[NST440]

That is an easy way out that the Govt. wishes to come up with for covering up the mess they have created at the very first place. How about blaming the poor planning that was never pro active at the first place and add to it the amount of money spent actually vs the amount issued to maintain the roads, bridges and other urban essentials. They talk about using public transport which is way more pathetic, cumbersome and frankly hopeless, with a bomb scare in our nation. They say, use a bicycle and what eventually would happen is some one is going to hit you over with you left asking and crying for help if you're alive and add to it zero support from the police and passers by. Just today i had a narrow escape when a bull just came running towards my car on the NH1, just brushing the left fender of my friend's car. Taking out such notices of car free days is just plain media activity which shall be glorified for a few days in the newspapers and will be forgotten soon.
I jealous the people in the west for the roads and freedom of carefree driving they have, where bikes are a joy to ride and cars have ample space for being driven. No authorities in my area challans people having blinding high beams at night and idiots engaging in loud horns and ear eating disturbing bike silencer sounds. A few days back some one wrongly parked a swift behind my vehicle and i had to wait 30 mins before the owner came. When i approached the nearby police staff, they replied that all have links with top Govt officials and they are fed up of the citizens. For a moment i am being honest i wanted to quarrel with the authorities and the idiot who parked wrongly but then again, will that change things, sadly not. India Shining.

[chaudh2s]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

Just a small correction: bicycles do not have the right of way at any crossing or turning. There are traffic rules that govern that and bicycles need to adhere to that.

Jeroen

Actually, there are some turns(not all) where the pedestrian and motor vehicle signal turns green at the same time. On such signals, the pedestrians/cyclists do have a right of way over motor vehicles. In Germany, this is the case not sure about any other EU countries.

[TMRT]

Originally Posted by batterylow

Source

Source 2

Delhi badly needs more of these days to reduce pollution levels if you ask me.

This should now be held in all big cities. All of our big cities are suffocating and in dire need of reduced smog and noise. Mumbai speaking....

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by chaudh2s

Actually, there are some turns(not all) where the pedestrian and motor vehicle signal turns green at the same time. On such signals, the pedestrians/cyclists do have a right of way over motor vehicles. In Germany, this is the case not sure about any other EU countries.

Just follow the (cyclist) rules:

http://www.cyclinginwageningen.nl/tr...s-for-cyclists

In general, all traffic coming from the right, including other cyclists, has right of way. Otherwise, traffic must give way to vehicles crossing in front of them at the “Give Way” sign or with the white, triangular “shark’s teeth” markings on the road surface.

Drivers wishing to turn right are supposed to wait for cyclists to pass them (on their right) before they turn. Cyclists have priority here.

In towns with trams, the trams tend to have, in most situations priority over all traffic, including cyclists.

Dutch law sees cyclist (and pedestrians) as the so called weaker/vulnerable traffic participants. Which means car drivers need to act in a prudent and careful way. If you hit a cyclist or a pedestrian, no matter what the traffic rules and who had the right of way, the car driver is likely to be liability unless it was a case of where the cyclist/pedestrian did not exercise due care. So a cyclist for instance, swerving left right a bit should be anticipated and is no excuse for running into him/her.

Have a look at this (American) blog about cycling in Amsterdam. Its very funny, very much how the Dutch use the bicycles:

http://www.ski-epic.com/amsterdam_bicycles/

[cowboy45]

Using public transport for inter-city travel....and car free day. ehh I doubt this will be any success.

On any regular day during office hours, Gurgaon Metro Stations are so crowded at ticket counters. Multiple long queues is a normal sight. If you don't have Metro pass then be ready to stand in queue for at least 20-30 minutes. Even if 20% of daily commuters switch to public transport it will further add to chaos.

Auto-rickshaws are good for shorter distances and more as a feeder service from metro stations to your final destination. Many of those implying on routes do not have NCR permit to cross border, so good for within Gurgaon only. Buses condition not so good.

In my opinion, Govt. should start imposing congestion tax during peak hours on private vehicles just like in London to over come traffic jams in addition to adding more metro coaches.

[apachelongbow]

Originally Posted by cowboy45

Using public transport for inter-city travel....and car free day. ehh I doubt this will be any success.

On any regular day during office hours, Gurgaon Metro Stations are so crowded at ticket counters. Multiple long queues is a normal sight. If you don't have Metro pass then be ready to stand in queue for at least 20-30 minutes. Even if 20% of daily commuters switch to public transport it will further add to chaos.

