Car owners won’t leave their wheels for Metro

Car owners won’t leave their wheels for Metro

Staff Reporter

50 p.c. car owners spend Rs. 3,000 a month on fuel

Most of them are averse to car pools

Bangalore: Neither soaring fuel prices nor alarm bells about global warming appear to have had much impact on the choices that Bangaloreans make about commuting.

A survey conducted among 315 car owners in the city, by Biodiversity Conservation India Limited (BCIL), reveals that almost half of them (47 per cent) feel more “comfortable travelling alone” even though car pooling and public transport could cut down on commuting costs and carbon emissions.

Over 50 per cent of the respondents said they never thought of using public transport, because buses, they feel, are overcrowded or not frequent enough.

Nearly 50 per cent spend more than Rs. 3,000 a month on petrol or diesel, and approximately the same number travel more than 15 km to work everyday. Only 22 per cent of the respondents used a car pool.

The survey was conducted among car owners, men and women, between the ages of 21 and 50 who used cars to commute to work. “People who own cars represent the highest per-person fuel consumption.

At a time when carbon emission from the transport sector is increasing at an enormous rate of 6 per cent a year, it is important to think of methods to conserve fuel,” Chandrashekhar Hariharan, CEO of BCIL, told presspersons here on Wednesday.

“It is sad that even a city like Bangalore is not willing to take the lead in fuel conservation,” he added.

There is a need for a good public transport system in the city to reduce energy costs and pollution levels, he said.

Citing the example of Singapore, Mr. Hariharan said that policy interventions could ensure that commuting distance between the residence and workplace was cut down.