Acres of print and online pages have been dedicated to Bangalore Traffic. Some say it’s a worthless discussion still indulging it in once a day, some just curse the traffic all the time. For me it’s the only glitch I have come across in Bangalore so far in a year. Just try to cogitate about it and you may note some of these things,
- You get more time to think when you are stuck in traffic, think about you, about your friends, family etc. This is much better if the jams are longer. The way to Electronic City is much better for this as the JAMs are longer rather than the slow moving traffic of Airport Road or Mysore Road.
- The whole rationale behind managing spaces gets its true manifestation through usage of footpaths, although its slightly dangerous driving on footpath still footpaths are usually more properly paved than most of the roads. So at least they are safer for YOU to drive on.
- FM channels hog up all the commercial advantages of a Traffic Jam (leave a few Traffic Policemen :D). Long traffic jams ensure better TRP’s (or its equivalent for Radios) and make RJ’s the most popular of Bangalore Junta.
Moreover we should take everything in positive spirit. We should be proud of the fact that we are the best in the world when it comes utilizing the roads. Feeding the population of China with the food resources of Somalia is something we are able manage. Rather than thinking about solutions some things should be left as it is. Self Healing they say is better than cure. Although my prescriptions for the problem include,
- A King-Kong who just comes from somewhere and rattles all of Bangalore throwing all the cars around in all directions(obviously not hurting anyone, this the only way we can have space on roads…:)
- Stop selling vehicles…:)
From a more Utopian(an imperfect one) perspective now lets look at something realistic, next years awaits the release of the 1-Lakh Tata car, although my assumption is that it wouldn’t hit the cities that badly, still we would be in for another battle for space on roads. It would be interesting to watch just where can people fit in there cars anymore. My biggest complaint is against the Truckwaalahs, browsing the city throughout the day, when they shouldn’t be allowed to do so. It’s stupid to allow Lorries, that too with rods and railings on it within city limits during normal hours.
Anyway the whole text above doesn’t make any concrete sense, it shows a certain lack of sense in constructing the flow of the post, but so is Bangalore Traffic and the discussion it triggers…everything is not supposed to make sense.
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Very nice, desh. I like the way you have given us options on how to kill time while being stuck in what always seems like a neverending traffic jam. Very positive!
I used to think that it just couldn’t get any worse. But once the new Rs. 1 lakh car is launched by Tata who knows!
Interestingly and on a much more serious note, I attended a panel discussion on Bangalore Traffic and Vision 2010 which was arranged by a private organisation recently. The panelists were from the Bangalore Traffic Police Dept and BBMP. Needless to say, there was a lot of angst among the audience in relation to the traffic situation in Bangalore. The presentation made by the panelists was pretty much a long the same lines as what we have been seeing and hearing over the past decade. Promises of road widening, constructions of underpasses, flyovers, overbridges, etc. But amidst all these what really stuck out was the fact that slowly but surely the Traffic Control board is making serious changes in the way traffic is managed in Bangalore by the use of IT. Sure, getting all this done by 2010 seems extremely ambitious, given the past record of such promises.
Also, the presentation was also an eye opener to the fact that WE as CITIZENS don’t really do much to help the situation. In fact, we pretty much worsen the state of affairs. Like I have mentioned in one of my previous posts, “Night Patrol - Making Bangalore/Cities safer”, we all have a joint responsibility in making our society a better place. The same applies to traffic behaviour and with reference to the recent unfortunate mishaps in one of Bangalore’s leading malls, also applies to how we behave in malls. Citizens really need to be more aware of their surroundings and how they are contributing to it. This awareness will make situations a lot better than they are at the moment.
Also, most of us are pretty oblivious to the efforts made by traffic policemen. What one needs to remember is that it is a thankless, low-paid job that no one really respects. They brave the rain, dust, heat, pollution and to add to it, our abuses all for a paltry sum of money. We need to put the pride back in our local police. I guess it would entail going back to the drawing board and just restructuring the whole mess, which we have also quite actively participated in creating.
And so I have added to the acres of print and online pages on Bangalore Traffic and hope it hits home with the readers.