There’s a solution for the immense traffic congestion. And it is not a discovery.In case of a heart problem you consult a cardiologist, not a manicurist. If your car develops an engine problem, you don’t change tyres hoping your engine comes to life. If there is a problem with your door, you call a carpenter, not a plumber.
But that’s exactly what the civic authorities are doing while trying to fix the traffic congestion on the city roads. They are looking everywherebut at the source of the problem.They plan to broaden roads, add more flyovers, more roads – all in the hope of accommodating more number of vehicles. But in doing so, they are providing a wider scope for more reckless motorists, many of who do not deserve to be in possession of driving licences (DLs). These are the ones who cause the infamous traffic jams in Bengaluru. And where do they get these DLs? At the Regional Transport Offices (RTOs), where touts reign supreme and
the nexus between motor driving schools and the RTO’s churn out undeserving motorists in hordes on a daily basis. These are the ones who we see recklessly negotiating the city roads, directly playing their role in causing traffic jams wherever they go.
A vehicle in the hands of an unqualified motorist is as dangerous as a firearm in the hands of a child who gets excited over its possession.And in a city where every motorist appears to be in a tearing hurry to reach a destination, the threat level is upped many notches. You put a bunch of them together on the same road, and the least you will have is a traffic jam. In a worse case, the blood of an innocent pedestrian or a fellow motorist spilled on the roads.
Bengaluru motorists lack road sense and courtesies, besides the basic knowledge about driving itself – all of which need to be tested by the RTOs, but they don’t.A few years ago, the traffic island at Windsor Manor Junction on Raj Bhavan Road carried an instruction: ‘Yield’. Most motorists had no clue what it was. A ‘Yield’ junction is where no signals are put up. No traffic constables are posted. Motorists have to understand the ‘right of way’ concept for a ‘yield’ junction to work. Those on the right should be allowed to proceed; those on the left have to slow down to give way. It is basic motoring knowledge elsewhere. But none was aware. Finally the traffic police discarded the concept and posted constables and installed traffic lights, slowing the movement in the process, adding to congestion.
This knowledge has to be drilled in by instructors at the driving schools, and if one takes the driving test on his/her own, these basic skills need to be mastered. The RTOs need to stringently put them to the test to check whether aspiring motorists are qualified to be granted a DL.
Nothing of that happens. The motorists get their DLs post a standard driving test with an RTO inspector and the instructor watching over. Glaring errors are pardoned in a hurry to grant the DL – always easier through a motor driving school than going it alone.You fix the RTOs, you have a solution. But there seem no takers. So you end up in a jam.
Nirad Mudur
Senior Assistant Editor
niradgmudur@newindianexpress.com