[CBlazer]

Originally Posted by Samurai

2) Don't let malls come up in every corner, most of them don't have adequete parking facilties, neither can those roads support the shopping traffic. Don't let apartment buildings come up in roads designed for individuals houses. Develop satellite towns, do some planning. Having grown up in Bangalore, I know how Bangalore went to dogs, absolutely no planning.

Rightly said Samurai. This problem is truly multi-dimensional. Not sure if someone remembers how politicians came out to save their vote banks in Koramangala when the authorities started penalising people for flouting rules. On one hand the greedy govt. officials allow shopping complexes to break rules. Most of the new establishments have little or no parking space compared to the no. of people actually visiting these places. On the other hand they say vehicles are choking up the roads and come up with another excuse to tax people.

And then some minister comes up with this 1950 style of enlightening statement - expecting people to believe this guy actually has come up with a path-breaking solution. I'm sick and tired of the kind of crap dished out by govt. after govt. in the last 10-15 years.

This problem demands an all-round solution. Go ahead and tax second car buyers, but please set right the plethora of goof-ups you've done in the past so many years.

[benkey2]

good proposal but I just wish the Babu's had woken up earlier. Singapore is a worthy role model where people have to pay a higher tax if they want to use the car everyday and a lower tax if they want to use it only on weekends & non-rush hour. But Singapore has a wonderful mass transit system. If the mass transit system in these 2 cities are also improved, then this is a viable proposition. Otherwise, it will just fizzle out.

if one wishes to purchase a car in singapore he has to pay tax (parking, life, road, etc etc,.) which amounts to more than the price of car. since public transport is safe and available round the clock one doesnt need to buy a car there. but here with the worst transport system a single car is must. there is nothing wrong in this proposal.even if they implement there will be many loopholes like few mentioned here so that people can bypass the rule. atleast considering our future generations let us save the environment

[Baron]

New Delhi, Dec 15 (IANS) The Delhi government has proposed a tax on vehicle owners who have two or more vehicles and told the Delhi High Court this was necessary to ease the worsening traffic situation in the capital.

And for those people who have more than two vehicles registered on their names, we are planning to slap more taxes on them in the form of road taxes, parking charges, area pricing and other such taxes,' Pahwa submitted.

Have more than one car? Be prepared to be taxed - *National News ? News ? MSN India

[ackyash]

Hmmm.. Sounds like "Environment tax" or "Pollution Tax"
Higher tax on 2nd or more vehicles is not really the solution, as it will just increase the initial cost of acquisition of the 2nd vehicle, not really detering one from buying it.

We are a family of 4 people having 5 cars in our household but no more that 2 or 3 cars are on the road ever at any given point in time.

But one thing is sure, there are too many darn cars, bikes, etc on our roads, whether it is Delhi, Banglore or whatever.

I live in Chandigarh and the traffic situation here has also gone to the dogs, especially in the last 2-3 years. Not proud of the fact the "City Beautiful" has the highest per capita vehicles in India. This has also led to massive spurt in road accidents in the Tri-city area.

If there is some way of stopping, ummm controlling the ever increasing traffic situation, we all as responsible citizens of this planet should be ready to make some sacrifices for cleaner air and water for ourselves and our children.

[aaggoswami]

Originally Posted by Baron

Have more than one car? Be prepared to be taxed - *National News ? News ? MSN India

What next ?

1) One car in husband's name and other car in wife's name. Can involve relatives and parents too. What will happen then ?

2) What is intention of this tax ? Good, safe, secure and clean public transport = NO. Then government simply has no right to put more tax. And this is not really going to stop people from buying cars. They will go in for another model like alto rather than Wagon R. Or Nano instead of alto. Or may be used cars. So what will government do.

3) A few taxes after certain years :
Inhaling tax.
Exhaling tax.
Eating tax.
Living tax.
The list will go on increasing.

Rather that solving core issues, they are spending time and resources in increasing tax. Why no plan on getting corrupt humans caught and punished, specially those involved in road development, fuel stations ?
Why not come up with safe, secure public transport plan ?

4) IMHO, this is another move to hit salaried middle class and those who are honestly paying income tax. This move will not solve any problem at all. If at all there is any loophole, smart humans will sniff it out. Bad move.

