I Swear

Yes, I swear. My parents will be ashamed that their daughter actually swears. The words rush out of my mouth while driving (currently on Bangalore Roads, but I guess that will happen on any road in our country).
Every morning I decide to be calm on the roads, not to honk, not to speed unnecessarily be patient. But within five minutes of being on the road, I loose all this determination.

The roads are absolute chaotic. No one following any lane discipline, no overtaking rules being followed, absolutely zero parking sense, talking on the phone while driving (though the usage of handsets has increased). The culprits mainly being the cab drivers, company buses drivers, public bus drivers, autos drivers, the cyclists, the jaywalkers etc. on the road. The situation is so bad that the moment I get on to the roads, I become like everyone else. It’s literally getting into the rat race. I get aggressive, not wanting anyone to overtake me, not wanting to give space to anyone. Why is there is so much impatience on the roads? Or is it something else? The other day, my colleague and I were discussing about this situation and the cause for all these. And we thought it’s the education, the minimum importance that we give to civic sense in our education. I remember being taught the way to cross a road (look right, then left, then right and then cross the road) and that ends there. What else is taught to the children these days ( I seriously don’t know the answer for that). But then again, is this something that needs to be taught? Should it not come from within us?

I guess, the traffic situation is the most visible thing about our attitude. We keep comparing ourselves with other countries and make a common statement – Our country will never change. When will we treat ourselves as a citizen and do something to change this?

I certainly think that it is entirely within us to change this situation on the roads. How? (Am taking a risk of sounding stupid here J ). What will people fear the most on the roads? I guess the fear of an authority. That already is in place in form of the traffic police. So where is the problem? I guess this authority is either not a strong one or not enough. I would go with the second option. The traffic police I guess are getting less corrupt and taking more effective steps. But I guess the number of traffic police is not enough to control the mammoth traffic on the roads. Why not we do something about this? Firstly, we as individuals have a discipline in our driving. Secondly, help out the traffic police by volunteering to control traffic at places with huge volume of traffic. People violating traffic rules – small to big violations should be fined on the spot so that they are not repeated again.

Whatever steps are taken, major responsibility lies on each one of us on the roads. If each one of us is disciplined, even if there is a huge traffic, jams and deadlocks on the roads can be avoided.