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The imminent arrival of the Nano generates strong feelings of hope and anxiety.
The optimists are looking forward to an affordable and economical city car that will free millions from the discomfort and drudgery of daily commuting by smoky public buses and extortionist autos or taxis in a mostly hot and horrid climate. For the more affluent the Nano will be a cute second car for the spouse to go shopping, to pick up school kids, or generally gad about. Better public transport, though important, is not the solution as every family wants the flexibility and freedom that only personal transport can give.
The pessimists fear that there will not be enough space on our already crowded streets for the Nano invasion. They are right about the traffic density, but wrong about the probable impact. When there are already 60 million 2-wheelers, 13, million cars, 10 million trucks, buses ands autos already on the road, a quarter million Nanos will not have much short term impact.
We do not have too many vehicles. We have too few roads. India has 14 cars per 1,000 people, as compared to 10 in Pakistan, 64 in Thailand, 4 to 500 in Europe and 740 in the USA. But our cities were not designed for motorized transportation. It is not yet a political issue, but will become one if the roughly 250 million daily users of motorized transport get mad enough.
Our policy makers need to get out of the old socialist or Gandhian mindset that cars are the toys of the rich, and recognize that they are now necessities in a modern world. |
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Our policy makers need to get out of the old socialist or Gandhian mindset that cars are the toys of the rich, and recognize
that they are now necessities in a modern world. |
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