Definition of an advanced city

 I came across a beautiful thought a few days ago attributed to the Mayor of Bogota and immediately related it to a news item that I read today. First that thought – 

“An advanced city is not one where even the poor use cars, but one where even the rich use public transport.”

The news item that appears in today’s HT reads – “ Automakers report brisk sales in November with major manufacturers achieving record sales.”

We can and should celebrate a booming economy and an ever growing affluent middle class. We can also celebrate easy access to credit and scaling up of lenders’ business. More profits would mean higher share prices of auto makers, their ancillaries and banks and NBFCs! But in this celebratory process, we must not lose sight of increasing pollution, congestion on roads, incidents of road rage and increasing import bill due to purchase of more oil! 

On the contrary, we should celebrate, every new metro line that’s being constructed and creation of metro network like Delhi in major cities, Mumbai being on road to achieving it. We should celebrate more advanced trains, more airports, cheaper airfares, better public transport infrastructure ( AC buses and locals, chartered bus service, cab pool services etc) .

The above view is neither socialist nor anti people. People should own cars, but drive it as a matter of luxury and leisure – on Sundays, holidays, family outings- and use public transport for day to day office and business travel. In the process, they can decongest roads, reduce air and noise pollutions, save on oil bill and above all, take care of their health as public transport necessarily entails some walking, climbing up the foot-over bridges and hence exercising! Win -win for everyone- public, industry and environment! 

The above is Singapore model, a city and nation that leads the world in all such noble initiatives.