Saturday, April 28, 2012

Chaotic Roads - Traffic in India



I am sure there are numerous posts on this subject by Indians but are we doing anything about traffic problem?

First time I had visited Delhi and NCR region in Mar 2004 and did not realize traffic problem but when I returned back to this city in Year 2010 after my US stay, I could see how Delhi and surrounding region has become traffic chaos. Perhaps Delhi and NCR region has the best infrastructure in India but the problem is still the worst. Traffic problem in NCR cannot be contributed alone to infrastructure but it is due to bad or no traffic law enforcement (Specially Noida, Ghaziabad, Faridabad and Gurgaon region), bad traffic management and encroachment of public space. Here are my views on traffic situation in India.

Traffic jams and road accidents are very common News in India and any one hardly bother about minor accidents. You roam around in India and it will be hard to find even one car without a single scratch if it is a month old. Let’s understand what type of problems are seen in India due to high traffic

  • Pollution, this is a huge problem, we should start thinking what we are leaving behind for next generation. All developed nations are working towards reducing pollution, are Indians doing sufficient contribution? 
  • Loss of precious time – We lose our precious time in traffic, and every Indian is facing this problem. When we start driving from home to our destination, we add few extra hours considering we’ll find traffic jams. 100 Kms of distance is covered in 3 to 4 Hours.
  • Loss of invaluable fuel – Many countries economy is dependent on fuel; Indian Government spends most of its money in importing fuels. Fuel is limited and we are losing it in daily traffic jams.
  • Loss of money, when you lose time and fuel, you are losing your hard earned money
  • Road rages – Due to high frustration of Indian road traffic system, road rages are common now a day. Especially in NCR region, you will find this News every other day.
  • Loss of life – High unmanaged traffic leads to accidents and daily thousands of people die in road accidents. Sit back and think for a second, is there anything precious than your own life to be wasted in road accidents?
  • Emergency Condition to reach Hospitals, Airport, Railway station etc.
  • Loss of property – Road accident leads to loss of somebody’s property.

So what are the reasons we have huge traffic jams, highest road accidents in India. I’m listing down some of the reasons but this list can go on and on
  • No or little law enforcement.
  • Poor infrastructure
  • Wrong side driving
  • No lane driving.
  • Aged Vehicles and Overloading of vehicles (Goods & Passenger)
  • In some areas public transport is very poor
  • No or non-functional traffic signals.
  • Roadside encroachment. (I was surprised to see Monday market, Tuesday market etc. in Delhi roads. Each day you will find one or two roads are completely blocked by these markets in your neighborhood. To me it makes no sense to put a market and block the road completely)
  • Drunk Driving
  • Road side parking
  • No proper driving license system. Many of the drivers don’t even bother to take driving license.
  • Poor trafficking system with unequipped traffic officers.
  • Road sharing by all speed vehicles (Bicycle, pedestrians, motor bike, cars, rickshaw) – all share the same road, which leads to chaos and attracts accidents.

What can be done to improve this situation?
-       

  • Introduce driving rules as compulsory subject in schooling.
  • Re-Issue all driving license in the country only after individual pass written driving rules exam. ( I know it is very big task but we need to start somewhere)
  • Divide all traffic laws into 3 categories Fatal, Major and Minor and impose heavy fines in each of this category. E.g. A rule is “not to drive on wrong side” and if anyone breaks this rule impose heavy fine say 10000/- and provide a percentage of fine to duty officer. It will ensure both the parties are careful and alerted.
  • India has huge pedestrian and cycle population so clear footpaths should be must.
  • Ensure functional signaling system.
  • Lanes should be divided into speed category. 10-30Km/Hr, 30-50 Km/Hr and 50-80Km/Hour and lane driving should be followed very strictly.
  • No bus/auto stoppage on crossing roads. This creates a huge traffic jam problem when the bus is stopped and other side traffic is green.
  • Roadside stoppage should be avoided.
  • If vehicle is not in good condition and it breaks down in the middle of road, it should attract a huge fine along with towing charges.
  • No repair work should start in the middle of road, rather it should be towed to the side and then look into the problem in vehicle.
  • Overloading of vehicle should be punishable act and should attract huge fine. It put people in danger.
  • Equipped traffic officers with latest technology to track and monitor traffic and vehicles.
  • Introduce Multilevel parking system. (Not the one recently MCD opened in few New Delhi areas), these multilevel parking should be in good numbers and approachable from public transport system.
  • Have a separate area for hawkers.
  • It must be compulsory to allocate parking space (in good percentage) within the premises while building a new commercial property. Similarly it must be compulsory in housing societies. There are many housing society in Delhi and NCR which do not have car parking space and owners park their cars on streets. (This rule can be looked into area wise)

This list can grow exponentially; contact me if you have authority to improve traffic in India and interest to know how to improve traffic system in India. I’ve tons of ideas with minimum infrastructure cost.

Some traffic statistics



We need to wake up and need a countrywide awareness program to implement improvement in Indian traffic system before it is too late. It will take years to change the driving culture and train Indian to drive in a civilized manner.


Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)