Petrol price hike…
I have always felt that motorists asking for more roads is like a kid telling his dad: “you have bought me too many dresses, now buy me a cupboard”.
Motorists are a big drain on the municipal authorities and the state governments too. They think that the roads are built for them (they pay NOTHING for road usage). They pollute, kill, create noise pollution,…and frankly I do not like motorists even when I am one. When I am riding a cycle or walking or using a public transport I positively HATE them.
Should rising prices of petrol worry them? No. It is a joke.
Will they consume less if prices go up (Economists tell us they do, but Economists also talk about elasticity of demand, right?).
Here is a sensible post. A little long perhaps, but worth reading…
http://in.finance.yahoo.com/blogs/economaniac/why-petrol-price-hike-good-thing-061316792.html
Vidya
I cannot say I like motorists .. but then I see ppl buying 2 wheelers as a need to get from one place to another .. on time … We need a good public transport system that will take us safely and quickly around 🙂
l1nu5r
motorists pay road tax no?
subra
chicken or egg situation. Without more people going by public transport, they will not have the money to improve. Without money, they cannot improve. So what should happen first? LOL
Suresh
quite a bit of circular logic. You can and must cut kerosene and LPG subsidy. In fact any subsidy is a recipe for corruption. The poor are perfectly capable of making ends meet without subsidy as long as you can deliver the subsidy in cash direct.
In fact instead of taxes going to centre and then being given as subsidy, it must directly be converted into cash subsidy at the panchayat / municipal level.
Praveen
I don’t know what too say when persons who are earning 1lac/month and buy cars (without finance) crib about increase of petrol finance
ajay
I spent good thirty years of my life without owning any motorized vehicle in my family. Cycled in College days and it was fun, never felt need of petrol drinking monsters.
But ever since I landed in Gurgaon, always felt issues in commuting. Even that was resolved by living at walking distance to office or using company shuttles.
Now after getting married, this would no longer work as wife’s office is 12 km away and there is no public transport or company shuttles to speak of.
Also never driven any vehicle except bicyle, the fear of driving started haunting me and felt its now or never. Driving is a skill that I should posses irrespective of whether I own a car or not
So enrolled for driving classes and bought a car and conquered my fears .
Happy with the decision as the freedom it provides, is worth it.
Though I still prefer to take public transport whenever available.
Delhi metro is amazing and beats a car in economics as well as comfort factor.
As far a petrol prices are concerned, there is no harm in asking good roads as we pay road tax and enough taxes for every liter of petrol.
Kaushik
Here is a wiki link that speaks about the growth of car culture in the US & rapid destruction of public transport there.
It says “This alleged that there was a wider conspiracy—by GM in particular—to destroy effective public transport systems in order to increase sales of automobiles and that this was implemented with great effect to the detriment of many cities.”.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_streetcar_conspiracy