ParkingPuzzles 

CHENNAI spans a few hundred square kilometres. Of this, 25 per cent comprises roads, a third of which are class-B streets, where one is authorized to park a vehicle. The rest are national and state highways. The vehicle population today is about a million and demand more than 10 sq km of road shoulders for overnight parking. So, the million dollar question is: Where do you park a four-wheeler? The possibilities and likely solutions are examined here.

Private apartment complexes prohibit visitors from parking in the immediate vicinity. The average family has two plus vehicles, which most complexes cannot accommodate. Tomorrow, visiting vehicles will not be allowed to enter the mohallas. It is not an exaggeration, considering that many colonies have already tokenised the entry and exit of their own vehicles. Thus, people will be obliged to station their vehicles wherever they can and cover the rest of the distance by foot, or whatever, to their homes or workplaces. Say, a spot is found at the Marina, near the Gandhi Statue. Park the four-wheeler there and take a train home to Tambaram, a southern suburb. Park and ride is by now an accepted practice.

Similarly one can leave their automobiles at Arakkonam and commute to work to Anna Salai, Chennai's downtown. It would merely be a matter of detail that one lives in Mylapore.

One can now afford to park a car on Chennai's important shopping district, Pondy Bazaar, on the sidewalks. If two rows of semi-permanent shops can stand on the pavements, so can a few more odd vehicles. It does not matter further if the roads are to be blocked to make room for parking lots. For example, a carriage way in Usman Road can be closed to create a thin, but long, parking lot. Some time ago, New Delhi's Baird Road was blocked for the much-needed parking space . If Mount Road were blocked on either side of the LIC Building, there would be space to park thousands of vehicles. And what about the snarling traffic on road itself? It could be diverted to Nellore in the north and by ferry through Mahabalipuram in the south.

Big garages could also be built at Neyveli and Nagapattinam solely for parking purposes. Commuters can be brought to the city by bus, cycle-rickshaws, water lorries and hovercraft.

One solution that has not been given a fair try is vertical expansion -- above or below the ground. Imagine a ten-storeyed parking lot below the Central Station.

While state-of-the-art solutions are being seriously discussed, the reasons for dismissing the today's practices ought to be stated. The parking meters are negative and only meant to deter. In any case 15 X 10 quadrangles cannot be materialized out of the meters. They do not add kindly to the city landscape. That is why they are not seen even in progressive metros such as Mumbai or New Delhi!

There are similar arguments against tow-away zones. They do not offer new parking spaces. To add an insult to the injury, they have to organize room for the vehicles being towed away. If that space were offered up for parking in the first place, there would be no complaints regarding the tow-crane.