Congestion tax in Bengaluru city: Should it be implemented or not?

Congestion Tax as a driving disincentive has been implemented in major cities like London, Stockholm and Singapore

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A report published in The Economic Times seems to suggest that the incumbent government is considering introduction of Congestion Tax in certain key areas of Bengaluru. This, the report suggests, will - by driving up (pun intended) the cost of travel by private vehicles - incentivize the use of public transport; a step that will address the dual issues of congestion and pollution.

Government's favorite kid on the block FASTag will be used to collect the charges.

The reasons prompting the authorities to think on these lines have apparently been outlined in a document titled Karnataka's Decade - Roadmap to $1 Trillion Economy.

While there might be some merit in thinking on these lines to decolonize the streets from the constant onslaught of privately owned motors, the list of areas, viz Outer Ring Road, Sarjapur Road, Hosur Road, Old Airport Road, Old Madras Road, Ballari Road, Bannerghatta Road, Kanakapura Road, Magadi Road, West of Chord Road, and Tumakuru Road, that this plan seeks to include, forces one wonder about the feasibility of the project as well as doubt the actual intention of the proposed measure.

Congestion Tax as a driving disincentive has been implemented in major cities like London, Stockholm and Singapore, but there are almost no instances of it being successful in any of the Indian cities.

Having brought home our steeds by paying through our nose (one of the highest rates of road tax), should we be taxed again for the innocuous act of driving on the streets of Namma Bengaluru?

Will fellow BHPians endorse this scheme and hope to see a solution to the perennial problem of traffic jam and toxic air OR should this be seen as another senseless but lucrative money mopping exercise?

Here's what BHPian Abhisheknott had to say on the matter:

No. But inevitable.

People are going to the "key areas" because they have/want to be there. If there is a congestion at a particular area, its because the traffic flow design is flawed. This doesn't even factor in the parking. No government in India has enforced the parking laws/code for commercial buildings.

Its like saying the common man should be devoid of all personal rights or make it damn expensive. Well connected public transport will automatically reduce the number of vehicles on the road but there has to be a limit to burdening the tax paying citizens.

Why not this start with the government? Let them all go to the secretariat in a bus instead of using convoys.

Here's what BHPian Rajeevraj had to say on the matter:

Congestion tax can only work if there an elaborate ,efficient, cost effective public transportation system as an alternative for people to use including proper first and last mile connectivity. In Bengaluru, while the metro expansion is happening, it is still slow progress and a very long way away from covering all the areas mentioned efficiently. All other public transportation systems including buses are woefully inadequate. Only once that is done and tested, does it even make sense to think of such ideas. Otherwise it can only remain a wild idea on paper and can never be implemented.

Here's what BHPian Jeroen had to say on the matter:

Congestion charges are a bit of a controversial topic anywhere. At the same time fee would argue that in London it has reduced congestion and pollution.

Of course you will need to have a good infrastructure when it comes to practical and affordable public transport.

And as with anything, there are always going to be some very rich gits who could not care less how much it costs to drive into the city.

Additionally, there are also going to be some people who are going to be seriously disadvantaged by these sort of measures.

You can never come up with a scheme that will make everybody happy.

Jeroen

Here's what BHPian anjan_c2007 had to say on the matter:

It's totally irrational to earmark areas without conducting a very detailed survey of the number of hospitals, OPD type medical establishments, private residences, schools, colleges, business establishments, offices both government and private, tourist spots, public gardens, museums, art galleries, cinema theatres and multiplexes and almost all such establishments in the areas demarcated with the total number of footfalls/ users/ students/ faculty members and staffers/occupants/ office goers and so on, on every working day and on holidays.

For instance, suppose there are hospitals and someone has to ferry a patient there for a daily check-up using his car one cannot tax him irrationally. Also, school and college goers, those residing in such areas and all others connected with establishments situated in here, will all be the more or most affected.

Hence, discouraging automobiles to enter certain areas should be only and only restricted to those who move into such areas from other areas with no much plausible reason. Again, finding such "plausible reason/s" would be tough to ascertain by the enforcers under Indian conditions given the Indian psyche.

Hence, the best remedial measure to decongest, would be to encourage a very efficient public transport and to provide incentives for one and all, using such means to move in such congested areas.

Also huge capacity, affordable and multistoried parking lots in the periphery of these identified congested areas and public transport including EV's therefrom to congested areas could be a better option.

Here's what BHPian IshaanIan had to say on the matter:

I firmly believe that traffic jams are simply caused by lack of lane discipline and buses. I have seen bus stops right before and right after flyovers I mean just imagine the kind of chaos and traffic that that itself can cause. On top of that bus drivers are incentivised to get the best fuel economy so they hardly ever go all the way to the left to stop and much prefer holding up everyone else behind them while they stop to load and unload passengers so that they can have a smooth getaway. Even if all these procedural flaws were to be corrected, I still feel like buses and other unnecessarily large vehicles are the cause of traffic because for example how is a bus to make an appropriate U-Turn? There are several instances where buses have to manoeuver into or out of roads in the most audacious inappropriate fashion but one cannot even blame them because there is no correct way to complete the manoeuver unless their routes are restricted to main roads.

To think that people pay such high road tax only to deal with potholed roads, having to share the road with users who do not understand how to drive properly, having to deal with deliberately unlit stretches of road and on top of that such short-sighted proposals, just boils my blood.

Here's what BHPian Red Liner had to say on the matter:

Ban trucks and all forms of heavy vehicle commercial transport ferrying goods within the BBMP limits between 5 am and 11 pm.

Fix school timings across the board across the city so that everyone else knows when to avoid the roads irrespective of where they live.

Office start timings to be staggered AFTER school opens.

80% problem solved.

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