There have been a lot of posts about how bad the Bangalore traffic is
and how the bad and deteriorating road infrastructure is responsible
for this. But one major factor is seldom mentioned. It is the human
touch.
Here is the problem. Most drivers/riders in Bangalore do
not have a traffic sense, do not know the traffic rules and do not give
a damn about others. They think they are the king of the road. They are
also highly impatient and arrogant with a huge ego. :-)
Now
the above statement may sound very harsh but I can find no other
explanation for the way people behave on the roads. Here is a small
subset of things that you can see on Bangalore roads:
•
People change lanes at will. They do not bother who is behind or
alongside them. It is the other person’s responsibility to take evasive
action.
• In two lane roads people drive with their vehicles
occupying half of either lane. This way they can prevent anyone from
overtaking them on either lanes or switch to which ever lane is faster
easily.
• No one seems to stop after the green light turns red at
signals. If you want to stop when the light turns read, do so at your
own risk. There is a high possibility that the vehicle behind you will
ram right into you!
• People can turn to any direction at will. I
have seen a lot of vehicles especially busses turn left from the right
most lanes or vice versa.
• Turn indicators are just an
unnecessary accessory. People use if for fun. They turn on the right
indicator to turn left and are amused at the reaction of others.
• People do not respect the one way signs on roads. They travel in either direction.
•
Normally vehicles should keep left in India. But this does not apply to
Bangalore. People travel on the right too especially if there is a
median on the road and they join the road in the opposite direction.
There will not be bothered to move in the right direction and take a U
turn.
• Nobody knows what “Give way” or “Stop and Go” means.
Nobody cares who has the right of way in an intersection. It is the
meanest or one with the biggest who gets the right of way.
•
People can not move is a straight line and at a constant speed. They
like to keep moving sideways and accelerate and decelerate constantly.
Like
I said this is just a small set of crazy things you can see on
Bangalore roads. And it is not that a small portion of the
drivers/riders are behaved this way. It is the majority! And I see
these things happen daily in my commute to office.
I do not know
how the other places in India are, but Bangalore and Chennai are two
cities I have lived in. Both are just as bad. I do not see this
changing even if the road infrastructure improves drastically.
Why
are people like this? I do not have a definitive answer. But maybe it
is because you can get a license in India very easily. In most places
you do not have to write the mandatory written test or do the practical
test. For a small bribe you can get a license even without being in the
country! The problem is you can not get a license even if you pass both
the tests without the bribe. People always choose the easier way and as
a result never know or bother about the traffic rules.