[hybridpetrol]

Assuming one family = 4 people, and if such rule is implemented, India would have just 30 crore cars, and not 500 crore cars like now!! Confused?

Motor Vehicles per thousand estimate states that India has just 18 cars per thousand, which means we have less than 2 crore motor vehicles (not just cars) for our 1.2 billion population!
There are way too many people living here without cars, and hence a few people having additional cars is not the issue due to which our roads are choked. Our roads are choked because, the capacity of our roads are grossly insufficient to the amount of traffic the roads need to handle.

[nakul0888]

Good god...Now I am convinced that this country is doomed to be third world for eternity.
Who the hell is anyone from the judiciary or the government to tell how many cars one can buy or not?
What's the next big idea from our honourable courts? How much food can a family consume in a month? How many children can we have? What jobs can a person take? Are we going to try full on marxism next?

And suddenly its all the people's fault , isn't it? What about the government?
Isn't it govt's responsibility to ensure adequate infrastructure and planning?
Isn't it govts responsibility to ensure traffic rules? I mean in the op's pic what sort of a road is that? Is it a two lane? or a six lane? or a ten lane?
Of course the people can out of decency and civility could maintain proper lanes I am sure that many people try to, but hey if there's no consequences who cares for that stuff , right?

The govt and judiciary as it is don't care to fulfil their destined roles like protecting personal property, maintaining law and order, ensuring justice to the aggrieved. They are all corrupt and irresponsible. And when that results in problems, instead of pulling up their socks doing it right, they impose new retarded laws to overcome their own deficiencies....great

[SRM]

Mumbai is blessed to be surrounded by sea and have always felt that our authorities have never understood its potential. Building coastal roads, alternate highways, metro lines etc. will take years to complete by when we will already be facing bigger transport issues.

The quickest solution to set the ball rolling is developing inland water transport and it could be cost effective as well! I sincerely hope this is explored seriously in the report to be submitted by the authorities.

[Mortis]

One easy step to implement is "No Private Parking Spot - No Car". This will automatically cut down on the number of cars. Most housing societies RARELY have more parking space than 1-2 cars per flat regardless of whether it is a 1BHK or 4BHK and in the newer constructions parking spots are sold at a premium.

Haphazard parking on the road has become a real pain of late. I can see the example of that in my lane. The housing societies which dont have place for residents extra cars get parked in the lane and also the younger generation of lower middle class from the chawls are now better educated and have better income so for some of them a new car or 2nd hand car is now affordable so they buy one but obviously they have no place to park so it gets parked in the lane again. The lane is relatively narrow and has a few bends and inevitably people park stupidly so it creates a lot of bottlenecks and frustration. God forbid if two tempos are travelling in opposite directions at the same time !

So yeah no parking - no car and also "hum do, hamare uno/zero". Lesser population will help our country in a big way too

[WorkingGuru]

I feel government should amend the law & allow private vehicles to be used as Taxi's.

Originally Posted by suzuki san

...
5. Remove the 60,000 odd (a figure mentioned by an Uber driver) Uber / Ola taxis from the roads. (I am not against Uber/Ola at all but if you are stuck in traffic these days - look around you. You will find you are surrounded by yellow number plates - not white ones)...

Fantastic points. This one I didn't understand.

Taxis are rarely idle or parked, 1 Taxi probably must be keeping 4 private cars off the road.

In our country, cars are the one of the most underutilised assets, taxi's are doing a pretty good job at absorbing the depreciation.

[Torqy]

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[dark.knight]

I suppose by suggesting this rule, the High Court also intends to implement it without any bias/partiality towards people based on their economic situation/societal status.. yes? Good.

Mumbai is home to :
1. ALL the "actors" of Bollywood.
2. Major politicians.
3. 90% of cricketers.
4. Close to 40 billionaires.
5. Many thousands of millionaires.

Lets start from there shall we? Then work the way down to the commoners. Also, what constitutes a family? How will they tackle this in a joint-family household? What about those that already have 2,3,4 cars? How do they effectively link each family member to ownership in case different family members go out to buy vehicles separately? Also won't 2-wheeler sales sky-rocket due to this rule if it ever became successful?

P.S I'm neither ridiculing this proposal nor praising it. Its my view that this proposal, being from the honourable High Court should be as free from hypocrisy as possible whilst being clearly defined in a way that no loopholes can exist from either side.. this one has more loopholes than there are potholes in Mumbai. I can sense the car-tel rushing in lightning speed to veto this as we write.

