Purchase of Automobiles in India — An Avoidable Need
By: Onn Bikes
Tags: Mobility, Electric Vehicles, Urban Perspectives, Transportation, Automotive

“Why do people buy automobiles?” we googled.

The first article which came up gave a very clear answer, that is to fill the mobility gap and provide freedom. The other one said it’s a matter of prestige for many and the third one mentioned that it gives working professionals a sense of security and authority over their commute and travel. While on one hand, reasons like societal status are valid for Indian society but Millenials do not find this reason worthy enough of bearing the ownership hassles of a vehicle. On the other hand, when consumers are buying vehicles due to reasons like mobility gap and authority over their commute, it is certainly an avoidable need if the existing commute problem can be solved.

We say the purchase of automobiles as an avoidable need. Quite ironical, isn’t it?

Let’s begin by discussing why it’s a need. The reasons are the talk of all metro towns every single day. As soon as someone steps out, after getting denied for an auto ride by many auto wallas, he starts walking the 2 km stretch to catch a bus to work, the broken infrastructure and poor connectivity to affordable commute are seen. He sprints and manages to reach the bus stop almost panting and sees the bus leaving. The next bus is scheduled to come to the bus stop only after 20 mins. “Sigh! Why can’t we have buses every 5 mins”, he thinks that availability is serious trouble. He waits for 20 minutes, tries to hop on the already overcrowded bus but fails. Tries again before the bus leaves the stop but doesn’t dare enough to risk his life by hanging at the bus door. Eventually, waits for the next bus while begging auto wallas all this time to take him to his destination. Somehow, manages to get into the next bus and reaches office only after the half-day is over because by now the traffic on the road has increased multifold. He gets frustrated and buys a vehicle the next day. This is a classic example of the prevailing mobility gap in India as even after having many commute options like public transport, private ride-share options and many more, some are unaffordable, some aren’t safe enough and some have unavailability issues. Thus, the lack of right mobility option paves the way for buying a personal vehicle.

So, obviously the dire need to buy a vehicle is there but consciously we should avoid buying private vehicles. Because if everyone in the country of a population of 135 crore buys a vehicle, the situation of Indian roads and traffic conditions are going to get deteriorated immensely. With a current total of over 20 crore vehicles on the road, there is hardly any space to drive on the roads and the pollution is increasing every passing day. So, the addition of private vehicles on the road isn’t going to help anyone.

“The total private vehicles move only about 4% of people but contribute to 20% of vehicular pollution and occupies 70% of road space.”

All in all, buying a private vehicle is not going to be the solution of above-mentioned problems as it will land us in the vicious circle of commute problem. To address the mobility gap, people start buying personal vehicles and then the infrastructure required for commute deteriorates further leaving the mobility issue unsolved. So if we are to fill the mobility gap, the only solution should either be asset sharing wherein different people utilize the asset at different times according to their need without burdening the roads or ride-sharing when people pool vehicles and commute.

The avoidable need for purchasing the automobiles in India can indeed become avoidable if we plunge to own our mobility instead of vehicles.