Evaluate the evolution of transport
Year: 1990
A: I have a car.
B: I have one too.
Year: 2010
A: I have a car.
B: Huh I have two.
Once in every six months whenever the fuel prices hike from--tea time office discussions to late night living room contentions and in studio conversations to open to public polls all we hear is the burgeon on the excessive usage of fuel and its impact on economy and environment.
Unlike the various other countries round the globe usage of Public transport system in India is still considered for the underprivileged and unfortunate. Car pooling and using metros might be still options worth considering in the metropolitan cities but for a citizen of an average Indian city the very thought that his vehicle needs a repair on a WEEKDAY give him nightmares, reminding him of the sight of those long 10/12 seater minibuses christened as ‘tempos’, belching out smoke and noise, generally ferrying over a score of passengers, ensconced inside and clinging outside, and plying on the opposite lanes on various national highways.
But does a fact as interesting as one stated here that due to global warming Arctic ice is rapidly disappearing, and the region may have its first completely ice-free summer by 2040 or earlier will even bother that common man? In this wild race of development when we consider ourselves responsible enough to grow our horizons and expand our riches, we surely have forgotten our responsibility towards the planet. Nature is no longer of our concern, as humans – at least for a majority of humans that participate in today’s environmental meltdown, which has been burning (like the fuel in a combustion engine) for the past 100+ years. The modern citizen in today’s world has completely lost touch with the natural world which has groomed us, through evolution, for the past 100,000+ years. With the advent of the automobile, our current culture’s already corrupt relationship with nature reached a new level of ignorance. As a result of the ever expanding reach of personal automobiles, the environmental health of our planet has been irreversibly altered, along with the social, financial, and political attitude of our culture.
Horseless carriages, or ‘cars’ for short, have completely taken over our everyday lives. What was once a commodity is now looked at as a necessity? Everyone, it seems, has a car; or if not, they are working towards getting a car. It is virtually impossible to avoid the implications of personal car ownership; sounds, sights, smells, finances, attitudes, employment, and personal relationships are all adversely affected by the car. As an ‘advanced society’ compared to those without the technology that we currently posses, we have not advanced much from the original inception of a gas fed, steel bodied personal transport vehicle. In fact, our advancements are really more like the opposite – we are digressing from what should be our primary goal; to use technology to continually make life better, to make transport easier, to create more free time, to save money, to preserve the environment, etc.
To make room for everyone’s car, we have converted acres upon acres of what was once wilderness into parking lots, countless numbers of which have already long since been abandoned as weeds grow through the cracks in the concrete. We have streets that are too narrow for cars to drive on but are lined with parked cars. Car owners have been known to stress over parking spot availability when they come home from work. Parking spots in some congested cities can cost thousands of dollars a month; the price of which could easily pay for food/shelter for impoverished individuals around the world that most likely have never driven a car in the first place. We have multimillion dollar parking garages. We have specialized public servants that enforce parking regulations, being sure to financially punish anyone who has violated parking policy; not to mention the police officers that pull you over while driving. We take them everywhere with us: to work, to the grocery store, to the doctor, and even to the movies sometimes. There is, however, a group of people, who have realized the extent of which we have lost control of the metaphorical car that we call life and, who would like to drive out current policies and collectively try going down a different road.
There is no point in trying to accurately pinpoint exactly when our ancestors truly stopped caring for nature, it has happened. The current generational cycle that has been gradually sucking us farther into the oil black hole that is 2010, and beyond, started in the not-so-distant past, but it will end in the near future.
The big question that is seldom answered but often raised in the air conditioned households, offices and studios is-- where to start and how?
We are standing at a crossroad: in order to reduce our oil dependency and make our country climate smart, we have to change our ways of traveling. It is a fact that the future is on a track, and with public transport everyone can come along for the ride.
The advantages of resorting to an efficient public transport system and reducing
Individual vehicles would be:
(i) Less pollution, as the amount of smoke coming-out could be reduced and also global warming and climate changes could be reduced.
(ii) Lower number of vehicle son the roads, and reduction in the occurrence of accidents.
(iii) Traffic jams and congestions will come down saving precious time.
(iv) The oil import bill will come down drastically and also the pressure on foreign exchange reserves will come down.
Public transport is a way to travel in an environmental-friendly way and usage of public transport shouldn’t be seen as a stand-alone reform, but rather as one part of a bigger package of reforms to make our world more green, livable and fair. It should be combined with infrastructural changes to promote walking and biking, at least for shorter distances, as well as congestion fees and other measures to discourage car driving.
It is great to promote walking and biking as alternatives to driving, and of course these two means of transportation are the most ecological and healthy. But we must acknowledge that not everyone has the luxury of being able to bike or walk to work, school or their leisure activities. Kids, people with disabilities and elderly, people living in suburbs far away from their work and people living in cities where the weather just isn’t suitable for being outside most of the year – for all of them biking or walking is hardly ever an option and this is something that needs to be addressed.
When the number of vehicles increases, the fuel consumption will also increase. Nowadays, cars and other vehicles mostly carry only a single person. If thousand cars ply to carry 1000 people, the fuel consumption would be 10,000 l for a distance of 50 km, to and fro. Instead, in public transport buses, 40 people can travel in a bus and 25 buses can commute 1000 people to the same distance for just 500 to 700 l of fuel consumption. Then we could save on fuel consumption by 20-fold. Hence we should strive to increase, modernize and perfect our public
The transport should not cost us environment. People need to feel that they are a part of a significant change in order to be more enthusiastic in their participation. They have to be ‘in the loop’ and need to feel a responsibility that unfortunately they do feel at the moment. It cannot be ignored that things aren’t as dismal as they were, and many initiatives are taking place even as we read this, but there is no contesting the fact much more has to be done, and in much greater haste.
“Be the change that you want to see in the world”
— Mahatma Gandhi
