And make up your mind what you think of it. But you have to go beyond catchy headlines!

Jeroen

Agree with you. The report is very well written. It's a shame that this thread title is misleading and does not convey the key message from the report. I did not go through the report but trusted TeamBHP's summary in the first page. After your post I went through the report and have changed my mind about the report. Thanks for pointing this out.

[Sree73]

If I look at my ownership of current S-Cross, 82K KMs in 4 years 4 months, I have an average run time of ~10%. This is because majority of the run happens in Bangalore city with an average speed of 20-22 KM/Hr.

So, I'm almost at double the national average. But, eventually all private car ownership will hover around the 5-6% usage time as that is the model in which this segment operates.