[Gansan]

There was another similar thread:
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian...ace-first.html

[JLS]

How this will help traffic situation?
If I have two cars, I am going to drive one and another will be parked, right!

So, probably this suggesstion is to help solving parking problems ( that too in housing society) and not the traffic situation.

Regards,

JLS

[Gansan]

Originally Posted by JLS

So, probably this suggesstion is to help solving parking problems ( that too in housing society) and not the traffic situation.

Not only in the housing society, but out on the streets as well. Lot of cars are parked in the side streets/alleys during all times of the day.

[SLK]

Is that the solution?

That is why we never will be a developed country! Instead of increasing resources (READ PARKING SPACE), we will stop cars. What attitude man!

Run away from the problem!

Remember, cars is not the problem! population and parking space (lack of any!!) is.

Why should metro cities not have HUGE multistory parkings all over the place?

Why aren't traffic light timings PERFECT?

Why can't any new road be even/plain (for smoother traffic), unless it's a toll road or in Delhi's VIP area?

Why can't our traffic police do better things than catching over speeding (50+km/h) downhill traffic?


In Delhi, the roads and the parking space has almost double potential capacity, only if they know which of their traffic rules to implement and how to manage traffic.

[Gansan]

Originally Posted by SLK

Is that the solution?

That is why we never will be a developed country! Instead of increasing resources (READ PARKING SPACE), we will stop cars. What attitude man!

Run away from the problem!

Remember, cars is not the problem! population and parking space (lack of any!!) is.

Why should metro cities not have HUGE multistory parkings all over the place?

Then by your definition Singapore must be grossly underdeveloped!

[MileCruncher]

Higher Tax on the 2nd vehicle in a single name has been there in AP for some time. One pays 9% for the first and 12%. So a family of 2 can have two cars, one each in the husband's and wife's name. The logic in principle is good as any person is going to need only one vehicle at a time ( I'm talking per person and not family). But there is a flaw in the implementation as it is in AP. There is no limit or higher tax on the number of 2nd hand cars you own. Also there is no distinction between 2 wheelers and four wheelers. So even if you have a 2 wheeler and want to buy a car, you end up paying 12% LTT instead of the standard 9%. And there are ways to work around this rule also.

End of the day, if the Public Transportation improves, more and more people will use it for e.g. in Delhi with the introduction of the Metro.

[SLK]

Originally Posted by Gansan

Then by your definition Singapore must be grossly underdeveloped!

As far as I know, they have reached a reasonable limit of Infrastructure development. Have we even started thinking in that direction?

As far as public transport is concerned. . Delhi metro 'the success' is an inadequate system with limited space for the population.

By this thread's logic - we should put a limit on number of times a person can get in the metro in a week/month/day.

Or, is it not better to increase the number of coaches and increase the frequency till we reach a point that we have to look at alternatives?

We are inefficiently underutilizing everything and then cribbing about inadequacy.

[Gansan]

I agree about our infrastructure development (read roads+public transport). But I also think there should be some sort of a restriction/cap on private vehicles. It will be madness to follow the USA model.

[aby]

I think one solution would be to link registration of a vehicle with ability of owner to provide for a parking.

In residential areas, I see a lot of cars parked on roads just because the owners have no space inside. Why should the municipal authorities and public suffer for this. In large cities lots of people will be forced to abandon the idea of second car if they are forced to find parking space for it.

I know that implementing it would be a challenge, but a pilot project can be implemented in a small city.

[cargirl]

I think a person will buy a car if he or she knows he will have space for parking somewhere, whether his own private space in the building/ society or somewhere near his home/office, on the road. But the problem is two-fold: some old buildings don't have space at all, AND the roads are narrow too. Plus, the paid parking spaces are too expensive or too small.

At the same time, if a person has the money to buy a car, why shouldn't he?

I think the solution lies not in taxes, but in good quality and high capacity parking lots that are affordable to the general public. At the same time, offer incentives to NOT buy additional cars.

I think BMC is planning underground parking lots in some areas of Mumbai, but then, I think when they do actually come, they will be grossly under capacity and you won't find parking there.