[Grease Monkey]

Removing the rickshaws from the road alone will reduce the traffic snarls. Go to any traffic signal and what you'd see is that the majority of the road space is eaten by rickshaws and taxis (vice versa in case of SoBo). First priority should be to have a permanent solution to the potholes. Secondly, work on extending the metro-line and mono-rail line to incorporate far off places like thane, mulund, borivali andy beyond. Thirdly, work towards last mile connectivity which means if I want to go to a certain place I should have more than 1 option yet all the options should more of less take the same time.

This is a step by step process. Unless these 3 points are not addressed, such idiotic nonsense will not even see the day of light.

[nishantbhatia84]

Originally Posted by suzuki san

5. Remove the 60,000 odd (a figure mentioned by an Uber driver) Uber / Ola taxis from the roads. (I am not against Uber/Ola at all but if you are stuck in traffic these days - look around you. You will find you are surrounded by yellow number plates - not white ones).

SS

There are 200 plus 'private' vehicles getting added to Mumbai roads every single day, and you've got a problem with taxis - which actually are helping reduce congestion! Wow!
On an average every Uber / Ola driver does around 8-10 trips everyday - now even if half of the passengers using them decide on not buying a car, you're already looking at a humongous reduction in the congestion!
There are several families who own anywhere between 2-6 cars in Mumbai - why not look at them?
Getting people to not buy cars ain't no solution - getting better roads (like you've mentioned), better traffic management and a possible congestion tax or other alternative is the solution IMO.

[Swapnil4585]

Righteousness.

I don't reside in a metro city. However I already follow the rule of not driving a car in the city. I simply drive a motor cycle, which also is difficult to park in the area where my office is. The city where I reside is a small city with population under 1 million. Yet we have traffic and parking problems. I have to patiently swallow the anguish of my family members some times, because I sternly refuse to drive the car in the city. It is difficult to drive the car in city for me, and my car causes difficulties for others too.

If we have to find solutions to the problems faced by each of us individually and collectively, we need to be righteous. The Government gets about 40% of share from the on road price of a car. So it is not going to advocate such one family per car suggestions. It is we, who have to take the cause of reducing traffic woes in our hands.

Pardon me for spoiling the party.

[Yeldo]

An assertive judiciary is good, but this is approaching insane levels.

I suggest that the legislature reassert itself and strongly say that it alone may legislate and it alone may tax.

PIL cases are to be entertained for sure, but while the pendency of cases is one very big issue of vital public interest, it would be fair for the judiciary NOT to don the cloak of do- gooders or activists.

There has been a recent trend where the courts are answering questions that the litigating parties did not raise. Here also, from what I read, the prayer itself was about parking spaces, and the court in turn is suggesting that the number of cars be curtailed.

On a practical level, one of my business associates in Mumbai has nearly thirty private limited companies through which he channels his various businesses. He may buy a car and register it in the name of his company and beat this one car per family rule very easily. So those people who buy multiple cars just for the heck of it may easily escape this Draconian law, whereas a normal working couple who work 10 hours a day at two different places may be disallowed their hard earned, harder taxed comfort of having a Celerio AMT and an i10 AT.

I sincerely hope that better sense prevails and the court take a long hard look at what the SC said in a recent PIL "Judicial process is not a panecea for all ills"

[manishk123]

The only solution to choked roads is having a good public transport system which even higher income people would consider using. Look at any developed city in the West. Everyone uses public transport for daily use. The cars only come out on the weekends.
You can go on building roads and bridges but the congestion will not reduce unless most people start using public transport.

[manishkapadia]

I think we are missing the point of the exercise. Just like the diesel car ban this probably is not about reducing congestion. I can bet that there will be an eventual surcharge or higher tax for owning the second car in your name. People will pay and carry on with their lives. Government is happy for they get more tax, Individual is happy because s/he gets to keep more cars. Win Win situation for both.

[PPS]

Originally Posted by pratyush6

I have been to Mumbai, and I dread the Local trains - they are dirty and not safe at all.

The distance which a car covers in 2 1/2 hrs during peak hours takes 1 hr by train! I travel by train everyday, they are quiet convenient & efficient that way & they are certainly not dirty, but not the cleanest either.

[centaur]

Why do the courts in India always believe in such immediate verdicts? Why cant it be a phased one like increasing the road tax exponentially on the second car and third etc.? I think Telangana already has such a system in place where in, for the second vehicle the person needs to a pay a lot more tax. Serves two purposes -
1. the owner always ensures transfer of ownership for his/her vehicles sold
2. acts as a deterrent to a certain extent for people buying a second car

Government should look at other options to reduce traffic like providing incentives to companies to allow the workforce to work from home, increasing the internet security to help people work from home etc.