[RavenAvi]

Replying to a public interest litigation on acute shortage of designated parking spaces within the city of Mumbai, the Mumbai High Court has suggested a couple of measures to be considered by the Maharashtra government, in which one particular measure (if implemented) assumes significance - to enforce a "one car per family" policy.

A division bench of the Mumbai High Court, headed by Justice V M Kanade, has directed the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai, Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority, the Maharashtra state Urban Development Ministry and the Mumbai traffic police to sit together and chisel out a set of wholesome policies which can be implemented in the future to tackle the ever-rising traffic/parking issues in the city of Mumbai.

The bench has given the Maharashtra state government four weeks to revert back, before scheduling the next hearing.

(Source)

According to the Mumbai High Court bench:

"Unauthorised parking due to lack of space is a very serious problem in Mumbai and is the cause of much traffic congestion. A large number of private vehicles enter the city every morning and leave in the evening, but they have no space for parking through the day. The government cannot sit on the problem anymore.

There was a time about a decade ago when one could commute between Dadar and south Mumbai in just 20 minutes. Doing so is unimaginable now. It takes three hours to travel from Juhu to the airport.

These days every family has at least two cars. This should be restricted to just one car per family.

Promotion of inland water transport may be just what the city needed. While it will not solve all your problems, water transport can act as a complementary mode of transport."

ET

[suzuki san]

Hah!

A one car per family policy.

What are these guys smoking??? I would really like to know.

How are they going to implement this? What are the families with more than one car supposed to do? Scrap the second and/or third cars?

Would they go to Antilla, knock on the door and ask Mr. Ambani (who I understand has 50+ or is it 100+ cars) to get rid of the other 49/99 cars?

What about company registered cars? How many would be allowed?
What about a "joint family"? How many would be allowed?

Why do the powers that be not look at the root of the problem. It's the infrastructure or, shall we say, lack of it.
1. Fix the god awful roads first of all - the main cause of slow moving traffic.
2. Remove the ridiculous speed breakers.
3. Remove the hawkers.
4. Build multi storey car parks.
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).
6. Ensure that all newly constructed buildings have parking space for at least 2 cars per flat.

I understand that by paying a sum of Rs. 1600 one can get a "Gumasta" license which, if I understood correctly, is basically a "Proprietorship Company". So, if someone wants to have more than one car, what's to stop him opening a company and having 2, 3, 4 or more cars? Yes! He would pay more for registration but if a person wants more cars the higher "company" registration fee is not going to bother him.

Waiting with bated breath to see what happens in 4 weeks.

SS

[GrammarNazi]

The intent is good, but it seems there's a lacking in the connect with reality.

Collecting congestion charges is the right way to go. If plying on them pinches the people's pocket each time, only then they'll actively demand for good roads, rather than just rant somewhere (probably online) & forget it.

Delhi is laying some kind of emulsion that'll increase road life. Do that.

We must solve this congestion problem. Else our metropolitan cities will die.

[discoverwild]

A Tier II city like Coimbatore is already dying with the weight of traffic. The ones in power and the bureaucracy still think of beautification nonsense by cutting down trees, and widening roads.

Coimbatore is one of those places which lack basic footpaths even on major roads, but they talk of skywalks!! All this talk will take us nowhere, just spend taxpayer money on nonsensical ideas. Of course, there are 'benefits' to a select few involved.

The 100 Smart Cities that the Government harps about is just to squander money on 100 different places. Basic facilities are not being met. Just to cite an example, we have a modern public toilet at the busiest junction of the city on the footpath. This caters to men, women and the disabled on wheelchairs. Height of the footpath is about 15" off the ground, approach to the footpath on one side is a 60 degree incline. Approach to the ramp is 24" after which is the 15" drop straight into fast moving traffic. So, serious lack of brains. They consider the job done because they have installed a toilet for the disabled. How would one actually get there, is not their problem!!

Curbing city traffic is highly unlikely to bear fruit unless 'existing' public transport is improved. Not search for new ways of transit, like the ill-conceived inland waterways thought. Higher taxes on personal vehicles, proper paid parking facilities, increasing and improving public transport and convenience are the way to go.

Unlikely to happen though.

[libranof1987]

What is up with our courts these days?

Without an understanding on the subject, without asking for expert (expert, not from the clowns in the Govt.) opinion and advice, without doing any root cause analysis or analyzing the consequences of their judgements, making such far-reaching statements seems to be in vogue for our High Court and Supreme Court.

All due respect to them but they're hardly any authority to propose such drastic measures? Banning sales for diesel vehicles, one car/family.. seriously!

They should put their clout to better use by taking the Govt. to task on matters of governance. The Govt. is as incapable/indifferent of finding solutions to problems as ever but it's the common man who suffers with such random statements.

Traffic, congestion, pollution are problems no doubt but there are several reasons behind them; and there are several solutions for them. Imposing one-car-per-family, though, is definitely, not an answer.

[srishiva]

How come courts pick up PILs so fast and take them to some conclusion when we have millions of other cases waiting and possibly keeping innocents in jails ?

If its related to parking, why not enforce parking spaces with proportionate numbers based on occupancy numbers of buildings? I guess that would require some brains instead of some knee jerk reaction!

