Quote of the Day: Thomas Friedman on Indian Transportation
by Jasmin Malik Chua, Jersey City, USA on 11. 5.07
We have no right to tell Indians what cars to make or drive. But we can urge them to think hard about following our model, without a real mass transit alternative in place. Cheap conventional four-wheel cars, which would encourage millions of Indians to give up their two-wheel motor scooters and three-wheel motorized rickshaws, could overwhelm India’s already strained road system, increase its dependence on imported oil and gridlock the country’s megacities.
Yes, Indian families whose only vehicle now is a two-seat scooter often make two trips back and forth to places to get their whole family around, so a car that could pack a family of four is actually a form of mini-mass transit. And yes, Tata, by striving to make a car that could sell for $2,500, is forcing the entire Indian auto supply chain to become much more efficient and therefore competitive. ...
So what should India do? It should leapfrog us, not copy us. Just as India went from no phones to 250 million cellphones—skipping costly land lines and ending up with, in many ways, a better and cheaper phone system than we have—it should try the same with mass transit. ...
Why should you care what they’re driving in Delhi? Here’s why: The cost of your cellphone is a lot cheaper today because India took that little Western invention and innovated around it so it is now affordable to Indians who make only $2 a day. India has become a giant platform for inventing cheap scale solutions to big problems. If it applied itself to green mass transit solutions for countries with exploding middle classes, it would be a gift for itself and the world."
—Thomas Friedman in the Nov. 4, 2007 issue of The New York Times
Thomas Friedman really is God's Own Fool, is he not?
India has fairly decent public transportation. They've already passed us in that respect.
"Scooters" are not a major transportation vehicle. Perhaps he's confusing India with Thailand. So easy to do, none of those people look like him....
Desiring India to put millions of new cars on the road so that he/we can buy less expensive cars really demonstrates that he has no idea that we all live on the same ball of dirt.
Bob, I think you missed the point of the article.... Friedman is saying that he thinks that India should NOT rely on cars as their primary source of transportation, rather they should tax the hell out of them and invest more bus lanes and other forms of mass transit... He concludes that their green solutions to the standard transportation model will help the rest of the world. Its hard to get that from the quoted piece, better to read the whole article.
that's what i got out of it - he was praising india's ability to make cellphones affodable to it's masses, thus essentially skipping the messy land lines the majority of the western world has junking up our roadways; and saying India should put this ingenuity to work on making a green, economical solution to mass transit systems, thus skipping the ugly pollution and traffic problems the western world experiences.
But then to get the US to adopt a non-hummer highway would be a truly great achievement.
Starting from scratch makes it sooo much easier. They don't have to tear down paradigms of masssive power and speed. Without those two elements, a $2500 vehicle is easy!
Indian Cities are already investing big time in Mass Public Transit.. and its a Big Hit...Indians will take up cars big way like the Americans if the cars can fly on sustainable energy fuels.
All the major metros in india have Electric train ,CNC buses ,buses which run on diesel ,which are heavily crowded with people especially in the morning and evening time.This is a clear indication that people are not relying on car or other transport.
With the growing economy,launch of new foreign car and bike companies, in India and increased buying capacity people are tend to by cars and motor bikes than opting to go in crowded transport.
To make the people still going in the public transport
we should make it less crowded ,more frequency of bus or train,should be cheap etc.
In bangalore were I live the BMTC transport (disel buses) are heavily crowded,so people tend to buy
bikes or cars.
Give people importance of public transport and how it costs less and how this step will make earth more green.