Question

Read the following design context: The city of Mumbai is facing a severe shortage of parking spaces. The problem is acute in south Mumbai where land is expensive and undeveloped land almost non-existent. A panel of experts consisting of city and town planners, transportation engineers and designers, economists, historians and policy makers has studied the problem carefully and has recommended a set of measures:
I. Start a free public bicycle program in which people are encouraged to use public transport for longer distances and shared common bicycles for shorter distances.
II. Allow people to download a mobile App which will allow vehicle owners to book parking spots up to one week in advance.
III. Ban vehicles with even registration numbers on the even days of the month, and odd registration numbers on odd days of the month.
IV. Make parking prohibitively expensive.
V. Build more multi-storied and underground parking complexes.
VI. Declare the whole of south Mumbai as a heritage district to prevent any further construction and limit vehicle entry by imposing toll.
VII. Design self-parking vehicles.
VIII. Create a car pooling mobile App that will connect people to share cars and reduce the number of cars on the road.
IX. Make the roads more pedestrian-friendly.
X. Institute a parking pricing mechanism which dynamically adjusts the cost of parking based on demand and supply.
Identify FOUR recommendations that will make the most impact in solving the parking problem.

• A. I, IV, VII & X
• B. II, III, V & IX
• C. I, IV, VII & VIII
• D. I, III, V & X

Hint:

For urban-parking questions, mix demand reduction (mode shift, access restrictions), supply increase (structured facilities), and price management (dynamic pricing).

Answer 1

The Correct Option is D

I (free public/shared bicycles):
Shifts short trips from cars to cycles, directly reducing parking demand.
III (odd–even entry rule):
Immediately cuts car volume by limiting daily access—large short-term relief.
V (build multi-storey/underground parking):
Adds new supply where land is scarce—addresses structural shortage.
X (dynamic parking pricing):
Prices curb/lot spaces by demand to target optimal occupancy, reducing cruising and allocating scarce supply efficiently.
Less effective/orthogonal items: II only manages reservations (redistributes, doesn’t add capacity), IV “prohibitively expensive” is blunt versus calibrated X, VII speculative, VIII relies on voluntary adoption, IX heritage/pedestrianization doesn’t target parking.
Hence the most impactful set is (D).