Widening The Roads Is Not The Solution For Traffic

The wider the road is, the more traffic

Why people use vehicles? 

1. Footpaths are occupied or dirty. It's hard or mentally exhausting to walk, to see all that encroachment or dirt. Ideally walking is the best form of exercise and natural living to get sun or fresh air. By now most of the Indians realize its importance. I don't think Indians will mind walking, given beautiful surroundings. 

2. Ideally, if a common man sees public figures or leaders use a footpath to walk, he will start following them. Public figures can set examples. However, there are rare public figures who walk in India, because of security reasons. To handle most critical issues of the country, we need leaders to set an example. And "traffic" is one such issue.

3. For a few people, using vehicles might be a "status symbol". 

4. The public transport system should be highly efficient if we want to avoid our own vehicle. But I think except a few major cities, public transport system is not efficient in India. 

5. If the kids are young (less than 12 years of age) own vehicles is a better option, if they need to use washrooms or from security points of view. 

6. We follow western countries for every valid reason. We follow them by petting a dog or a cat. But when it comes to maintaining the pets, we are far far behind. In every western country, when people go out with a dog, they pick their dog's excretion and then move on. Whereas, we just leave it at the very place (especially on footpath) and move on. It's very wrong. People who are owning the pet, should take care of this. 

7. People who have used Public Transport will agree that using public transport needs certain discipline. There is a certain arrival and departure schedule of the transport. I myself have used Mumbai public transport regularly from 18 till 22 years of my age. After which I stayed in hostel, so I did not have to travel. After 24 years, I got married and had a responsibility of office and home. To carry that responsibility, I thought using own vehicle is the best. We can commute any time we want. Sometimes I needed to stay late in the office, sometimes cooking got a little delayed in the morning. It was hard to stick to a specific schedule of public transport on a daily basis. So I preferred to commute by own vehicle, even when the city had public transport. I don't know whether the people face this situation today, when "working from home" is possible.

8. Sometimes it is just a matter of having certain comfort in life at a certain age. It's an emotional issue. At their age I simply can not tell my parents (80 years and 74 years) to use public transport. I believe that they deserve certain comfort in life, for what they have done for us ... For shaping our lives ...