I stay in Bangalore. I feel that the traffic in Bangalore is one of the worst in the world. People are very disorganized in their driving. In my opinion the kind of people who top the list in senseless driving are Bus Drivers and Auto rickshaw drivers. The former are careless because they have bigger vehicles and still believe in’might is right’ and the latter are basically not educated properly on road sense.
The other day while riding my bike this auto swerved in front of me and braked to a hault, so I applied my brakes, as there was no other way out. The only problem being the sand on the road and as was expected the bike just slid with the wheels locked and I hit straight into the auto. Fortunately nothing much happened to me. The crash guard for my bike was bent and his auto was dented at the back. This turned out into an argument as usual but later on both of us just walked away as we realized it was pointless. This is something I have noticed happening quite a few times. The reason being that people cut across lanes and even yellow lines at times not realizing what speed the oncoming traffic is coming at. Even if there is not yellow line, the rider should either cross the road and maintain a speed higher than that of the oncoming traffic(this is generally impossible as most of the vehicles sold here are not capable of picking up speed that fast or even the drives are not capable of driving that well) or the best option being waiting for sometime till there is no oncoming traffic and then cross.
This also happens when auto drivers are driving in the center of the road and the passenger decides that he needs to get off right there, so what does the driver do.swerve to the left and stop. That is so immature. Auto drivers need to be educated on sensible driving and road laws a lot before their licenses are issued. Talking about licenses, a lot of times I have seen that these auto drivers get their licenses so easily. Some of the RTO inspectors take a bribe to get these drivers their licenses and some just don’t feel that they have a job to perform. So ultimately we have a bunch of auto drivers who just keep forgetting that there are other vehicles on the road. This is kind of the same approach a bus driver has. He probably feels that he is safe in a large vehicle and even if he cuts lanes or swerves in front of another driver, the later has no other choice but to get of his way. There is also another reason for this, these drivers do not own any of these buses and so things like a dent or broken lights and glass just mean more expense for the government.
One wise decision that the government has made was to stop given permits to any more auto drivers. This is good as they are already enough of them on the road and we really do not need more. The need to educate the lower class of drivers on the road and also a few from the middle and higher class as well. This has to be made compulsory with probably a computer test or something. In the number of accidents that I have seen, I feel that is more the fault of the person crossing the road rather than the person moving on the road. For example, once while riding to college in the morning on my bike, this girl just ran across the road and stood right in front of me. I obviously couldn’t brake in that short a time frame and knocked her down. Luckily much happened to her. But I was still shaken up by what happened. I gave her a lecture on how she should be careful. But then it doesn’t make sense for people to learn by their mistakes because sometimes it could be there last time on the road.
Once the education bit is over then the police should move in to control the traffic. Things like following lane discipline, yellow lines or medians on all main roads, traffic signals at all junctions irrespective of how scarcely used they might be. Even things like jay walking should be introduced. This would make a lot of difference to the basic flow of traffic. I feel that this would reduce traffic jams to a big extent as well. The police need to realize that they are not on the road to try and make money. About 95% of the police on the road are only out to catch a driver who doesn’t have an emission test certificate or insurance so that they can collect a bribe from them and not because the driver is not obeying rules. This is a very sick attitude. A lot of times I have seen police taking bribes from lorry drivers to let them pass through the city roads where there are not permitted to drive. Even drivers from other states who do not know the local language are harassed for money for no reason whatsoever. I just can’t seem to understand why this should happen when we all belong to one country. Fine if you need to check for documents, why check his car and his family as well if you have a doubt at least that way you can avoid terrorism. But not what the police do. Finally what happens is that the people who are actual terrorist getaway across state borders and the innocent are hassled by the police.
So what I have concluded is, the people need to be educate, the police need to know what their duties are(that is not to collect bribes and to do their duties instead) and finally a bit of expenditure on methods to guide traffic. From our side as the public we need to be more responsible and set a good example for others. Start in a small way, check a friend when he does something wrong. Drive patiently, and let the old saying “live and let live” still hold good.