Auto-rickshaws are good for shorter distances and more as a feeder service from metro stations to your final destination. Many of those implying on routes do not have NCR permit to cross border, so good for within Gurgaon only. Buses condition not so good.

In my opinion, Govt. should start imposing congestion tax during peak hours on private vehicles just like in London to over come traffic jams in addition to adding more metro coaches.

Why..the government thanks citizens like you, who advocate more taxes. Are we taxed enough already? Road tax, registration tax, octroi, stamp duty, cess on petrol, toll tax, tax on tax... And you are happily asking for conjestion tax.
Seriously we need to get out of this mentality of taxing people to get rules enforced. If something like this takes place there will be multiple PIL and the move will fizzle out. Only way to get rid of cars on the road is to provide an equivalent solution, a fast comfortable air conditioned service of buses, metro, tram and the last meter connectivity of shaded footpaths for people to walk. Unless this infrastructure is built we can keep on dreaming.

[i74js]

I have been driving to Gurgaon for almost a decade now and the reason for traffic jams are
- Bad roads and members can concur on that. Most of the roads don't even last for a season
- Roadside venders, improper parking and liquor joints right on the major arterial roads
- Lack of proper road lighting / illumination
- Bad traffic management around major business hubs (Cyber city being one)
- "Criminal / insane parking rates" at most of the locations resulting in drivers loitering around based on the standard advise from their owners, and
- the balancing act by improper design of NH8 resulting in chocked entries and exits
- Even Rapid Metro charges similar to what the Airport line use to charge - more than 50% of Metro users have a ride of 1 - 1.5 km and they have to pay INR 22 per ride. Daily expense of INR 44; how does this make people use it freely. I have seen people getting down at Sikanderpur and taking shared autos which charge INR 5 per until Cyber City and INR 10 for Udyog Vihar.

The concept may be good (and I do not want to argue about it) but without proper alternate infrastructure this is nothing but a eye-wash and I am sure will give enough opportunities to Police to make money today as Taxies will not have any parking on road-side resulting in being bullied by policemen (bribe or challan) !

PS: DLF owns Rapid Metro; could they be hands in glove? just to make extra money !

[cowboy45]

Originally Posted by apachelongbow

Why..the government thanks citizens like you, who advocate more taxes. Are we taxed enough already? Road tax, registration tax, octroi, stamp duty, cess on petrol, toll tax, tax on tax... And you are happily asking for conjestion tax.
Seriously we need to get out of this mentality of taxing people to get rules enforced. If something like this takes place there will be multiple PIL and the move will fizzle out. Only way to get rid of cars on the road is to provide an equivalent solution, a fast comfortable air conditioned service of buses, metro, tram and the last meter connectivity of shaded footpaths for people to walk. Unless this infrastructure is built we can keep on dreaming.

Travel time is often more important than travel cost…the congestion charge has proven to reduce some of worst traffic problems. People don’t like paying taxes, but neither do people like sitting in a traffic jam. It annoys me how many voters expect solutions to problems without any tax.

Thus a charge may be put into place along side measures to reduce road capacity and improve cycling and public transport infrastructures… if only people could understand this…if not today or tomorrow, this will happen directly or indirectly as NCR adds 1000s of vehicles every month on roads.

The charge raises the money required to provide the infrastructure.

[Peterf]

Well I can see this initiative succeeding as today there is considerable less car movement around my office (Cyber park). Also most of the cars had more than 2 occupants (carpooling). The best thing is that they are not allowing parking on the streets near my office. The streets are looking very nice and clean, different from the usual scene where cars are parked haphazardly.

Definitely a good initiative.

[phamilyman]

Originally Posted by i74js

- "Criminal / insane parking rates" at most of the locations resulting in drivers loitering around based on the standard advise from their owners, and

The concept may be good (and I do not want to argue about it) but without proper alternate infrastructure this is nothing but a eye-wash and I am sure will give enough opportunities to Police to make money today as Taxies will not have any parking on road-side resulting in being bullied by policemen (bribe or challan) !

PS: DLF owns Rapid Metro; could they be hands in glove? just to make extra money !

Biggest problem - On road parking. It is a plague that is being stamped out through this initiative and hence I support it even though its half baked.

People want to own cars worth tens of lakhs, or pay ten thousand rupees per month for the convenience of a driver, want the valuation of their houses to be in crores but the moment parking charges more than Rs 20, everyone feels entitled to park on the road.

