[lloydofcochin]

Hi T-bhpians,

Came across this thought provoking article on TOI today. Would love to hear your views on the same.

Disclaimer : I'm not a fan of her nor I'm in anyway related to her organization and yes I love Cars

[mallumowgli]

Has she calculated how much does all the living beings cost the earth by living here? Of couse everything in the universe has a cost - even the galaxies moving away from each other costs the system its balance. I hate it when people take extreme views and come up with a doomsday conspiracy without taking a balanced view. There is hardly any practicable viewpoints or solutions expressed except indicating that all the worlds problem would be solved if all private vehicles go off road!!

[aargee]

I dismissed the idea to post my reply, but then, my first thoughts were, what car does Sunita Narain own? Does she own a Reva atleast? Does she travel by public Train & buses? Why alone she post against cars? Why not motorcycles? It is easy to pass blame on these things rather than cost of changing people's attitude on road sense, civic sense, driving discipline & law & order.

When people are driving comfortably in Singapore, Japan, Taiwan, Germany, why not in India?

[aaggoswami]

I am totally against this article. Why is the author of this article not writing against CommonWealth games corruption ? This is an impractical article. We all know what type of public transport is being offered to us. Its next to meaningless article.

[aerohit]

Unless there is mass population reduction things are not going to improve.

Such threads in any Indian forum die down within few days, its like a wild jungle and its wild inhabitants - they hardly care

Either mass population reduction by act of god/nuclear war (harsh way) or by education to have 1 child (nice way) will solve all the problems if India.

[anku94]

Everything modern comes at a cost. It's useless to point out a single factor.

Sustainable would be to kill 80% of the population and make the other 20% live in ashrams. How practical is that ?

[SirAlec]

Isn't she the idiot that created a ruckus with all those cold drinks company and who knows settled later for a fat sum.

i hate environmentalist. I am a fit fat V8 to W12 gasoline guzzler lover.

Earth has its own way of purifying itself. Period.

If somebody knows her please tell her to walk to her sham office everyday. Instead using tax payers money for gas.

[aargee]

Worth mentioning the SMS I got yesterday; "The creature that cuts down trees, makes papers & writes 'Save Tress' on it.

@SirAlec - To an extent Earth does purify things, but there're certain things that takes longer time to clean up before which the dumping goes on. Plastic bags, coke tins, denting for drilling oil is faster than filling the dented surface.

If anyone personally knows her or seen her, pls share the details, if she walks everywhere like Mahatma Gandhi, doesn't use paper, doesn't wear a silk saree. If she has to visit UK, would she walk all the way up to North?

[lloydofcochin]

Originally Posted by mallumowgli

Has she calculated how much does all the living beings cost the earth by living here? Of couse everything in the universe has a cost - even the galaxies moving away from each other costs the system its balance. I hate it when people take extreme views and come up with a doomsday conspiracy without taking a balanced view. There is hardly any practicable viewpoints or solutions expressed except indicating that all the worlds problem would be solved if all private vehicles go off road!!

That's a very valid observation and yours is probably the most balanced view expressed here. I second that.

Originally Posted by aargee

I dismissed the idea to post my reply, but then, my first thoughts were, what car does Sunita Narain own? Does she own a Reva atleast? Does she travel by public Train & buses? Why alone she post against cars? Why not motorcycles? It is easy to pass blame on these things rather than cost of changing people's attitude on road sense, civic sense, driving discipline & law & order.

When people are driving comfortably in Singapore, Japan, Taiwan, Germany, why not in India?

aargee, I don't know what car she owns or how she travels. But I agree to the fact that she has probably singled out cars and we Indians could do a world of good by improving road sense, driving discipline etc.

I wonder why someone has not taken up a mission to get rid of thousands of illegal polluting maxi cabs from our roads

Originally Posted by aaggoswami

I am totally against this article. Why is the author of this article not writing against CommonWealth games corruption ? This is an impractical article. We all know what type of public transport is being offered to us. Its next to meaningless article.

That's very true aagoswami. The key is good Public Transport and that's where our respective governments have failed us over the years. But things are improving at least in Bangalore.

Originally Posted by aerohit

Unless there is mass population reduction things are not going to improve.

Such threads in any Indian forum die down within few days, its like a wild jungle and its wild inhabitants - they hardly care

Either mass population reduction by act of god/nuclear war (harsh way) or by education to have 1 child (nice way) will solve all the problems if India.

aerohit, That's some radical thoughts there

Agree to that fact that lot of people really don't care.

Originally Posted by anku94

Everything modern comes at a cost. It's useless to point out a single factor.

Sustainable would be to kill 80% of the population and make the other 20% live in ashrams. How practical is that ?

Isn't it too extreme?

Originally Posted by SirAlec

Isn't she the idiot that created a ruckus with all those cold drinks company and who knows settled later for a fat sum.

i hate environmentalist. I am a fit fat V8 to W12 gasoline guzzler lover.

Earth has its own way of purifying itself. Period.

If somebody knows her please tell her to walk to her sham office everyday. Instead using tax payers money for gas.

Agree with you on the fact that the Earth has its own way of purifying itself but I believe that the rate of dirtying is probably much faster than the rate of purifying.

