[TejashM]

Awesome! One more option, if possible, is to carpool with your colleagues. If not, try to pick up people from bus stops like Magathane. If nothing else, it would reduce the guilt factor. Yes, it also reduces congestions from the usually overcrowded BEST buses.

A short word on BEST. I have travelled across India and am yet to come across a bus system as reliable as BEST. Its well and truly the BEST!

[jensjoseph]

A few years ago, I used to rely on public transport for my daily commute. The daily round trip used to be 28 kms and public transport allowed me the luxury of reading a book, or listening to music while the bus driver used to navigate through all the traffic. The daily trip used to take me 3 hours total.

Later on I figured that 3 hours of travel had its disadvantages: I used to miss a part of early morning meetings, I got home very late after a really long day and so on. I moved closer to the office now and use my motorbike to commute since what I pay for the bus is way higher than what I petrol would cost me. However, I still prefer using the bus or metro if I had to go far.

[vashisth]

Excellent initiative sir !! But, whatever said and done, public transport in busy metros of India have their own disadvantages ranging from exposure to open air pollution, air-borne infections and theft of belongings. Corporate or institutional buses are preferable over public buses in this regard. Or else, a trend of pool buses is need of the hour now in all metros.

[swami69]

Great Initiative ! probably many people are doing what you are doing, but putting it here has made me think as well. Out of 5 days, I would do a Motorbike ride one day and try Bi-Cycle for another, so a gradual cut from my side. Thanks for the same.

Swami

[xs2mayank]

Very good initiative.

Public transport is not so good and reliable on my office route. Hence I try to use the less carbon emitting option by always travelling to office by bike (two wheeler) instead of car. Saves me following -

1) Cost in terms of fuel spent.
2) Time (Its quicker to zip through traffic in a bike rather than in a car)
3) Parking space in office.

[Dieseltuned]

Thank you all, (pardon me for not naming all of you and addressing the post to all, I am bad at using multi quotes.)

I had a wonderful week using the public transport which also gave me ample of free time atleast 2 hours per day to catch up on some reading ( a long time hobby, which was delegated to sidelines after i started driving).

I am happy that I could inspire a couple of you to take up this or atleast to think about it.

As rightly pointed out by many of you, the availability of good public transport can make a hell lot of difference. We in Mumbai are thankful that we have a reliable transport system in form of buses, trains and the latest ones monorail, metrorail.

Having said that, if we do not have a transport system, we can try out carpooling or share a ride.

The next logical step would be to by a bicycle and I did just that. Bought a simple cycle "HERO NEXT SPRINT" for 6k bucks and intend to use it for daily stuff and a good cycling in the morning as exercise.

I am glad that I have acted on one of my new year resolutions and put the plan into action. I will be continuing with this initiative every month and will keep posted on it.

Regards
Dieseltuned

[bajica]

Very good initiative on an individual level. Hope you inspire many...

Since I work from home itself, I do not have much use of my car for commuting purpose. But taking inspiration from you, I will use cycle for small errands near the residence.

Best of health to you...

[ringoism]

Originally Posted by Chetan_Rao

I do miss my car sometimes, but have been able to resist the urge to buy one again so far. May do it in the future for leisure/touring needs, but I've gained a whole new perspective by being car-less... there's a huge chunk of car owners out there who have them just because they want them (for whatever reason).

A nasty rumor re: the near-future denial of re-registrations for 15-year-old diesels (incl. our newly-rebuilt, clean-running Marshal) here in H.P. got me wondering whether it would even be cost-justifiable to buy a replacement (new Gypsy, I suppose?), when we mostly drive short distances (generally less than 10km) a couple days a week.

Apart from any heartbreak / indignance, I was forced to ask inwardly,

"Could we manage practically without a car?" - Good question for everyone to be asking themselves these days. In our case with small kids and the snow/ice/chilling rains/winds seasonally common here and no taxi or bus services at the door, a closed, private vehicle is of great benefit - but in the urban situation things are SO different.

In my former city of residence in the U.S., most people were already using mass transit/taxis for commuting / moving around downtown, so the advent of easy, curbside, card-activated, e-billed rental car services for those occasional longer / out-of-town jaunts made it easy for a lot of owners to part with their cars and all the associated hassles. I wonder whether such services, if not already initiated somewhere in the subcontinent, wouldn't have a similarly broad and positive effect in the Indian metros...

Really glad for this thread and the sense of "greater good" being contemplated by so many - especially as most of us tBhpians are by nature automotive enthusiasts, who indeed own vehicles for reasons other than absolute, irrefutable need.

-Eric

[Ameya_G]

Hi Dieseltuned! Superb initiative and glad to mention we are in the same boat.

During the Diwali holidays i read in the newspaper about "Cityflo" - a IIT alumni initiative which focuses on point to point bus service. I decided to try it out and keep my sx4 vdi at home for a week and i am so glad that i did. Since Diwali i have got my car only once to office. they charge me 60 INR one way from Thane to BKC which is super cheap and i have been able to catch up on all the movies, twitter, whatsapp stuff that i had been missing on. A good 3G connection and nice pair of headphones is all i need now.

