Bangalore is getting grid-locked in cars parked on the road

When we say encroachment, most people think of poor shanties (and rich bungalows) on lake beds. But there is a far more dangerous encroachment on that's going unpunished. It is the rich who are encroaching our roads with parking.

In the last few months, the number of people deciding that they have a right to park on the road outside their homes has increased dramatically. Look at areas in Indiranagar, New Tippasandra and Koramangala, and you'll see that most roads have become single file because people park outside their homes. Are their vehicles blocking traffic or causing inconvenience? Who cares? So what if the other half of the road is dug up? People will still park outside their homes and not shift an inch!

I'm not even talking about valet parking in these areas for customers. These are cars that have been parked because there is no parking inside the premises. It's become such a menace that in some areas, we see two lines of vehicles parked on either side. I doubt even ambulances or fire engines can cross some of these roads.

There should be a special heavy penalty on people parking huge vehicles like Tata Safari, Fortuners, XUV700, Thar, Volvo and Innovas around corners. You can hardly see incoming traffic in turns. If you can spend so much money buying a car, you better have parking inside your premises.

People will quickly make an argument about them paying taxes and having a right to this. I pay taxes as well, but I park inside my building within my alloted parking spots. I ask visitors to park in areas where they don't inconvenience others.

Even worse is that after the ruckus around towing in no parking areas, the rich have been emboldened to park anywhere, and pick up quarrels with anyone who questions them. Bangalore Traffic Police seems too stretched to do anything about this. And our political leaders have grand visions about building tunnel roads and flyovers, while letting this go unpunished.

In a year or so, I foresee that we will all be crawling on all roads because of unpunished parking. Unless these guys are fined now, and heavily, this will just grow. We'll have poeple dying because ambulances and fire engines are not able to get through and children being forced to spend additional hours in school buses because their buses are slowed to a crawl. But who cares? I have money, so I have a right to the road.

On a sadistic note, we should have a rule that if you park on the roads overnight, any damage to your car is your own responsibility, and will not be covered by insurance.