Every time there is a new car or a bike launch self righteous social defenders go up in arms protesting that we don't have the facilities or the infrastructure to support the amount of traffic that our country is starting to see. when big luxury cars and sports cars costing an arm and a leg come into the country there is another hue and cry. no one protests when fifty year old relics from the two world wars ply our roads daily. no one protests when people die in there tens when some pre historic bus first driven by the Flintstones family dives in a gorge with all aboard. neither does any one protest when a tractor with a trailer attached does a very good imitation of the titanic. sure when some good-for-nothing poor rich boy crashes his BMW all the social activists come out of the wood work like termites out of the wood work.
I'm not complaining about the activists or protecting the poor rich sods. my problem with the whole system of blame games is that no one really really tries to correct the real problem. the problem that no on in the country really wants to face that we Indian have road manners better suited to the bullock cart era. even then we might have the highest road fatalities in the country. the majority cant read road and highway signs, no one understands the different lines on the road. most of all people don't have common sense or observe common curtsies on the street. rage is more prevalent than than good Samaritans. part of the problem is insignificant infrastructure, but i believe that that too is not that big a problem, at least for now. we are the Seventh largest nation on the planet so there is no shortage of space, its not efficiently managed but there is no shortage. we still have the largest and the fastest growing road net work so that too is not a problem. the quality is a little suspect, that will improve only with time and with creating solution for a lot of different problems like corruption and red tape.
but again the biggest problem is still one no one really focuses on. people don't have Road Ethics. pedestrians walk on the road, jay walking is rampant, not just in the cities but on expressways. people jump the Aramco barriers with impunity and walk across high speed lanes with no regard to life or property. people hawk animals on city roads. slow moving vehicles hog the fast lane. well no one knows the concept of lanes so that is that. overtaking from the left, right and over other vehicles is accepted. driving down the wrong side of the road is also accepted instead of going the right way and traveling the extra distance. geriatric gentle men and women drive at 5 kph on busy street intersection on mopeds they were gifted when they were 20 years old. teenagers drive at high speeds and some times rashly to endanger there lives as well as others on the street. bus drivers and truck drivers are more ignorant of road ethics than any one else and majority women drivers drive as if they are about to fall off. and don't even get me started on drunk driving.
now this rant is not against, senior citizens, women or teenagers nor is it against poorer sections of society from where most of our drivers come from. this is against the system. oh and on the whole i learnt driving and riding on my own too no one told me the road rules, and i learnt by hit and miss. i was one of those teenagers flying around on light weight moped and scoots as if i had wings. well the biggest problems as i said earlier is road ethics.
here is my solution.
1. reduce the minimum age for riding ungeared two wheelers to fourteen and make them off limits to the busy sections of the city.
2. for geared two wheelers to 16 years
3. for cars to 17.
4. make driving a subject compulsory for graduating in to the next section in the eight the tenth and the twelfth standard. which are the classes for boards in many state boards. the subject will have both theory and practical. passing in both separately being mandatory for earning your license. this will have the advantage of exposing students to road rules at and early age and most of which is picked up in classes is never really forgotten.
5. make a minimum IQ level or some other way of accessing intelligence a requirement for getting your license.
the above two rules will have the added benefit of attracting people from lower levels of society to school as that is the only way they will gain access to a means of lively hood.
6. there should be a maximum age limit for drivers.
7. all drivers have periodic health especially eye sight and hearing checkup.
8. better and more frequent public transport system. a system which is adequate for the population density of the country. the present system is generally inadequate and over crowded.
9. stricter punishment and higher fines for rule breakers.
now this system is a slow process, and initially will bring more riders and drivers on the roads but they will be better behaved and more over better drivers both male and female. and again this system will not over come corruption and misappropriation of funds from infrastructure projects but that is another story for another time.
5 comments:
Great post!!the characteristic tone of purposeful sarcasm containing dry humour, that ur 'commentaries' on the ways of the world/ people, usually reflect - fun to read, n food for thought :-)
the solutions make perfect sense - but well, when did we do things driven by 'sense' alone, here ?
we work too much on the
'light-the-fire-under-the-seat-response' - funda, so unless our rowdy road manners cause some HUGE mass devastation, threatening the survival of the indian species as a whole, these policies will not really be bothered with .. a few lives here lost to the sacred cause of road-democracy are no big deal, really ... *cynical sigh* ..
okay, enuff cynicism, the solutions do seem good - esp: since they hit at the 'culture/ manners' bit too .. tho, what practicable solution could we propose for the rash truck drivers - who merrily commit blind murders on highways - mostly unchecked.. ?
Welcome back once again! :D
cheerio ...
wow lovely solutions!! sound good .. will be great if implemented. But, Shanu, do u think all schools are in a position to teach driving to all their students? I mean.. that'll need real good planning and scheduling..
Weasly- we dont have a auto density worth noticing when compared to the developed countries, but we still kill more people on our roads than any other country
and when schooling becomes mandatory for a license then a lot of the truck and State roadways drivers will also improve. second we have to phase out the old technologies on our roads. introduce better buses and trucks that will improve conditions a lot.
Shruti - ofcourse its going to be a logistical nightmare. but when has a good solution come with a easy implimentation especially when we have lived with the problem as long as we have. it will improve conditions, create new jobs, and make better drivers.
I wish all of this was easily implemented ...like the other thousands of ideas the other million people have!
I wish, at least your last point would have been given more importance atleast... but i must say the ideas are good, but at te age... i m not sure..!
if i ever become the transport minister or someone like that...i promise i will remember this post of yurs :)
good solutions, but barring teh -non-geard bikess from city center - well, me thinks itz teh autos which r first to be banned.
driving should be taught in school itself - bit just driving, but responsible driving.
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