Krati Bansal
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Whose safety and for whom, is it for public, is it for authority or is it a mockery? Poor infrastructure, Poor law enforcement and Poor road sense of the drivers are enough to laugh on Road Safety Week. When it comes to drive on Indian roads, we end up with many things along with driving; May it be Talking on phone, Drunken Drivers, Listening Music !! Other being as follows:
1. When Children forget it
Course structure in schools includes basic traffic laws taught to the children like do not run while crossing the road, always walk on footpath, cross on proper traffic signals etc. Children follow them too, in fact they are the only one who takes them quite seriously but as they grow and come in influence of showbiz world they forget basic rules.Owing bikes at early ages, rash driving becomes style and breaking traffic rules becomes happening.
2. Driving License on Sale
It is mandatory to carry original driving license and other important documents such as vehicle registration certificate and insurance certificate while driving, but how authentic these are actually!! All the Driving License holders of Udaipur might know the whole process of getting driving license. While giving driving test, either the RTO officer is too busy to lift up his neck to watch out or person under test somehow manages to complete formality speedily.
3. Traffic Laws on
Improper horn usage, giving wrong signals, taking U turn in outlawed hours also comes in violations of traffic laws. If you knew that already then good and if you didn’t then you need proper traffic law education. Fining is not always an end solution, person will repeat violating laws if he does not know that such rules exist in world at least in India. Hence giving regular revision of laws and education to general public becomes obligatory to keep them updated about new as well as old laws.
4. Failure of Helmet in Udaipur
With announcements of Road Safety Week many “duplicate” helmet sellers pops up at roadsides. Neither they, nor the people buying helmets know that helmet should be of ISI standard. It should not obstruct vision, it should not cause neck injuries, it should not impair with hearing and it should be light weight. But, in order to escape from challans people hurriedly jump on to buy these no-use helmets from roadside. Once this road safety week completes, traffic police becomes lazy, helmets are adorned at home and people again fling with their usual careless attitude.
5. Condition of Road
Roads are veins of any Transport system and these veins keep clotting either by mud, sewerage or pit holes. India’s automobile driving population has increased manifold but road development is negligible in proportion to it. One can see temporary shops and vendors encroaching roads thus increasing unnecessary crowd on roads which leads to possibility of accidents. It has to be understood that India has risen from small lanes of villages and with time it had to be restructured according to the current scenario. Proper roads are major factor for assuring safe driving conditions.
6. Parking
Poor road sense of Indian population can be judged by the ease vehicle are parked at any vacant place they see on road but after all it is not only their fault. They were never told or forced to park at determined parking lots, but do we have these parking lots too?? Irritating clogged streets of Mukherji Chowk, Ghantaghar and Bapu Bazaar are enough to bash dedication of our Traffic Managing Authorities. A Multi –Storey Car Parking system in city area would be enough to manage confusion and congestion in city.
7. Vehicle Registration/no. plates
There are enough of rules for Vehicle registration plates commonly known as number plates in India but people are least aware about them. Different violations include unclear view of numbers, illegibility, use of flashy number plates, wrong spacing and size of letters or even thickness of the number plate. In Udaipur we miss authorized garages that can make right number plates which fulfills all standards.
We do not aim just to prick the problems, but it is necessary to shake everyone out of sleep in which we all are driving. There are some suggested solutions too, if someone cares to act upon like encouraging children to travel by bicycle or walk to shorter distances, use of CCTV’s by traffic Police department at busy circles and roads which are tough to monitor, multi storey parking, authorized garages for number plates and strict traffic rules.
I second your views Krati… A few more points I would like to add
1. People not obeying Traffic lights: Even when green signals turn to yellow and finally to red, people are just desperate enough to cross the signal as if it is a 100 metre race. This all leads to chaos and confusion. You might expect accidents some time for sure.
2. Overtaking: With new flaunty bikes touching speeds more than 100 miles/hour, they are always in the hunger of creating new speed records everyday. In pursuit of such useless competitions they won’t mind overtaking a vehicle from left side which is a punishable offcnce.
3. A note on pollution: If the traffic signal indicates time of more than 30 seconds than it is advisable to switch off the ignition to avoid pollution as well as fuel consumption. The idling state as it is called creates much pollution and is very less efficient as compared to a running vehicle.
If someone takes initiatives from youth community of Udaipur, we can see a promising road safety round a year!
#2
even without a new flaunty bike the ppl on twwo wheelers think it is correct to overtake from the left. in fact after the bash up, it is usually the 4 wheel driver who is blamed.
happened to me recently .
Yeah… Whoever having bigger vehicle is blamed..
go safe, ride safe..
plzz follow all rules n try 2 aware others also.
always keep in mind- “precautions r better den cure”
Major cause of deaths in an accident is HEAD INJURY. But still, people are fool enough to not wear a helmet…
I can see noobs(wannabe pathetic bikers) driving at very high speed, doesn’t know that death is the least bad thing they can get. Limb loss or paralysis could be the outcome of bad driving. Just one mistake, and you would have nothing but to regret your whole life.
Remember, the safety is in your own hands. But if you still feel like driving rash, breaking rules, just visit the emergency ward or neurology ward of general hospital(RNT). I bet, u will stop rash driving.
You have a great sense of catching the details and have done is once again.
1. When Children forget it: Crossing the road and running is not recommended for children and adults coz if they fall down when running then it may result in a major accident.
2. Driving License on Sale: Very correctly said, I would like to add that parents are proud and publicize the fact that child is only in 6th standard and can drive a 2/4 wheeler. Precocious is what I would like to say to such parents.
3. Traffic Laws on: While honking is the soup of the day, it does help. No I am not in favor of this. The person with a valid driving licence has to know how to drive safely.
4. Failure of Helmet in Udaipur: This is for the admin and layers to decide!
5. Condition of Road: As compared to other cities in Rajasthan we have a good condition roads. But you comment is still valid. The removable advertisements like photocopy here/medical shop/chilled beer etc should be removed, as these small advt boards are encroachment on the road. To safety!
6. Parking: One of the major problem. More expensive the car more the indiscrimination it will be parked. Not to forget vehicles with blue and red light. They think as if they own the road.
7. Vehicle Registration/no. plates: This can be discussed endlessly, but the only point I would like to make is “why are there so many consultants” outside the Regional Transport Officer?
Now that you have figured out the problems let us start on solving them.
yep you all right, there are many bottlenecks hampering road safety. I can elaborate each sub heading to full extent of an article. I have not included Buses, trucks and auto rickshaws here but they too are a threat to road safety. Expected to drive in left they are always in middle of the road, overtaking of rickshaws are evident to all, overloading, loud music, there are many things to count on their careless attitude.
They should wake up and see for everyone’s sake that they are driving in real life, not in dreams!!
So the traffic week is over and so in my maid’s husband. He was heading home on a mobike towards his home and collided with a stationary dumper in the evening.
He may or may not have been drunk! The question is why a stationary dumper was on the road, without warning lights to prevent this unfortunate happening ?
Everyday the two major papers are reporting “death on the road” what is the admin doing about it? Nothing, period.
Sorry the admin conducts a training program , 7 days a week, for the entire year! How do you stop motor bike riders from over taking from left? My formula is simple – just bang in to them. However this is not the answer!
We have to ask ppl, what is the hurry? And I am sure there is none.