Do you ever feel guilty? We all curse the polution, we all curse the traffic congestion and we all curse the rising fuel prices. But have you ever given a thought to the fact that you are the root cause for it? Because you think it is un dignified to take public transport. Because you think you are so busy and your time is so valuable that Car Pooling is a dumb idea. A car is for four, and you are underutilising it by travelling alone.
If any of a loner in a car is reading this, I challenge them to give me 5 logical and worthy reasons that makes one chose a car for daily commute and not share it with anyone. Remember that these are the reasons you are chosing car over pollution, health & traffic congestion.
Comments
These are the exact questions I used to ask.. even as a kid. Whenever I used to see ppl travelling alone in a car, I used to dismiss them as "status" show-offs. How could they be so blind to environmental issues?
In fact, i was always of the opinion that car should be used only if the number of people is more than 2.
But, now that I am facing reality, I am having second thoughts. I am increasingly seeing car as the best way to commute.
Here are some reasons for using cars as personal transport:
1. Pathetic public transport system. If you have stayed in Mumbai or Chennai, probably you wont agree with this; but definitely Bangaloreans and Delhiites would vouch for it.
2. Safety. 2-wheelers are obviously dangerous, regardless of helmet or no helmet.
3. Rains. This is a safety issue as well as inconvenience (for example, consider a person who lugs around a laptop. so how does such a person face the rain?)
4. Distance of commute. In cities like the NCR where people commute huge distances for work everyday, 2-wheelers are impractical. And hey, did I mention that its not safe? :D
Of course there would be solutions to each of these points, albeit individually. I am also aware that by driving a car to work, I am doing something wrong from environmentand congestion point of view.
But when you put it all together and arrive at the big picture, somehow I begin to favor car for transport rather than 2-wheeler.
Unless.. unless there is some middle ground; as described here
I completely missed the point about car-pooling in my previous comment!
Yes, I am definitely all for car-pooling. It is the most practical solution for all the problems you have mentioned. I re-iterate: I think the best solution would still be to provide better public transportation. But the most practical is car-pooling.
It only requires some more discipline on the part of individuals and little more respect for others' time. As of today, car-pooling might turn out to be a bit of a challenge. Let me give an example.
Suppose you are about to leave from office; your manager comes to you and requests you to stay for half an hour more for some not-so-urgent work. Now telling him "Sorry, I have to leave right now else I will miss the bus" is a hundred times more likely to work than "Sorry, I have to leave right now because the guys with whom I car-pool are waiting". The latter case will in all probability evoke a response like "Ask them to adjust for half-an-hour na".
This is a vague example, but you get the point.
And when I say public transport is best, I am including "office-provided transport" as public transport. The percentage of companies which provide bus or other means of transport needs to be increased; and employees need to be impressed upon about the advantages of using the company transport instead of their cars.
Take Bangalore again as an example. Just think how much the traffic problems would be solved if more companies provided bus transport; and majority of the employees started using this service.