Traffic Congestion Is Slowly Strangling Our Cities

But that is another issue for another day. The fact is that India has estimated 5.4 million kilometers of roads, however our cities, with the exception of Delhi actually have a road surface area which is below the global norm, less than five percent of cities is paved. If you want to see how bad traffic congestion is, just look down after taking off from Mumbai airport on a weekday evening, you can see a ten kilometer long line of headlights on the Western Express Highway. And it isn't just roads, residential parking has become a problem too. Housing developments in the 1980's such as Delhi's Vasant Kunj were planned for one (small) car families. Today each four-storey block in this huge complex in southern Delhi has between 15-20 cars over the eight apartments. Multiply that by the thousands of apartments and you have a parking crisis.

The advent of cab aggregator apps or rather ride-sharing apps such as Uber does offer one solution. That is to actually allow private users to better use their vehicles to offer rides; that is to say to legally allow ride-sharing for a commercial consideration. Think of it like this, a car is a horribly under-utilised asset, many people just use their cars to go to office and return everyday. The fact is that public transportation despite advances in Delhi at least, is still not completely viable for many car owners. But going alone in a car is a huge waste of resources; on average a car carries 1.2 people.

Suppose you work in Gurgaon and commute from Delhi in your hatchback and drive yourself. What if you could offer a ride to someone who lived on your path and you could make some money as well. Not a lot of money, but enough to cover the fuel expenses and a bit. The person hiring the ride would travel in comfort and for less money than a regular taxi. Of course, security will be a concern, but technology could help there as well, maybe only people with whom you share mutual contacts on social networks can hail a ride with you. This will lead to greater car utilisation during the morning and evening rush hours. Maybe if this became institutionalised like Uber and Lyft have become in America younger folks might choose not to buy a car until later in life.

Of course, the complicated part here is the government, which prevents private cars from offering 'commercial' services; they feel these need to be taxed. But since this is on a digital platform, deductions can automatically be made. Municipalities and state governments will have to look at such solutions, because increasing road congestion will make cities unlivable. And no matter how fast we build public transport, the fact that most Indian cities started so late, will mean that will still take a decade for a city like Delhi with its rapid pace of Metro construction to have a truly-integrated system.

We have to also address our severe parking issues, and while Mr. Venkaiah Naidu's proposal to have a 'parking space' before you buy a car seems prima facie unworkable, something will need to be done. Parking systems will need to built and all new houses in India will need to ensure parking. In areas where retro-fitting parking solutions isn't an option, large, possibly underground parking lots will need to be built. But even when advanced parking solutions are built, they cannot be charged obscene sums of money like they do at Delhi Airport for example. In many western countries people can keep their own vehicles in long-term parking lots at airports for a nominal fee, not Rs 900 for 48 hours.

The issue is that our politicians and policy-makers are so busy playing politics that they have forgotten policy making. We need comprehensive solutions for problems like this, and the auto industry should also take a long hard look at themselves and start offering solutions to the government as well. Otherwise, we'll all be losers.