Originally Posted by aargee

Worth mentioning the SMS I got yesterday; "The creature that cuts down trees, makes papers & writes 'Save Tress' on it.

@SirAlec - To an extent Earth does purify things, but there're certain things that takes longer time to clean up before which the dumping goes on. Plastic bags, coke tins, denting for drilling oil is faster than filling the dented surface.

If anyone personally knows her or seen her, pls share the details, if she walks everywhere like Mahatma Gandhi, doesn't use paper, doesn't wear a silk saree. If she has to visit UK, would she walk all the way up to North?

I knew that this would be a controversial topic here since everyone loves their Cars and no one wants someone else to tell them not to use it or curtail it's usage.

Even I too have the same feeling since I too love to drive. Off late I have started using the Vajra Volvos here while commuting in the City and to office. My office is 5kms from my apartment and it takes about 30-35 mins by Car if it is during peak hours and 18-20 mins by cycle. The Volvo ride takes me almost the same times as the car or probably 5mins more. If I take the Volvos to the city I am spared the pain of hunting for a parking space for the car and can do away with cursing those morons who tries to make every road a oneway by blocking other vehicles from the opposite end and making traffic hell for others.

The fact of the matter is that the number of vehicles on the road is increasing everyday but unfortunately our governments don't have a vision and that means that infrastructure falls well short of the requirement.

The idea of the thread is nothing but for us to do an introspection on our Car usage and to have a healthy debate about it.

[lohithrao]

Well i dont see anything new what she has written but it is the reality, every year thousands of vehicles are sold and i wonder would we be left with space?

bangalore already has seen it, today i dont dare to take me car unless am sure about the parking space, so many times that i had to go to point A but due to the lack of space had to drive bit further and finally take a rick...this is something whch many follow whom i know.

we like it or not we are already seeing the side effects and it is going to get worse...

[aargee]

Originally Posted by SirAlec

Isn't she the idiot that created a ruckus with all those cold drinks company and who knows settled later for a fat sum.

Oh!!! It strikes me now!!!
Hope she's expecting some fat sum from car manufacturers now. The blow of wind has changed from cold drinks company to car companies.

[anku94]

Originally Posted by lloydofcochin

Isn't it too extreme?

Well, as you said, the rate of consumption of resources is way too high. All natural fresh water sources have been polluted to some extent, a lot many are unfit for human consumption. Same goes for any other resource you choose.

It hurts to say this about your kind, but which other mammal is present on earth in numbers as large as humans ? We're approaching a number rivalling that of insects, but our demands are 10 times that of the greatest mammals. Isn't that extreme ? I actually had to delete two paragraphs in my post as I had rambled too much despite trying to limit myself. :P
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Speaking of pollution, an interesting thing happened in Punjab recently which, I guess, not many of you are aware of.

A team of bureaucrats decided to go to Scotland 'to study how their wine industry manages to keep pollution of streams at bay'. The team : 4-5 high-up men (ministers and senior bureaucrats) and one man from the technical department of Punjab Pollution Control Board. Of course, everybody knows what they're up to.

Well, they go and enjoy their free holiday, much to public resent. When they return, and are asked what did they concluded from the tour, came the reply 'The arrangements are very similar to ours. It's just that laws are enforced strictly there'.

Of course they are, that's why we don't see ministers from Scotland enjoying free holidays in Hawaii.

http://www.timesnow.tv/Scotch-not-fl...ow/4349643.cms

[MX6]

Since last 15 days this is the kms I've driven. 12.
Initial days I found not driving very difficult, like a smoker's withdrawal symptoms. Since last 1 week, I'm relishing life without having to drive.
Ofcourse let me make it clear. I have been adviced bed rest for 5 - 6 week and rarely step outside the perimeter of my bed.
When in Mumbai, I always took the Best bus and local trains. But in Pune, there's very little or no public transport. I have to drive.
Wish we have good public transport like in UK or Singapore. I'd voluntarily push my driving to occasions like family outings.

p.s. Working hours are not lost due to congestion as per claims of the author in the article above. It's the personal time that's lost due to congestion. And that cost is mind-boggling.

[rohan_iitr]

The problem is not the increasing number of cars. The problem is non-uniform development of the country.

While metro cities are exploding with their existing population and ever increasing immigrant population, no efforts are being taken by the governments (state and central) to develop other tier-2 cities and increase employment opportunities in other cities.

This is the biggest problem in our country. Nobody addresses the major issues, everyone is busy pointing out the silly things.

Rohan

[lohithrao]

I completely agree with you but when then intend to develop a city first they should prepare it else it would go the same way as other cities have gone.

Urgent need is stop further growth of the main cities like Mumbai, Bangalore...another 4-5years and Bangalore will be in a hell state not that it is heaven now but the way things are going on there it will be a hell soon!

Every state should have atleast 2 developed cities, if more its better.

Originally Posted by rohan_iitr

The problem is not the increasing number of cars. The problem is non-uniform development of the country.

While metro cities are exploding with their existing population and ever increasing immigrant population, no efforts are being taken by the governments (state and central) to develop other tier-2 cities and increase employment opportunities in other cities.

This is the biggest problem in our country. Nobody addresses the major issues, everyone is busy pointing out the silly things.

Rohan