[sathya_g_m]

Originally Posted by srishiva

How come courts pick up PILs so fast and take them to some conclusion when we have millions of other cases waiting and possibly keeping innocents in jails ?

If its related to parking, why not enforce parking spaces with proportionate numbers based on occupancy numbers of buildings? I guess that would require some brains instead of some knee jerk reaction!

I am not amused. Such "Points to Ponder" should be considered by our governments but since it never woke up from hibernation, court is becoming sounding board for civilians who have some time to care for our society. The only option for them is PIL.

This is similar to Curing the "disease" than Treating the "patients". Almost like shoot the messenger.

What next? No car should run on road with just driver alone? Probably, an idea for next PIL

[varunsangal]

The #1 priority of government needs to create an infrastructure that provides an alternative mode of transport. Until then the courts can't simply ask people to stop buying cars.

Being in Mumbai, the taxis and autos 1) simply refuse to ply or 2) will refuse to ply beyond a point after travelling half way. First happened to me regularly for month before I bit the bullet and bought me a second car and second happened to my wife a fair few times and she got stranded on the road before I bit another bullet and bought a third car. Will be more than happy to sell off both cars if my family can find dependable public transport.

Building infrastructure shouldn't be all that difficult, the road taxes in Mumbai are among the highest in India. That money can be used to build good roads, parking, traffic law enforcement.

[revharder]

This suggestion is similar to the Odd-Even one implemented in Delhi recently.
Until there is a solid public transport in place which can cater to masses, nothing is going to reduce the congestion on roads.

The only visible and possible solution would be to ask/enforce people to use pooling system. During peak hours, cars should be enforced to carry atleast 4 to 5 people in each of them. A list of exceptional cases can be made where a car can ply with less number of occupants.

It'd in a similar direction of Odd-Even experienced in Delhi.

[PPS]

Originally Posted by libranof1987

What is up with our courts these days?

The Judges stay in South Mumbai which has decent roads, so they're a bit disconnected from the grim realities which people go through everyday while travelling on Mumbai's potholed roads. Most of the Judges stay either in Malabar Hill or Nariman Point, so thats not much of a travel to go to the High Court.
Infact Justice Kanade travelled to Bhayander recently & he had back pain which lasted a week. Now count the number of people which do this route everyday of their lives!
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/c...w/53623983.cms

[pratyush6]

This is absolute nonsense. Off late the courts are coming up with stupidities like this. And this wont stand in the higher court anyway.

Fix the problems - not skirt around them. If your infra is pathetic, you cannot do much, why not fix it first? I have been to Mumbai, and I dread the Local trains - they are dirty and not safe at all. Look at Bangalore Metro - which is light years late, but atleast worth traveling.

[ghodlur]

Once in a while even the high courts do a Time of India type headlines. Agree that the traffic issue is acute and getting worse by each day but as bhpian suzuki san mentioned and I agree whole heartedly, there are far more immediate steps the high courts could have forced the state govt to do instead of coming out with such directives.

I think the major cause of congestion in Mumbai are:
1) Corporate buses which ply half empty to all corners of Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Thane occupying major traffic space and enormous fuel wastage.
2) School buses - un regulated sector. Most schools have private transportation too. Add to that over protective parents wanting to drop their wards off and jamming the roads
3) Unprecedented number of Auto's on the road. These now look line black ants scurrying around the geography and yet fail to do their basic purpose of transporting people by refusing.
4) Transport vehicles like trucks, tempos entering the city space and hogging the main roads.

I sometimes feel that state govt should stop registration of new vehicles for the next 3-4 years to avoid any further swelling of vehicles on streets. Improve the BEST, TMT, NMMT services to the extent that even normal office goes who take the cars should be opting for the buses.

[srishiva]

Originally Posted by pratyush6

This is absolute nonsense. Off late the courts are coming up with stupidities like this. And this wont stand in the higher court anyway.
.

International Court of Justice ? Higher Court also does such things from time to time too. Any matter that requires experts, due research and ground reality check is being addressed rather in kind of 'we are kings so we pass these orders' way.

[Sawyer]

Being a judge does not rule out muddle headed thinking and stupidity.

A family with four cars does not mean those four cars are on the road every day. And if it does, priority lanes for cars with 4 occupants is the way to go - good luck enforcing that in India though.

And congestion is self limiting after a while - I no longer take a car to places where parking is a problem; Uber is the alternative now, it used to be autos in the past.

Better therefore a ban on widening roads by cutting trees inside city limits, to force this behaviour sooner rather than later. The money saved should be forced into public transport infrastructure. The problem is that only a few can make corrupt gains from these projects; we prefer socialist approaches to corruption as well.

Incredible India.

[Swaraj!!]

This would probably kill the Auto Industry as well as loss of billions in revenue. Don't Judges take expert advice before sending out 'suggestions' or 'notifications'?

And in my opinion, pretty much not implementable in a country like India. Why hasn't Tobacco manufacturing been muzzled yet in spite of no benefits to consumers? Revenue and employment is a big deal.

Instead, how about establishing enough Manhattan style foldable parking structures to address the parking issue. As for the traffic, there is a crying need for access controlled traffic light less freeways.