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Originally Posted by rsidd The reason many people commenting above think of their cars as "second homes" etc is that they don't have to pay significant parking charges! A car occupies about 8-10 square metres. When you park on the road, as CSE and others have pointed out repeatedly, you are effectively getting that much land rent-free. Implement pay parking on all streets, at fairly stiff rates (reflective of rents in the area) the way it is done in developed countries, and the car mania will reduce overnight. |
That is very true my friend. Parking in the street is free in most (may be all) Indian cities and if we have to pay for that, the economics will change drastically to the point people will think twice about owning cars without owning dedicated parking space.
However, coming to think of it, most individual houses (of people who can afford a car) nowadays has dedicated space for car parking. Almost every apartment provides parking space to the residents, at least for one car. If we are talking about parking when we go out - offices, malls, restaurants, cinemas all have dedicated parking areas (paid or free). The problem is valid only for people who do not have dedicated parking area in their residence and in other places they visit.
Coming to cabs / self-driven rented cars - even they have to be parked somewhere, correct? If all parking spaces become paid, that cost will obviously have to be paid by the customer (directly or indirectly) - so effectively it will even out. Even now, all cabs have this clause which mentions that parking fee has be paid by the customer. Think of the peak time surcharges of 1.8X, 2.1X, 2.7X some cabs charge nowadays - this is how they take returns of the investment they made to gain the customer base. In the coming days, the fares will keep increasing and if they need to sustain the business model.
Again, India is no Singapore where there is absolute space crunch and each inch of free land has infinite value. Even in the US, I have lived / traveled in cities like Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Tallahassee where there is free parking in almost all places. Only in super crowded cities like New York and tourist places like Miami, we had to pay to park anywhere. The parking charges would change based on season / demand / time of the day, etc. But that is understandable - so many people and so less space. Such situation exists in very few Indian cities though.
P.S. I am speaking on the backing of my experience and not based on any statistics. If I am wrong, please educate me with the facts.
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Originally Posted by rsidd Yes, now and then it is really convenient to have your own car and not depend on Ola. Does that happen often enough to justify the expense and hassle of maintaining one? For some, maybe, for most of us, surely no. It would make more sense to rent a self-driven car when we need it. |
I think it is the reverse my friend - Now and then it is really convenient to depend on Ola and not own a car. For some, always depending on Ola / Zoom and others maybe is convenient, for most of us - surely NO. When you have a kid and you need to rush to a nearby hospital - would you call an Ola and wait for 15-20 mins? If you come home early from office and decide to go for a dinner / movie outside with wife and kid - would you book a Zoom, pick it up and then go?? If your friend calls up and tells his car broke down and calls me to pick up his family safely - would I suggest him to book an Uber instead?? I would rather not. There are many other situations when no service can replace the convenience of owning a car. Like many others have commented, these services can definitely replace the hassle of owning additional cars though.
Most of us here commenting that new services will replace owned cars have been only speaking from the Urban perspective. Step out of the Big cities - there is no Ola, no Uber, no Meru. In smaller cities you might find one Fasttrack and few other small service providers. But step into proper towns and villages - there are MANY such in India and there self owned cars cannot be replaced at all.
Even in the US, only in cities like New York where at any time of the day / night you can step out to the street, call out for a taxi and expect him to drop you wherever you want without asking for
meter mela kaasu (Extra money over and above meter charge). In most other cities, you have to call for a cab, wait for it to come over and pick up - no wonder they prefer to own cars.
I would wait for a day when public transport is safe, reliable, well connected and available at all times to let go of a self-owned car.
Note: Sorry for the extremely long post, but I found it necessary to state the alternate perspective effectively.