.Cars,cars everywhere,no roads to drive...

Once upon a time India had only two varients in cars ,the Hindustan 14 and Fiat 1100.In due course, they were succeeded by Hindustan Ambassador and Premier Padmini. Cars in those days were highly prized commodities;a long wait after registration with the dealer, unless you were among the privileged few, when you could get it within a few weeks against Government quota.Total production of cars in the country was in unit of thousands.And the roads though poor in quality could cope with their traffic.
And then came economic reforms. Today we have almost all brands of cars from the most expensive Maybach to the cheapest.Name the variant and you can spot it on the road. if you look a little while.We have petrol and diesel variants, we have hatchbacks, sedans,SUVs. Now the problem is where to run these cars and where to park them. Our roads are choc a bloc with cars.But our roads are the same antiquated ones, narrow ill maintained full of potholes.There is no discipline among the drivers and no one to enforce the same.Result accidents injuries and the loss of lives and limbs.Worst sufferers are the old, the sick, women, and the pedastrian. They do not know whether they can cross the road and still be safe.
Countries like Singapore have limited the number of cars/vehicles on road.Anyone wishing to buy a car has to obtain a COE (Certificate of Entitlement) from the Government which is auctioned to the highest bidder.Each such COE is issued against a scrapped vehicle so that their number remains the same.Today, as per my best knowledge, a COE costs about S$80,000, which is over and above the price of a car which is also heavily taxed with duties at the time of import.The result; a manageable number of vehicles on road which are among the best maintained inthe world.
Can India follow that pattern?To some extent yes.But it also requires creation of a good bus/train/metro system so that the need of a car is not that acute.
Will our traffic planners rise to the occasion?