Observe Bengaluru closely. You will wonder whether there is any scientific basis at all in a city of its scale and magnitude. It is much-touted as a “global city”, even “science city” because of its link to science. But quite apparently there’s none of it in the way the city functions.
While the government, local authorities, and civic and mobility experts have been appealing for reliance on public/mass rapid transport, walking and cycling, there is a conspicuous lack of facilities for the latter. The former — although picking up — suffers from a lack of effective last-mile connectivity. This forces citizens to prefer their private transport over the prescribed modes. It further contributes to the intolerable congestion on Bengaluru roads daily at almost all hours of the day — sometimes at night, too.
Private transport itself could have been disciplined had our regional transport offices (RTOs) churned out quality drivers and riders post grilling through stringent and challenging test formats for only the most deserving and responsible ones to qualify for driving licences. Unfortunately, that is not the case.
The perpetuation of a weak system of granting driving licences leaves much to be suspected. It benefits many stakeholders linked to these RTOs, who benefit from the very inadequacies that contribute to the malaise on the city roads. It justifies the mischievous and exaggerated description about Indian drivers: “Put three vehicles with drivers on any Bengaluru road, and you will have a traffic jam.” Sometimes, it is hardly exaggerated.
The lackadaisical, indifferent and care-two-hoots-for-the-authorities attitude of motorists is far too evident at traffic signals — ideal locations to witness it live. It is common to see motorists jumping signals even in the presence of the traffic police, oblivious to the fact that the police do not interfere with most violations because technology is doing that. Thousands of cameras across the city are constantly monitoring traffic violations while unsuspecting motorists go about their bold, dare-the-cops violations.
It’s a part of “contactless policing” that has been ushered in lately. But a significant section of motorists continue unawares that they are already booked for their violations. This explains why some of them, when stopped by the traffic police for documents checks, are shocked out of their wits when informed about astronomical pending amounts as fines that need to be paid if their vehicles are not to be seized.
Perceptions about our traffic police and laws, too, are questionable. Many who resort to violations while hoping to escape penalties, given the weak enforcement, would have no qualms about strictly following similar laws were they to be in a similar predicament abroad, especially the Western countries where enforcement is very strict. For the strangest of reasons, enforcement is seen as encroaching upon freedom and rights of citizens!
Chaos on the roads of a once-pristine-now-congested city, which we so lovingly call “Namma Bengaluru”, has triggered ideas that are hoped to be consumed as impressive solutions to the problem.
But a city with a population of 1.4 crore, and a population density of 4,378 people per square kilometre, urgently needs the very basic civic fundamental infrastructure to be put in place rather than hi-fi solutions that can only impress some minds, but fail to bring tangible solutions on the ground even if they see the light of day.
If the aim is to make people walk or use bicycles (or even tricycles and wheelchairs), there have to be even and safe footpaths and cycle tracks for people of all ages and physical conditions to use them. Their absence should have jolted the city administrators out of their reverie, but that does not seem to happen. Neither is there any shrill demands from the public for footpaths and cycle tracks.
The dangerous result is for all to see. But it fails to appeal to caution — people in droves walk on the roads, many of them with their backs to the approaching traffic, like an open invitation to be mowed down. These include children, too; and even parents with kids on the traffic side, as if carelessly driven vehicles were myths, despite potential death staring at their backsides is as real as it can get.
What stares back at any observer is not mere foolishness on the part of the people or the lack of enforcement by the authorities, but a sheer absence of common sense, threat perception and a bit of science in either. The same applies to designing safe roads, flyovers and flood-proofing localities — something more complicated than footpaths.
What is worrying is that if this is the state of affairs in Namma Bengaluru, the state capital, it could well be replayed in other cities of Karnataka, which are at a stage that Bengaluru (as Bangalore) once was decades ago. We need a system with a scientific approach in place with a simple objective: safety and convenience of the people. Sooner it is brought into place, the better. It does not require rocket science!