In the new system, prospective car owners are required to purchase a Certificate of Entitlement (COE), which is a licence that lasts for 10 years. The government sets a quota on COEs for different vehicle categories a year in advance. COE allocation is done through open auction.

There are two COE open bidding exercises every month. The quota for a particular year depends on the net allowed increase of 3% and number of vehicles to be de-registered that year.

Singapore’s annual vehicle growth is less than 0.5% and the premium for owning a compact car is HK$300,000.

( Source: Singapore Manages Traffic Congestion through its Vehicle Quota System by Josephine V. Yam)S 

And yet land is a scare commodity. Already 11% of Delhi is being used for parking even as 1,400 new vehicles — of which 470 are cars — are added to the city’s roads every day.

As per government estimates, over 75 lakh cars are running on the Capital’s roads. “The speed of traffic on arterial roads has decreased significantly. Moreover, personal cars registered last year demanded parking space equivalent to the size of 310 football fields. In the years to come, valuable public land will be taken up for parking,” said Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director, Centre for Science and Environment.

“The ongoing urban emissions. info study on speed busts the myth that cars are the best way to travel in Delhi and NCR. The pilot study in south Delhi, Noida, Greater Noida, Gurgaon and Dwarka found that cars crawled at 4 kmph for almost 24 minutes in two hours of driving and one million cars waste 2,00,000 liters of fuel for plying daily. The study also cautions against building new roads and flyovers,” Roy chowdhury said, adding that Delhi is so gridlocked and polluted considering when 48 per cent of the Capital’s households do not own any vehicle.

When quizzed about the solutions to the mess, she said Delhi should follow the example set by other big cities such as Shanghai and Beijing.

But the municipal agencies feel otherwise. “We have written to the L-G. The order on hiking parking charges is not acceptable. Even when the municipal commissioner in his budget proposal had proposed the hike, we had not agreed,” leader of the House in North Corporation Mahender Nagpal had said.

Standing committee chairman of the S outh Delhi Municipal Corporation Rajesh Gehlot said, “We are not implementing these revised parking rates. We have to think of the people who have elected us. We had promised them that we won’t increase parking charges. We can’t put additional burden on them. ”

Source- http://www.hindustantimes.com

Every day, 1,400 new vehicles hit the roads. And their number is rising at 7-8% every year.

Going by these troubling statistics, experts say making driving and parking cars heavy on pockets is the only way out. “Auto suppression is one of the pillars of a good transport policy. Limit parking space, ration the automobile, tax driving to encourage people to use public transport,” said Mark Gorton, a New York-based transport expert and founder of Rethink the Auto.

Several cities across the globe – Singapore, Hong Kong and Shanghai in Asia, Oslo and London in Europe, New York in North America and Bogota in South America – have adopted measures such as congestion pricing, heavy tax and limited permits for new cars and strict parking policies. And the results have been more than encouraging.

According to ‘Megacity Challenges’, a research project conducted by international consultants GlobeScan and MRC McLean Hazel, congestion went down by nearly 30% in London and Stockholm due to congestion pricing. There has been a reduction of 10-20% in fuel emissions and road accidents. Annual vehicle growth in Singapore is just about 0.5%.

In its report submitted earlier this year, the High Court-appointed special task force on traffic too suggested levying congestion pricing in central business districts such as CP, Karol Bagh, Chandni Chowk, Nehru Place and South Extension. Interestingly, Delhiites too responded positively when the task force invited objections and suggestions on the issue.

“The urban development ministry too has asked every state to levy congestion tax in business districts. But the political bosses are least interested. Their suggestions are pro-automobile – widen roads, build flyovers,” said a senior Delhi government official.

This is exactly what experts caution against though they believe that unless Delhi has a sustainable transport system, such measures should be avoided. “The government should start preparing a robust integrated walking, non-motorised transport and public transport system while developing a congestion pricing policy. Prepare the people for the new arrangement in the next 5-10 years,” said Nalin Sinha, a transport expert.

The task force has also proposed levying parking charges on vehicles parked in residential colonies. “Land is a premium commodity and people cannot use it for free. A little hike in parking charges won’t deter them,” said Ashok Bhattacharya, director Unified Traffic and Transportation (Planning and Engineering) Centre.

Source-  http://www.hindustantimes.com