Needless to say, my right knee is the happiest part in my body at the moment.

[KiranPatil]

Originally Posted by Dieseltuned

Hi all,

I have started an initiative as a personal endeavour towards saving the environment....

At last.Somebody has started it.More to follow soon.

Frankly , I have seen many people only talking about it but they hesitate to take action as nobody is ready to leave their comfort zone.

Talking about myself, I have stopped using my car(Gypsy) considerably not because of petrol but for this environmental cause only after watching The movie "Wall E". I don't want my grandchildren's to travel on some vessel in space but enjoy on earth.

Great going. keep it up. !!

[opendro]

I have been cycling to work and to all nearby errands (anything within a radius of 30 km). But I personally never preach someone to cycle on the premise of saving the environment or planet. I do preach people to cycle for their own good:

1. saving money
2. better fitness (debatable considering the pollution)
3. saving in time
4. better predictability of reaching a destination in time.

However, we can never succeed in improving the situation if the administrative authorities create a system wherein people are forced to choose against cars. Some of the measures I can think of are:

1. dedicated cycle lane, preferabbly away from smokes (how about bicycle highway : http://www.sunnyskyz.com/good-news/1...Xhcu7BLo30y.01)
2. dedicated motorcycle lanes (yes, motorcycles are way more efficient than cars or even bicycles in terms of the number of people it transports on a given road space within a stipulated time).
3. make traffic rules to give highest preference to public transport vehicles - like we do to school bus, ambulance and police vehicles.
4. toll the car users heavily in congested areas, divert the collected fund to provide heavily subsidized high quality public transport system.
5. provide every possible connectivity - whether it is a nice walk under tree or concrete shades or buses to metro stations, etc.

On the contrary, we have more roads where cyclists are not allowed, good quality imported bikes are heavily taxed, no respect for people using public transport, etc.

The truth is, owning a car is an ambition for majority of Indians. With growing economy, more and more Indians will be able to afford cars. They will drive unless the system puts them at a disadvantage. We should use cars only when needed and that should be literally enforced - not as a law, but as a design in the infrastructure (see Copenhagen).

Irrespective of whether the system makes people change or not, one thing is certain: people will rethink once their commute average speed is below 10kmph. In Bangalore it is about 15kmph on average and even less in peak time. A cyclist beats them hands down. But people are still okay with 15. But I bet, they will not be okay when it becomes 8. That is my prediction.

BTW, those who curse two wheelers on the road, you should thank them. For example, Bangalore has 15% cars, 70% two wheelers, the rest (buses, auto, cyclists, cabs) makes up the remaining 15%. That is pretty much the figure in my office. Imagine, even 10% of those two wheelers converting into cars - we will not have parking space and roads will be choked to death. Trust me, majority of these two wheeler riders in cities can afford cars and many of them already own one. That is why we should thank them for choosing two wheeler. They are the majority transport as of now in the absence of a good public transport system.

Sorry for the lengthy post. If you are considering buying a bicycle, please always buy a decent one - spend at least 30K. Trust me, the cost is worth - maintenance is easy, mostly DYI, replaceable parts are cheap and it usually lasts longer than a car. And best of all, it does not spend at fuel pumps. Happy cycling.

[gk_fiesta]

Superb initiative. I have already sold off my car last year since I used to use it only during weekends. My office commute was either using company transport or public transport as I do not like driving in the bumper-to-bumper traffic in city.

My passion for driving and travelling is now fulfilled by the new-gen self-drive rentals like Zoom and Carzonrent which I hire for any outstation trips that come up.

If we don't act responsibly now, our next gen would suffer. Yes, it is initially painful to use public transport, but if more and more people are using it, authorities (over a period) will be forced to improve it. Plus car-pooling, cab-share etc will add to the ease in traffic.

I think as true BHP-ians we have to act responsibly as well, while we keep our passion for driving and vehicles.

Great job, once again.

[RajatDesai]

That's just an excellent initiative. We need to have similar mindsets to reduce pollution in bangalore. I did prefer my own car on some days to travel 35 km from vijayanagar to my office in Whitfield. And after experiencing worst traffic and pollution throughout the day/night, i decided to sacrifice driving own car since 8 months. It's the company transport and on few days it's Ola/public transport.

Tackling of such issues needs to start from us.

[naphill]

Great initiative. Your post has actually inspired me to do the same. Very useful information on carbon savings, it may not be accurate, but definitely gives a sense of fulfillment. Best to take our own initiative instead of joining the pro/con debate on odd-even schemes and the rest. Well done

[Gansan]

Good initiative. I have not been so drastic, but for many years I had a weekly "no personal transportation" day; on that day I will use only public transport, mainly suburban trains. My car and bike will stay at home. In recent times I have extended it to twice a week.