The Karnataka Government announced a ban on car pooling in the state's capital city Bengaluru, in keeping with the demands of taxi driver associations. The move comes despite perpetual complaints of Bengaluru traffic, unavailability of cabs, or exorbitant prices for short distances by residents of the Silicon Valley of India.
Karnataka Government's transport department advised residents of Bengaluru not to take rides from the carpooling apps like BlaBla car, Quick Ride among others.
Ride-hailing apps like BlaBla Car, Quickride, Rideshare, Commute Easy, and Carpool Adda have been running carpool services for those who want to share their ride with others for affordable and available rides.
Earlier, the taxi associations and had demanded that bike taxis be banned in Bengaluru, which the Karnataka government will bring under consideration. The taxi associations and the autorickshaw drivers' union recently conducted a Bengaluru bandh and submitted a list of demands to Karnataka transport minister Ramalinga Reddy.
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Bengaluru has the highest traffic density for any major city in the country. A city with a population of 11 million, Bengaluru has close to 12.5 million vehicles, which means a vehicle for every person living in the city.
The recent traffic gridlock has left many commuters on roads for hours on Bengaluru’s Outer Ring Road, which houses many IT parks and global investments.
Netizens were not happy with the decision and aggressively tweeted asking how this ban would benefit the commuters. "Would this lead to more vehicles, more pollution," said an X user, while another asked, "Won't it increase the traffic?"
Some blamed the Karnataka Government for favouring the Taxi association and ignoring the commuters at large. "Catering to taxi and auto wala vote banks," said a person reacting to the RTO decision. "This is because of extensive lobbying by the Taxi unions," said another.
“Cauvery or Carpooling, political will should be prioritized, not political compromise.” said another X user.
"World: "Let's carpool to make the world a better place, save resources and decrease pollution". The tech city of India: Ayyo, hum car pool ban karti." quipped another.
