In Pune, the traffic light is like a ornament...just there to light up.....not to be paid much heed too....Lets consider a classic case of a group of motorists waiting at a red light....one or two renegades will blow the light and take off....even if there is still a solid 90 secs for the light to go green....next type of specimens are those who "crawl"...meaning move an inch forward against every second counting down on the timer...so by the time the light goes green they are already halway into the intersection...then there are those specimens who take off with about 10 secs left..do these 10 secs of not waiting make their life any better?...what difference is 10 secs going to make in wherever they want to reach??..
THE WRONG RIGHT
Illustrated above on the right is the most common, hopelessly careless and completely wrong way of taking a right turn...It never seems to amaze me as to how anyone can anyone be so daft so as to take such a risk....as I have shown its very obviously a death trap...While the illustration on the left is the correct way to take a right turn...not too difficult is it??...
Another classic case of stpidity is talking on the cellphone while riding/driving....Who prompts these nitwits to take such risks beats me!...I have seen people riding motorbikes with their cellphones tucked in between their ears and shoulders..heads tilted to one side...and talking away to glory....dont they realise that they are endangering other peoples' lives besides their own??...is a phone call more important than others' and our own well being??
I can list out countless other small and little traffic violations going on everyday around us all the time..to name a few...from seemingly innocuos things like double parking or using high beam while night driving to more serious ones like driving from the opposite side in a one way street or not using indicators or hand signals while taking turns or overtaking....I think this is all a result of inadequete training and the citizens' blatant disregard for authority of any kind.....the only way to bring about a rennaissance in this matter is to impose strict fines and put stringent rules into place for traffic violaters....we as a people have always needed an iron hand to put us to task...and its about time that someone donned the mantle and brought about a sea change in the traffic situation in our metros....500 vehicles get registered in Pune alone everyday....You do the maths....
To sum up, students from Symbiosis Institute of International Business recently conducted a study about breaking of traffic norms in the city(The Times of India, 21st April, 2006)..Their findings were that....75% riders flouted the compulsary helmet rule....there was blatant no parking violations...triple seat driving...talking on the cellphone while driving..the works... 16% of two wheelrers, 9% of Three wheelers and 5% of four wheelers violated the traffic light rule...If you ask me these must be percentages of the people who obeyed it!!..We are headed towards total motoring disaster if we dont pull up our socks...Today..NOW!
1 comment:
Believe me gaurav, Pune is really bad. You have to be here to realize. The traffic in Delhi has been steadily improving over the last few years since it had crossed a threshold of sorts where it was impossible to drive. Pune is lurking close to the throttle now. We're just waiting for somebody to push us on the better side.
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