I wrote the following letter to the Chief Minister of West Bengal this morning:
Sir,
Despite whatever the media portrays, I look upto you as a harbinger of change.
As such, as a citizen in love with the city of Calcutta, I keep on having ideas. Rather than fretting over the cities problems with friends at a coffee shop, I would rather like to email straight to you, even at the risk of the suggestion thrown into a junk folder.
The one simple solution to fix up the traffic mess in Calcutta and most notably in its showpiece Sector V, is to make car pool compulsory during peak hours.
The traffic is maximum between 9-11 am and 5.30 to 7.30 pm. It won’t require a constitutional amendment to make it mandatory that no vehicle with less than 2 occupants (including the driver) can ply on the main roads during these hours. This would force people to pool with neighbours, or give a lift to a colleague. Some who can afford would hire a driver even for their two-wheelers, but that would at least generate employment. Due to better vehicular movement, the air would become cleaner, personal expenses would go down if people pool resources, and some load would go off the public transport. A win/win for all.
If one is egoistic enough to travel all by oneself, the option still is there to wake up a few minutes earlier and go; or take a taxi.
Best regards,