I think the government should devote one fraction of the budget of the metro towards many many more AC buses (sorry NGT, you have it completely wrong) and should crowd out private transport. Only when there's gridlock (which is there already) but there's a solid end-to-end public transport available, will the status quo change. Half-hearted attempts like the BRT or this initiative will fail unless its an end to end thing.

Let's not forget India's shame Nirbhaya incident also happened because of crappy public transport and our moody autos.

[vivekz]

The whole move is idiotic and nothing but unnecessary pain for regular travellers. Let me explain.

I have stayed in NCR, Kolkata and Mumbai before I bought a car and have used public transport extensively in these cities. In Mumbai as well as Kolkata, one can rely more or less on public transport subject to the usual delays and sweat (AC options are limited). Even in NCR, one can manage in parts of Delhi, Noida and even Ghaziabad.

But come to Gurgaon and there was no way one can manage without a personal vehicle (this was pre-metro days for me). Even with metro coverage, the feeder and arterial routes have pathetic coverage even during day time. And once the sun sets down, the routes are unsafe even for fit young men (we used to move in groups to feel safe). I can only imagine the pain which elderly and ladies have to go through if they do not have a personal vehicle.

Yes this was 5 years ago but going by hear say I do not think things have changed too much. Now these car free days are great in European cities where distances are low and climate favours cycling/ walking (no extreme heat or pollution, less traffic). One can carry a bicycle in a local train - try that in Delhi metro.

Also think of a situation (common one) where the husband works in Guragaon and wife in Noida and hence they have a house which is 25-30 kms away from either office. With no direct and convenient connection, car is the only way out (albeit expensive but necessary). We cannot for sure cycle that much. And most of us would not want to travel in overcrowded buses. Give us AC buses with regular and timely connectivity and assured place to sit or stand comfortably and I am sure people will start using it, not just for convenience but also for better economics.

This reminds me, even cities in US where distances are huge do not have cycling culture as not everything can be supported by public transport. Hence car ownership is a necessity there (leave out New York I guess where it is prohibitive).

So I laud the authorities who at least devoted a small amount of their time in thinking of ways to improve pollution levels. However, it would have been great if the time devoted was a bit more and a practical approach would have been thought of.

[Hermano]

I work in Gurgaon & Live in Noida and instead of driving down, I take the Metro. Being a regular, I must say that there was a sea change in traffic and general ease of using public transport in Gurgaon from HUDA Metro station to Subhash Chowk. There was even a dedicated lane for those choosing to cycle their way to work. I immediately took a liking to the Car Free Tuesday Idea. Sure there are many points around it which the government has to work on, but as an Idea, I think its great! Ofcourse, this day has given Auto Guys the opportunity to fleece customers off some extra money, but thankfully I found one quickly.

In short, Thumbs up for now!

[adisag]

As I was explaining to my family over breakfast, all this is, is an implementation of a strict (zero tolerance?) no parking policy.

It is not (contrary to what the attention grabbing headlines lead us to believe) blocking off roads to through traffic.

I'm curious to see the effect of this initiative on roads which are not a part of this drive, I'm sceptical, that all this will do is cause people (mostly cabbies) to park on feeder roads which are not a part of this drive.

I know its a tall ask, but we as a country, need to understand, that parking on the road(side) is not a fundamental right. All roads (particularly in urban areas) should by default be "no parking" unless otherwise demarcated.

www.quora.com/Is-there-any-provision-for-a-citizen-to-question-the-traffic-police-as-to-why-a-certain-area-is-designated-as-a-No-Parking-area

[akash_m]

"On Car Free Day, it's bumper-to-bumper traffic in Gurgaon" is the latest news. The traffic is as worse as would be on any other day on Gurgaon roads. It seems like many people thought that since its a 'Car Free' day, I will zoom to my destination on empty roads, and look what has happened.

Everyone has to blamed for the failure, including me. With 1 Lakh cars registered in Gurgaon per year, i don't see any solution working. Every corporate family in Gurgaon has minimum 2 cars. The initiative of MNCs for having 8:00 am - 4:00 pm timings also dosn't seem to work!!

[Peterf]

Originally Posted by adisag

As I was explaining to my family over breakfast, all this is, is an implementation of a strict (zero tolerance?) no parking policy.

It is not (contrary to what the attention grabbing headlines lead us to believe) blocking off roads to through traffic.

Exactly my thoughts. People will not be fined for using their vehicles. The main thing is that they will not be allowed to park on roads. But the media headlines seem to suggest otherwise.