Road space eaten away by parked vehicles

The traffic congestion has made the city to limp. But, is the growing vehicle population the only cause. NO. I do not think so.

What else is the root cause of the problem:
The bigger cause is the shrinking road space on account of parkings on both sides of the road.
For Eg: A few years back, Bus # 1 from Thiruvanmiyur to Thiruvottiyur used to take 20 to 30 minutes from Thiruvanmiyur to Mount road during peak hours. The bus used to be like a bullet train with no intermediate places to board (boarding/ alighting when the bus slows down) other than bus stops. Now, it is a limping dog as the entire stretch has got more vehicles and the roads have shrunk.

Who is responsible. Each and every one of us. Our present society seems to think that road space is for parking vehicles.
Let me illustrate with an example from my life. We are used to park our car in a car park within our house. The entire neighborhood looks as though we are idiots and some have even recommended us to convert the car parking into a commercial establishment and to park our car on the streets. They are of course recommending us in "good faith" so that we can make some money.
If this thought process continues, we are heading for a dangerous breakdown.

Who else is responsible:
Some bad elements within the enforcement is collecting bribes to allow this to happen. Looks like that they are collecting rental for public roads.
Have we not seen policemen (not all) walking from shop to shop in their neighborhood collecting Mamool. Their collection is very similar to a landlord collecting rent or a mafia don collecting hafta. Either way, the few corrupt policemen want the pubic roads to be used for parking so that they can get their rental. The other policemen who are good are unable to stop this as the law does not give them the tools to fight.

What are the options possible:

• Bottoms-up approach - Convince the residents that streets and roads are for driving vehicles and walking public. Will we accept, if our room is blocked with a big wall. We will not. But, we are allowing our houses to be blocked by these illegal parking and happily we also park and contribute to it.
• Tops-Down approach - Make ALL roads "NO PARKING ZONE" during peak hours "7 AM to 10 AM" and from "5 PM to 8 PM". Temporary exceptions can be given if the residents/ people who will benefit approach the government and pay rental. This too is only on exceptional cases and that too for limited time frame.