THANKS to the blind submission to the market orthodoxy, the production, consumption and sales of automobiles have received extraordinary boost. According to a recently released report of the State Bank of Pakistan, the worth of bank loans and finance for automobiles was Rs22.1 billion during the last six months of 2004. Trends show that the same impetus will sustain in the current period.

A sizable portion of these loans has been released for high value cars (Rs1.5 million per unit and above). This figure is startling because when compared with home financing, it is about 2½ times higher than the total loans/finances released for house purchase or construction. Obviously the major recipient of the automobiles are large cities such as Karachi. The mega polis is experiencing an annual rise of 13 per cent in automobiles. With the various car manufacturers all set to capitalize on this feverish trend, no visible change seems to be appearing in the near future. Impacts of this rising activity however need to be understood in their true perspective.

There is no denying the fact that motorized/mechanical transport is one of the vital inventions of the 20th century that has immensely benefited the people. However sensible societies made use of these technologies in an appropriate manner to maximize the access of the service to different cross sections. It is for this reason that most developed countries established a cheap and easy to avail network of public transport for the benefit of common people. For example, in London, a highly sophisticated underground railway system was laid down as early as in the 1910s and after. Added upon by various modes of transport with the passage of time, the London Underground still remains the backbone of urban public transportation in that city.

While its fare levels appear to be high, it is subsidized greatly by the state to render people efficiently mobile without hindrance of affordability. Despite possessing a high car ownership rate, London remains a city with friendly and accessible transportation modes for its entire population. In contrast, the US invested heavily in building streets, roads, freeways and highways to connect different remotely distributed settlements. To make people accessible, the conditions of acquiring and using a car were made optimum. The key objective was to facilitate easy, affordable and comfortable commuting for all the citizens without discrimination along income brackets.

In visible departure from these conceptually worth emulating approaches, cities and towns in Pakistan appear to be completely taken over by supply driven market practices. Car manufacturers have emerged as an all powerful lobby to affect the industrial and business policies in their favour. By spreading tentacles into the financial and administrative circles involved in decision making, car manufacturers have preponderated upon other similar stakeholders such as importers of cheap re-conditioned cars.

The local potential for car manufacturing has been completely demolished by the influence of this lobby. Many successful pilot projects by local technologists and entrepreneurs had to be shelved due to the influence of vested interests in the automobiles industry. With the government hell bent to promote consumerist traditions, car manufacturers-– bankers nexus is flourishing to produce four wheelers that can be regarded as a luxury for this poverty ridden nation.

It is obvious that the rise in automobiles completely favours the regime in more than one ways. Increase in cars automatically raise the consumption of petroleum products. These products have an exponentially rising trend in prices due to an overall rise in the international market as well as the high rate of in-built government levies. The indirect taxation on petroleum alone is a point of satisfaction for the government for its large scale contribution to the taxation pool. In other words, more cars shall ensure higher revenues for government even under lean periods. It is the common people who have to face the consequences of this short sighted policy tool. Rise in petroleum prices has a direct impact on the prices of all major goods and services. Passenger fares, electricity, essential food items, agricultural products, construction materials and all the important commodities become expensive with the addition of transportation cost factors. For low income urban dwellers, this raise in prices is extremely difficult to manage because the wages and real incomes do not rise in the same trend.

Thus the common man – who is not the least interested in this spiraling automobile race – routinely experiences a down slide in life style. Even the most basic necessities of life become inaccessible for a sizable chunk of population. On the other hand, the rich and powerful are least affected. Their real incomes normally rise under snowballing effect on speculative undertakings. Automobile consumerism can lead to a dangerous socio economic divide which is wedging the poor apart from the middle and high income groups.

Studies by the Karachi Development Authority (now defunct) in the 1990s revealed that the cars occupied more than two third of the road space and served a fraction of the commuters. In contrast, public buses and mini buses occupied less than one third of the road space and moved about two third of the total passenger load. While no recent statistics have been released, these observations show that not much change has taken place. Probably the car to public bus ratio has increased. The prevalence of more cars on the roads create unwanted traffic jams, slow down the operating velocities of the vehicles and lead to gross inefficiencies in the traffic management. The commuting time greatly increases particularly for those travelling by public transport. It must also be remembered that the emanating heat from the vehicles continuously rises creating unbearable impacts in various urban areas, particularly in the city centres. Another concern is the poor network of roads and streets. The net length of roads seems to have stagnated in large cities.

While cars are rising annually at a rate of 13 percent according to conservative estimates, the total road length is estimated to be still around 8000 km for Karachi. Poor maintenance, delayed repair works, bad quality of construction and absence of essential support functions are common issues related to road management. There are many focal locations which attract commuters from various neighbourhoods. However the access roads and links offer extremely few choices. Many neighbourhoods have only one access point/road to link them to the adjoining locations. Among other ills, the recurring congestion on the link streets and road pose a perpetual problem. Glossy cars also act as a means of social divide. Less privileged continue to aspire for having it. If they cannot access ownership of their choices, they drop into frustrations or even resort to unfair means to acquire them.

Haphazard land use of the city adversely affects the movement of the cars. Ideally the peak hour flows move towards work locations from residential neighbourhoods during mornings and vice versa in the evenings. This format often allowed optimum utilization of streets/roads. According to prior understanding of the traffic densities, motorists could decide about the precautions for avoiding high volumes of traffic. This basic respite has simply vanished due to ill-directioned spread of commercial and business activities and the rising number of motor cars. Peak and off peak hour flows appear to be the same. Normally the rising cars are directed through appropriately developed routes that facilitate options to reach the destinations.

By-passes, ring roads, link loops and similar axial arteries are planned and developed to maximize the freedom of automobile movement. This helps in making driving a happy experience. In our case, the episode of driving in the city becomes a most stressful event. Presence of young drivers who are in high number and resort to reckless driving again render roads as dangerous places.

The mindless lamb trot for mass producing cars need a thorough re-assessment. Public investment and support must be obtained for developing efficient and comfortable public transport system with optimum flexibility. It may also be made affordable to masses even if some subsidy is to be extended by the state. To do the minimum, priority must be assigned to public transport for the benefit of common people. It may happen that after the level of service improves, cities may also start using public transport facilities. Under any circumstances, the rise in the private cars is no answer to transportation woes!