Road Rash.

Hello there!                                                                                                 25-April-2015

Hope you guys had a good week.

The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.

 - Hans Hofmann

Well in today's blog we want to talk about the growing traffic concerns in India, which has become a never ending issue, as the title suggests it is definitely about a road rash  here!

Traffic is nothing but increase in population. 

In this busy world ,transport has become the key to almost all tasks ,that we carry out on a daily basis, be it going to work or eating, getting groceries the list is endless, the first highlight of the activity would be the distance that has to covered and the time taken.

Many people say India is the only place where distance is calculated in time! It may sound hilarious but that is the fact.

let’s look at the statistics, when we just searched about this in the internet we found that there are 18.10million units of vehicles which are only domestic vehicles, well the next question that we must ask yourself is that do we have the roads for these vehicles, and the people who own these vehicles are they following the rules set by the RTO (Regional Transport office)?

We all know the answer, We don't say it is a complete no, but it’s definitely a partial no!

After talking about the rule book, let’s look at the condition of our roads, first the positive side is that our national highways at least the majority of the ones are well maintained and are in good shape for interstate transport ,help promoting tourism and easy commuting of goods and services throughout the country.

The city roads or we can call it the roads that helps you do what you want in  city are in a bad shape, the root of the problem is the design of these roads, which were designed for a traffic of smaller scale ,may not for motor vehicles at all!

Our kings had the concept of planting trees on either sides of the roads so that it would help people relax when they used to travel, but when those routes have become the ring roads that connect a major IT hubs! The modern Government decided to widen the roads and these trees were decided to be chopped off ,thus creating an imbalance in the ecosystem.

                            

If we look at the 4 metros of India 15 years ago, we know that there is a huge change in the scenario when you were driving then and when you drive now, when it comes to Bengaluru the 5th metro city, we never knew what is a traffic jam, but now it has become so common that people talk about it in radio like a weather report! This is very sad and demotivating.

The traffic condition is really horrifying in the city. Creating chaos everywhere. 

The number of vehicles on the road has crossed the threshold limit. 

This is causing many problems. One such is pollution; people are breathing poisonous Suspended Particulate Matters, which is causing respiratory disorders  

We must all accept that if we could intelligently work as a team, this problem can be minimised, firstly, we as citizens need to develop the habit of car-pooling which will definitely decrease the car population, it’s sad to see big cars driven on roads with only the person driving it !

Driving alone is totally unproductive, the trend is like the famous economic concept called the Band wagon goods, which explains about consumer behaviour, who but things just because others are buying it.

Our roads need to be improved big time, the construction of flyovers should be increased and completed swiftly ,the metro train projects taken up in Bengaluru  is seriously ,running below par, it should be escalated and completed ,we are happy about the successful metro and monorail projects in Delhi and Chennai.

So if we take the India as a whole the field of domestic roads almost remains the same except for some cities in particular.

We as citizens should definitely follow the rules strictly and stop creating nuisance by giving vehicles to juveniles, a major havoc in many cities, please stop giving heavy powered mopeds and bikes to high school going kid, road safety should be though in schools and awareness should be inculcated in all students.

In a year over a lakh people are losing lives in Road traffic accidents and many more injured this can be stopped for sure ,by strict rules which has to be imposed if not implemented ,more strength should be given to the traffic police personnel ,and the penalty amount should be a lesson to the violator ,and there must be more transparency in the police department too, drink and driving cases should be imprisoned.

Planning is everything very essential. The Government should ensure proper planning procedures on traffic management. The current day scenario is very pathetic. No proper roads no planning whatsoever. A proper forecast has to be done for the future. 

Deep introspection with significant changes in the management style is very essential. The people have to co-operate with the Government and understand the issue. If planned effectively for the future, definitely will reduce the stress and problems. 

Let’s hope we will bet roads to commute, let’s start and spread this awareness among the people of this great country ,unity is strength.

   

 Living with hope

Tejus R.S and  Harish Murthy