In the ideal India I envision, I would probably work from my home office most of the year without worrying about power disruptions or network problems. Alternatively, I’d probably live only a few walking miles away from work. I’d even settle for a 3-4 km distance if I could get to work by bicycle without being run over by an angry lorry driver. If there were mass transit system that was functional and feasible, I would have certainly taken that to work. I am optimistic that sooner or later, we would have one or all of these options - sustainable cities where we could work only few blocks away from home, bicycle lanes and mass public transportation which is fully powered by natural energy.
In the meantime, though, there are many like me who travel nearly 50 kms to work every single day, spending thousands on fuel, working through some really painful traffic bottlenecks in the city and in the process, adding to the pollution and carbon emission, unconsciously melting a few tons of Arctic ice. There might be several better ways to help, but one temporary alternative for the car lovers would be carpooling. There are many people already doing this in a small level. It would be really constructive if we set up a well organized carpooling schedule with information from willing people about their routes, in/out times, special needs (dropping off spouse/kids etc) and other relevant information on a forum. If the system is adequately set up, it would bring about quite a bit of savings including fuel, effort, car’s wear and tear etc. for one and all involved. The same could also be done for two-wheelers with a lot less effort.
While there will be many problems in executing a successful carpool schedule, like inflexibility with hours stretching and punctuality of carpoolers, to name a few, I am sure the benefits far outweigh the efforts that go into starting one. Of course, we would have done our bit to save ‘Homo Sapiens’ from extinction.
If the carpool idea catches up like 'Kolaveri', we might even convince our mayor to have an HOV (High Occupancy) lane...wait a minute...that is after we have lane bifurcations!
3 comments:
Good idea, I have tried it, and failed; for reasons you have already cited - punctuality and extension of office hours. The second being the major issue. While most of us usually have a fixed time of leaving home for office, the same cannot be said of the return journey. So, at best one can have a one-way car pool. Which means, for the return journey I need to use the public transport. And then the fear of public transport forces me to opt out of the car pool and use my own little car for both legs of the journey :(
A nice and thoughtful post again from you Badri. This topic is now catching up slowly and there is an advertisement in radio on this and also on switching off the vehicle in signals to save fuel and to control the emission. It is a good idea but, for the hassels you've mentioned on the post though. Nothing in life comes easier and I wish you good luck on this if, you are planning any.
Human beings are creatures of habit and mimicry. We're now so used to the habit of car and affordable energy that we won't get out of the habit so easily. But, once a few begin doing this successfully, people will gradually start mimicking the idea and then it will work, no matter how many deterrents we have in executing it. Good luck with the idea! -R'.
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