Growing and Dying

The common mantra in business is "You grow or You die." While this is a ripe topic for a philosophical discussion, wanton growth without planning or controls can also lead to death. India, a country with four times the population of the U.S.A. but with less than half its space, simply cannot accommodate large numbers of cars and trucks- space is a premium. People who should have invested capital in building modern, robust, and convenient public transportation are instead building and selling automobiles- whose sales are growing at rates of 20% to 30% or more. This is a disaster on many fronts- the opportunity cost of space and time, pollution, and others. But another consequence is the number of accidents. Comparisons with China should be done carefully- China has a slightly larger population than India, but its land mass is almost as large as that of the continental U.S.- China has space to build wide roads.

India Steadily Increases Its Lead in Road Fatalities - NYTimes.com: "India overtook China to top the world in road fatalities in 2006 and has continued to pull steadily ahead, despite a heavily agrarian population, fewer people than China and far fewer cars than many Western countries.

While road deaths in many other big emerging markets have declined or stabilized in recent years, even as vehicle sales jumped, in India, fatalities are skyrocketing — up 40 percent in five years to more than 118,000 in 2008, the last figure available.

A lethal brew of poor road planning, inadequate law enforcement, a surge in trucks and cars, and a flood of untrained drivers have made India the world’s road death capital. As the country’s fast-growing economy and huge population raise its importance on the world stage, the rising toll is a reminder that the government still struggles to keep its more than a billion people safe."