Trenchant

Lets conduct our traffic ourselves

I start my bike at home, many apprehensions in my mind as I change gears, zip through the lanes and reach the main road that I take to office. Honking bikers, listlessly parked autos, signal jumpers, brimming city buses, reckless overtaking, lane switching, driving on the wrong side of the road, careless pedestrians crossing roads, open and overflowing manholes, bumps, speed breakers (official and unofficial)… the list seems endless but still doesn’t seem to complete my apprehension-list.

Welcome to the Hyderabad traffic.

All of us have always thought that somebody is not doing something right that our driving experiences are such bad.

• The roads are bad; it must be the Roads & Buildings department that’s to blame.

• There are path holes, roads dug and cut, it must be the Telecom department that never cares if the road was new or old before digging right in the middle.

• The manholes overflow, it must be the Sewage board that has either not designed the drainage well or it hasn’t cleaned it up in a long time.

• There are heaps of garbage by the road side, it must be the Municipality that is lazy.

• Autorikshaws carry beyond their capacity, seven people in place of three; most drivers do not know traffic rules, you suspect many don’t posses a valid driving license; it must the Road Transport Authority that’s responsible clearly.

• There are dangling cables over poles on dividers, some of them cut and strewn on the road, motorists might skid and fall; it must the irresponsible cable companies.

• Street lights seldom work; it might be the electricity department or the Municipality again.

• In the name of watering the grass on the dividers, a tractor pulls a tanker emptying water less on to the grass and more on to the road, to add to it, the tractor blocks traffic in the busiest of the hours; it must be the urban development department that doesn’t care.

• People don’t follow traffic rules; it must be the traffic police who don’t do a thing to educate people.

The more we saw things being wrong, the more we thought some one isn’t doing it right. A majority of us think, nothing is right so we’ll do the wrong too. Two wrongs don’t make a right.

Even if you were a sincere guy, you wanted to follow the traffic rules, not cross lines, not honk or switch lanes; it seems increasingly burdensome with all the roadies who don’t care a damn, all that they want it’s to drive on carelessly. It’s frustrating to be wanting to be sincere but not being. It’s easier to choose other wise, join the others, and be one in the many.

I pity the plight of the odd traffic police. It’s a difficult job, no doubts on that. People have become reckless, overpowered the authority of the cop who once conducted the traffic as an orchestra. The traffic police are made fun of; they collect bribes as less as 5 Rupees and let you go clean. That’s their reputation. But some of them still struggle long hours on the roads, still conduct a creaking orchestra, thinking that at least there wont be noise if not fine music. Now we are made to feel the traffic police are just incapable.

Contrary to normal people’s ways of thinking, that controlling traffic was the duty only of the traffic police, I saw this one guy who thought it would be better to get down to business and do the traffic control job himself than to blame it on every one else. No he isn’t a cop, looks to me like a just-outa-school hippo guy with dark goggles on, in a tee shirt and jeans. Seemed to me like a rich kid, came in a BMW. When I saw him first helping the traffic cop, I thought he might be doing it to ease traffic at the busy hour. When I saw him do that the next day, I thought this rich kid has found a real good pastime for himself, something that’s helping us all with the traffic. I saw him the day after, and after, it’s been a few weeks already. He’s not there for fun or neither is it for a pastime I realized. He has taken it seriously. He turned up every day. He arranged for barricades, sign boards. And not just stopping at that, he manages the traffic in full energy, shouts at people who cross the stop line, explains them its wrong, makes people do it right. The traffic police might have been caught in awe. The otherwise very dull looking traffic constable at the junction looks all revved up. I sincerely appreciate the effort of this young man, wish I knew more about him. If each one of us kindles the same kind spirit in us, the roads will sure be better places to exist on.

No, I’m not saying all of us should control traffic. Then, who would drive? Let’s be good citizens, to start with let’s be good drivers. Let’s rear a driving culture.

Let’s do these while we’re on the road:
If we’re driving:

• Let’s follow rules. They’re very simple as they are, the traffic rules.

• Let’s not jump signals, saving those 30 odd seconds won’t really save us a fortune.

• Let’s not honk at the cyclist, at the guy whose bike goes silent as he hurries to catch the green-signal-momentum, at the old guy who loves driving slow.

• Let’s leave free-left free, the left-goers needn’t wait for a green signal.

• Let’s not drive on the wrong side, that’s meant for our fellows who’re coming while we’re going!

• Let’s overtake only from the right side, after we’re sure we can.

• Let’s choose one lane and be on it, watch and switch.

• Let’s wear helmets, after all it’s for our heads, valuable some of them. Helmets keep off the smoke and dust too.

• Let’s fasten  seat belts if we’re driving a car. Most cars these days come with them.

• Let’s put the phone to silent, if we cant afford to, lets pull over and finish a quick ‘I’ll call you once I reach’ call, but never talk on the phone being behind the steering.

• Let’s not smoke while we’re driving, our vehicles smoke so much already.

• Let’s use the indicators to signal we wish to take a turn. It’s more than just commonsense.

• Let’s not park where it says ‘no-parking’. It might need a bit of patience to find a decent place to park but by doing that you’d have made a pleasant difference to all of us.

• Let’s drive a bit longer to find the U-turn. It might cost us time and fuel but we’d have the satisfaction of having done it right.

If we’re walking:

• Let’s use the pathways or the footpaths to walk on.

• Let’s wait for the pedestrian signal turn green before we cross the road.

• Let’s use the zebra crossing to cross the road. The Zebras are going extinct, lets show some respect!

• Let’s wave out to the motorists signaling that we’re crossing, they would sure give us that space.

We needn’t be great but we can sure be good. Being good is difficult. But you’ll see, it’s easier than being bad, its better too. Let’s drive better, let’s enjoy driving on.