BANGALORE: One of the most common topics of discussion people have after a trip abroad is the ‘traffic’ in that country. More often than not, the comments are usually, ‘There is no bad traffic’ or ‘people follow lane discipline’. But what happens when the same people come back to the motherland?The city has been trying to cope with traffic problems since the IT boom happened. Needless to say, more the people, more the number of vehicles. The civic agencies are trying to do their best to solve traffic woes. Flyovers, improved public transport, road widening and the soon-to-start metro. But what are Bangaloreans doing?“The traffic here is very aggressive when compared to other cities. Short distances also take exceptionally long to reach. Everyone drives bumper to bumper. I am yet to come across people who follow lane discipline,” said Harpreet, a software engineer who recently shifted to the city. Angry snarls and shouts are common to find on the roads of the city. When there is an unfortunate case of an accident, the drivers involved get out of their vehicles and start fighting, sometimes in the middle of the road. They hardly spare a thought about the traffic jam that is caused behind them. “People should have the common sense to move their vehicles to the side and then carry on with their negotiations,” expressed Kumar, a photographer.In their bid to educate people about traffic sense and rules, Institute of Road Traffic Education (IRTE), a private organisation holds educational programmes. “We hold these programmes for all kinds of motorists. During these sessions the driver is educated on topics such as traffic rules, maintenance of their vehicles, how to increase the mileage of the vehicle and more,” said Prasanth, one of the trainers at IRTE. These programmes are usually administered in collaboration with private companies that would like to spread road awareness among their employees.Krishna Prasad, incharge of taxi services at the BIAL said, “We had this programme conducted for our drivers four months ago. The number of accidents have greatly reduced. We had six batches of such sessions conducted for our drivers. Approximately 30 per cent of the drivers were educated. It is advisable to undergo such sessions as it prepares the driver and helps him combat any kind of situation on the road.”According to him some of the most important lessons taught in the programme are — distance of gap between two vehicles, use of high-beam headlight, appropriate method of changing lanes, how to avoid accidents in case of a break down, consequences of drunk driving and aqua plan (driving during the monsoons).
Comments
0 comment