National Highway

From CSE, via Jeebesh Bagchi:

• There are 1.5 million private cars on the road.
• 3 million two-wheelers, a lot of these will convert to cheapest small cars
• And only 6,800 city buses.
• The city adds 41 vehicles every hour, 31% of them being private cars.
• Last 5 years have seen a 43% increase in vehicles, and 9% in road space.
• Road area is already 20% of land area. Green area is only 10%.
• There is a limit in extending roads and flyovers.
• Our collective automobile experience ends with traffic jam.
• And slower vehicles spew more.
• We should be ashamed that all we gained out of converting public transport to CNG has been offset by rising number of cars!
• A car pays Rs 400 a year as tax, while a bus is charged Rs 13,000.
• Government subsidises private vehicles with low tax, cheapest parking lots.
• Public investment in roads and flyovers are cornered by private cars only.
• Private cars take up 75% of the road space, while buses get only 8%.
• Hence, there is no money left for public transport investment.
• All these, while private transport only 20% of passengers, and buses still carry 61%.