Yesterday, on 14th Feb, I had been to Metropolitan Mall and figured out that they were charging Rs 100 for parking. I was taken by surprise, but then started thinking is it right to charge exorbitant price for parking? Aren't we taking too much advantage of "free market economy"?
Well I got the following definition about "free market economy" from Wikipedia:
"A free market is a market that is free of government intervention and regulation, besides the minimal function of maintaining the legal system and protecting property rights"
In a free market, the price is primarily determined by demand-supply equilibrium. In the above case, the supply of parking area is limited in a place like Gurgaon. We also have the problem of limited public transport within Gurgaon. This forces people to take their own vehicles and give whatever price charged at parking. In some cases, people take the risk of parking on “Non-Parking Zone”. Well, I won’t put the complete blame on those people. We need to analyze the alternative as well to ensure that neither the parking charges are high, nor people go against the law to park at Non-Parking Zone.
1st Question: Do we have enough public transport in Gurgaon? The answer is NO. 2nd Question: Do we have enough parking facility provided by Government? ( I am sure they are intelligent enough to understand the fact that in the absence of Public Transport, more no of personal vehicles will be on road) Again, the answer is NO. In such a situation, I am a little uncomfortable to apply the concept of Free Economy in the case of infrastructure which is mostly influenced by Government. I think in the above case, parking charges should come under Government Regulation in the absense of sufficient alternative infrastructure.
My 2 cents. I would appreciate your comments on it!!!
1 comment:
Parking is one of those overly ignored problem by the govt. And I can't really blame them, they have been able to ignore so many higher priority items that missing this is plain too easy.
As an entrepreneur, I see this as an opportunity where someone can come up with a service to fix such a problem.
Options could be either a better semi-public transport such a carpooling, or some innovation in providing alternate parking.
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