Cars are subsidized hogs

Kashmir Times: "Cars are the most inefficient, expensive and polluting mode of road transport ever invented. In India, their ownership is under 10 for every 1,000 people. Yet they occupy the lion's share (75 percent) of road space but meet only about 5 percent of the travel demand. Buses, by contrast, occupy 5-7 percent of space but deliver 45-60 percent of commuter trips.

This is unacceptably iniquitous. But the government refuses to recover the full cost of ownership and use of cars. The cost of the land on which roads and flyovers are built, and the expense of their construction and maintenance, add up to several thousands of rupees per square metre. But car owners get to use them virtually for free. "