Ban single-commuter 4 wheelers from Bangalore roads

Anyone who has lived in Bangalore for 6 months would know the plight of the city's commuters. Public bus transport in India's silicon metropolis is way too crowded and slow for its populace. Metro rail will surely take 2 more years to arrive and it certainly would not cater to traffic on all the routes. Autorickshaw-wallas are not catering to the public, most are arrogant extortionists not quite eager to work hard to earn their money.

Thus, bus transport remains the only option for the commuting public in the immediate future. How to make their life better during the transport? How to make sure they reach their destination on time, with least amount of standing time in a smelly sweaty crowded unhygienic bus?

Many fancy solutions can be suggested: redesigning the buses, increasing their numbers, more flyovers and underpasses, expediting the metro etc etc. And the contractor/politician nexus would like all of them! But the single most effective solution is banning single-commuter 4-wheelers (SC4Ws) on road. Or at least taxing them prohibitively.

A small car can seat 3 passengers and a driver. An equivalent area in form of a bus can seat 6 passengers. A small car is such inefficient use of road space that I dont have to rant against larger SC4Ws. It is criminal insensitivity of SC4W users to block roads and give miserable time to bus commuters. And such insensitivity can be tolerated only in India. We don't protest because nobody cares and nobody cares because we don't protest!

Many would argue that it is the government's job to make wider better roads, more comfortable buses with more frequency etc. That is just shirking away from one's duties and conscience. Is empathy not part of good citizenship? Is accommodating other's needs not the basis of peaceful coexistence? How long the 1% rich would misuse 99% of state resources? Is it not simply inviting violent trouble?

And make a minute of yours green by thinking of petrol wastage due to SC4W usage on city roads. Clogged city roads can diminish the mileage of vehicles by as much as 50%! So its not good for the city's health too for so many SC4Ws inefficiently burning gallons of petrol everyday.

If it is too much legal trouble to ban the SC4Ws, there should at least be a heavy tax on such users. I am talking to the tune of lakhs per year! Let them understand the true cost of the luxury that comes by discomforting so many. That money can be then used to fuel the flyovers, underpasses, metros, better & more buses and the works.