Traffic Satyagraha : Can citizens get rid of the “traffic issue”?
Singapore decides to ban car registrations from Feb 2018.
In a democracy like India it is a ‘little’ more complex
For example, doing this in Mumbai would mean:
a. Agreeing that roads are shared public space
b. All vehicles occupy it temporarily to move
c. All spaces taken up for parking are only unused ‘car-time’ i.e. cars that COULD have been used (surplus)
d. Agreeing on the immense benefits of public transport — buses, cycles and walking.
Ergo, the car with ONE TRAVELLER (the driver+one rich guy OR the single driver large car) IN PEAK HOURS is STEALING a scarce public resource
Here is a good time to pause and have circles till a vocal majority reaches this conclusion and agrees to move to ONE car per home — that’s where Blue Ribbon comes in!
If we get to this point we can
1. Discourage owning more than one car (and use taxis / uber / ola / autos instead)
2. Encourage them in turn to not say NO (the dreaded NO that ricshaws pop up at the most inappropriate time)
3. Atleast TRIPLE our current investment in buses while introducing newer variants of public transports (Matadors, Pilots etc)
4. DeZone areas around railway stations to WALK ONLY (and for disabled and elderly, golf carts etc to drop them to the nearest ric-bus-taxi space)
5. Create a BIKE SHARE program particularly around railway stations which link parking lots to the station through cycles that can be picked at those one/two spots and dropped at the station (and vice versa in the evening)
A good station to test this out would be an ‘innocent’ western line station like Naigaon first and then move on both sides.
There are hundreds of better suggestions than this — but we need a clear document / plan thats simple to understand + act on and one that we all can stand behind.
P.s : As a last step, a 10 minute “Traffic Satyagraha” daily by each of us where you choose to walk / honour signals / guide traffic / support Blue Ribbon.
You give 10 mins daily or accumulated to an hour per week TILL the issue gets resolved for everyone of us
P.P.s: Mumbai isn’t even the best place to start this, in fact it must start from a Tier 2.5 kinda town (anywhere excluding the Metros)
Here’s the source — hopefully honest cos its Bloomberg.
P.P.P.s :
If you have read this far, it means you care. We’re coming up with a campaign in December to create a Mumbai for All — please consider supporting it through the Marathon, or our gender program, or just plainly reaching out to me over email.
Together, we are stronger!