Team-BHP (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/)

-   Street Experiences (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/street-experiences/)

-   -   Gurgaon gets ready for Car-Free Tuesdays from 22nd September, 2015 (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/street-experiences/168405-gurgaon-gets-ready-car-free-tuesdays-22nd-september-2015-a.html)

Source

Source 2

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

The slogan," We are not stuck in traffic, we are traffic" :thumbs up

Awesome :thumbs up
I try my best to cycle-to-work atleast twice a week. I really wish more people to take up cycling. Forget being green etc, its helps you stay fit and its very practical means of transport for short distances.
Figure this .. on my way back from work, my commute takes lesser time on bicycle than in a car.

Well I am not sure how much of a success will this effort be as a large number of vehicles entering Gurgaon every morning are from Delhi and other parts of NCR. Time and again such days are celebrated but I don't see anything changing before and after. Regardless I am waiting to have a peaceful drive to work tomorrow with finger crossed. Tuesdays otherwise are a mad house.

We need to have efficient, well planned, clean & comfortable public transport before we can come out with these 'first world' initiatives. That is also the reason why such initiatives fizzle out. Tuesday will see a lot of people supporting this only to realise how uncomfortable and pre-historic our public transit is. If anything, Wednesday may see many more people take out their cars scarred from experiencing a car free day.

My pessimism with Gurgaon owing to ages working(or driving) here tells me that , one, people will be in "Others will be doing it. I'll take my car. Roads should be empty." mode. And, two, Killer fleecing by cops and Autowallas tomorrow!

Let's see how it pans out tomorrow. There is virtually no comfortable public transport available that encourages people to travel by personal vehicle. If there is a viable alternative, I am sure no one would want to spend hours in their vehicles everyday. Without addressing this core issue, they are forcing people to abandon their cars. One good thing is they are also promoting pooling - will be a lot better if more people got into it.

There is also a new service promoting shared buses - http://shuttl.com/

Attaching some pictures GTP has shared over the last few days for this event.

It appears that using public transport is not mandatory. The ban on private vehicles in Bangalore/HSR layout was compulsory , and that was the reason behind the "success" - although the so called success was achieved by blocking roads and putting cops all over the place at HSR, not sustainable over a long term period.

Don't think there will be too many takers for this.

Absolutely agree with you! Its all the Marketing Hype and Tick in the Box of Traffic ACP. Repair the Gurgaon roads, deploy traffic constables and some strictness, Traffic Jams AND Traffic Pollution will automatically come down. Majority of the Traffic Jam in Gurgaon or Delhi is due to non working of traffic light or Bad Roads.

"we don't have to accept our car dominated society"

Will the honorable Joint Commissioner of Police please illustrate with examples, any city which has been successful?

Even in extremely crowded places with limited parking places (take any Western world cities) still has a significant car ownership and those cars are seen on the roads despite the near constant traffic jam.

Imagine if people do not prefer public transport even if it offers them air conditioned environment and a smoke and noise free environment inside - what kind of imbecile would think that people would shun their cars to sit in a rickety, rattling, noisy, overcrowded, open to smoky ambiance that probably is never on time?

If people learn how to take an Exit properly, there will be no traffic. Instead of going in 1 line (green) they make 2 - 3 lines (red) only to create a bottleneck.
Also, taking exit at the last moment is just dangerous!

Just another gimmick...

I mean seriously, people are being asked to not take cars out in a city with pothole-infested roads, extremely irregular public-transport (not even talking about the condition of that), and 35+ degree temp. And the advice is to cycle, and walk! :deadhorse

Somebody has to go and tell these guys, to not just copy western trendy ideas, but to apply their minds a bit...

And if they are really serious, get roads repaired, drivers disciplined, and public transport efficient, and effective...And you'd see public cars disappearing from the roads by the dozens...And not for just a day!

This is an idea for which the time has come.
Leaving aside pollution, travelling in a car is no longer serving its purpose - which is moving from point A to point B. At 15kmph as city average speed these days, anyone who lives 20 km from his office will know how much time he spends on the road every day during the peak hour (Easily between 2 to 3 hours). Ask me.

We all love cars and want to drive cars. But do we love getting stuck in bumper to bumper traffic? Do we enjoy fighting "you first or me first" with our fellow drivers for that one feet gap available in traffic? Do we enjoy chased by a madman, who honks non-stop as if his car is a cousin of ambulance and his time is more valuable than our own?

If all of us have known how the traffic flows, we would be driving differently. We probably would not try to zig-zag just before or after signals, or would not honk at signals (at red or green). However, it is a Herculean task to get us all educated about the traffic, road manners etc, in order to increase the average city speed.

Hence comes the Car-free Tuesdays. At-least, those who use their cars for office transport would now try other modes of transport, which occupy less road space - leading to free flow.
As many would cry, it will not be so difficult.
a) Two wheelers / Cycling - I believe, if cars are not used, majority of them would use two wheelers, for point to point connectivity.
b) Shared mode of transport (City bus / Office bus / Metros etc.). After trying a few modes, you will find the one very suitable for you. Some city buses are heavily crowded, but not all.
c) Walking - If all you travel is 3km one way, very best mode of transport is walking. If you have health reasons for not walking, those reasons will slowly disappear, if you start walking.

If this is successful, the roads will be free on Tuesdays, though individual travel times may not get benefited a lot.
In my opinion, the real benefits will be seen, when only part of the vehicles are allowed to drive their vehicles in traffic prone stretches.
How nice it will be, if we can take our car from Marathahalli to the office in Whitefield area (Bangalore taken, just for example) at 8:50 AM, and still reach office before 9:00 AM?

In Gurgaon:

a) Two wheelers / Cycling - I believe, if cars are not used, majority of them would use two wheelers, for point to point connectivity.

You'd be runover by the white SUV,any SUV, vikrams,autos,or buses.

b) Shared mode of transport (City bus / Office bus / Metros etc.). After trying a few modes, you will find the one very suitable for you. Some city buses are heavily crowded, but not all.

Spinal injury, transferred body odor, maybe a fight.

c) Walking - If all you travel is 3km one way, very best mode of transport is walking. If you have health reasons for not walking, those reasons will slowly disappear, if you start walking.

Again, runover or robbed, maybe kidnapped.


All this apart from the nuclear level of tanning and bronchitis guaranteed.

Hyderabad has also started this initiative. We call it Car Free Thursdays and there is also a FB page on this. There was a lookwarm response in the beginning. Due to a lot of publicity in the local news papers, t.v and other social media this event has gained momentum. The change is evident in the form of less traffic, less pollution etc..

Road Transport Corporation runs additional busses and trips to I T infested lol: regions of Hyderabad on every Thursday. This will be a success in future.