'Self-discipline key to smooth traffic flow’

Self-discipline key to smooth traffic flow’
Vijay Times

Bangalore: It appears to be a mystery. The Traffic police seem to have pulled every trick out of their hats to tackle Bangalore's traffic woes, but traffic jams continue to haunt the City. Traffic experts have squarely blamed motorists for not following rules and regulations and causing congestion. The experts appear to be right.

A Vijay Times recce on City roads revealed a whole range of blatant violations by motorists, often under the very nose of the hapless policemen manning the junctions.

Starting before the signal turned green, mingling with the traffic, arriving at a perpendicular, driving on the wrong side to overtake (often the double-yellow line violations) and causing a pile-up of vehicles close to junctions, were the most common violations committed. DCP Traffic (East), M A Saleem says the police are trying to enforce lane discipline, wherever possible. "But the major problem is that most motorists are not even aware of these concepts. The only possible solution, according to experts, lies in self-discipline by motorists themselves.

"A possible solution to reduce the chaos is by adopting self-discipline," says M N Sreehari, Chairman, Traffic Engineers and Safety Trainers (TEST), who is also a traffic advisor to the State government.

"It is next to impossible for the traffic police to enforce lane discipline in the city, unlike in the US and UK where it is common. There, you have roads running more than ten miles, without crossroads in between. Whereas, here, we have cross roads and lanes every 100 metres or so, making it impossible to enforce lane discipline for different vehicles." Traffic experts say recruiting more traffic personnel is not the solution either, as they cannot watch over every motorist, but at the same time, ensure that existing rules are abided by," he stresses.