[veyron_head]

I want to see huge fines for the slow drivers as much as rash drivers. Typically Autos, cabs and even some white board drivers who probably just feel chilled out on the roads in Bangalore and love to drive at 10 KMPH while blissfully talking on the phone or simply for no reason at all. It gets even more annoying in small roads where there is no median. There would be no vehicles before them and tens of vehicles behind them like a death procession, trying to but unable to overtake without risking a head-on collision with oncoming traffic.

We need to have a scientific minimum and maximum speed, or at least a way to take these deadslow drivers to task.

[UB_007]

A friend just got a challan last week but the speeding happened in April.

He was driving at 54kmph in Switzerland within city limits of 50kmph. Subtracting the tolerance of 3kmph, he was fined €36 for a over speed of 1kmph

Now call it OCD of following rules or just going by the regulations, my friend would be extremely careful the next time he is driving.
Do we have this tolerance limit set by RTO how much could one exceed the speed limit?
And I have not seen any speed limit end boards. Eg. when 80kmph/120kmph ends and city limit starts. The loop holes are endless.

-UB

[Lobogris]

Originally Posted by VKumar

To each his own, going by my past experience of dealing with the cops, all I see is happier cops working overtime.

Cop: Saar, give 500 and go
Citizen: Last time it was 200
Cop: Saar, last time the challan value was also 500, now it is 2000. Be happy saar, by paying 200; you were saving 300. Now if you pay 500 - you save 1500!

Ok. The end result is the offenders have to pay Rs 500 now instead of 200. This will surely make them more careful. In addition, some challans have to be officially shown by each policeman. Even if 20% are officially cited, the revenue for the government will increase.

[COMMUTER]

This a good move but they have skipped making the crash testing compulsory(not 'mandatory' - with a thousand workarounds). This is a golden opportunity blatantly missed. When the government imposes restrictions on modifications to our cars, they cite safety concerns.

Would all these changes to keep people safe matter if they keep ignoring making the cars safer in the first place?

When even helmets have obligations to have been manufactured to ISI specifications, why are cars which cost much more being ignored?

[RaviK]

Originally Posted by VKumar

.. going by my past experience of dealing with the cops, all I see is happier cops working overtime...

I came across this news of equipping the local police stations with speed radars some time back. Shortly afterwards, while visiting my hometown in Rajasthan, I saw this in action-

Policeman - pay 500 Rs. or pay challan for speeding
Driver - take 200
Policeman - no less than 300, I've the radar recording
Driver - ok, 300 it is
<cash changes hands..>

On a serious note, its sad that 'new law' route to tackle a problem has become a low hanging fruit nowadays. No/little spending on awareness, insufficient attention towards infrastructure, no strengthening of license issuance mechanism etc. etc. (any long term plan basically). Just pass the law (without the supporting mechanisms), and things will fall in line automatically. Little intent to spend the time/money on understanding the root causes, charting a long term plan or put a proper strategy in place !!

Without the supporting mechanisms in place, the effectiveness of the proposed changes will be much lower than expected.

[bblost]

Originally Posted by UB_007

A friend just got a challan last week but the speeding happened in April.

He was driving at 54kmph in Switzerland within city limits of 50kmph. Subtracting the tolerance of 3kmph, he was fined €36 for a over speed of 1kmph

I got a challan from Hyderabad Traffic Police for driving at 102 kmph in a 100 kmph zone.
They deleted the challan when I emailed / whatsapped them about it.

[AkhilR]

Originally Posted by Abhejit

I was very surprised to read, a few months ago, that MTP has over 40 crores in unpaid challans, and my first thought was - was stops an organization as powerful as the Mumbai Police to collect this payment? Or, do they even want to enforce that these are paid? Or, are they too stretched to bother about enforcing this payment? I have concluded that most people on the road have stopped taking these e-challans seriously now.

Currently, e-challan payments are enforced in 2 ways.
One is during random checking where the traffic police can verify the details of unpaid challans on their mobile phones. If the outstanding amount is not paid, the vehicle can be impounded.
The second method is at the time of re-registration of the vehicle or transfer of ownership. These two will only be possible once all the the existing fines are cleared.
So, the payment can only be delayed and cannot be ignored.

[hiren.sharma]

Well, they all sound useful except for the ones related to challan hike.

Drunk and drive cases won't decrease but bribe amount will go up instead. If they charge 1000-1500 right now then they'd start charging 3-4k moving forward.

If they really want to make changes to act then they should abolish manual challans.

[racsaxen]

So all these would apply to car owners but what about the police officers riding without helmets, Police car driving in the opposite lane? They are ready to a impose fine because of an expired pollution certificate but they turn a blind eye to the modified Rickshaw with a scooter engine. They turn a blind eye to the auto drivers who most the times drive like as if they are playing Tetris. They would squeeze in any space possible, they would rush with their auto at the gate of the bus as if the passengers should directly land in the auto while getting off from the bus.
As if these were not enough, we have a new kid on the block called an e-rickshaw.
I would really love some actions against all of these too.

[damanbir]

I feel there can be a few more points which can be applicable through out the country in a Tier Wise application.

1. Private Heavy Vehicles (Trucks/Dumpsters/TATA 407s/JCBs Etc) should not be allowed to ply between 9am to 7 pm withing city Limits in all Tier 1/Tier 2 Cities. Only Govt. owned heavy vehicles should be allowed within these timings.

Coming from Pune, The number of heavy vehicles in office Rush hours is just staggering. This might be the case with other major cities as well.

2. Wrong Side Driving : If caught driving on the wrong side, the defaulter should be booked directly under the law for negligence and rash driving, and in extreme cases attempt to murder. It is actually that serious, I have lost a friend, and i myself have suffered 4 accidents due to people driving on the wrong side. The licence should be cancelled there and then with heavy penalty.

3. There should be a state wise/City wise app developed across cities, for citizens to report law breakers. This does exist in a few cities,but needs to be spread wide across. Set ground rules for reporting offenders.

4. A very good point raised by the Rajasthan Govt. was to revoke licences of all illiterates, as they cannot read road signs and cause a menace to pedestrians and others alike.

Other Minor Points that can be avoided in office hours:

- Avoid Driving schools from Operating in office hours
- Road Maintenance and Municipal Work (Cutting of Divider Greens etc)

Also, the ease with which licences were issued in the past cannot be changed.
Enforce strict rules for issuing new driving licences from today and there will be a drastic change in the awareness of drivers 10 years from now. Keep this as a long term vision.

[SLK]

What about setting insane speed limits e.g. 50km/h on ring road in Delhi? Its practically misuse of law and then teams of traffic police stand at foot of a flyover to exploit the crazy limit!, they are not even ashamed of what the do!

There is no alternative to sense!

With the senseless exploitation by Police and catching people by setting incorrect speed limits and 'left turn not free' signs on trees and yellow/ orange light crossing as violation, traffic situation is not going to improve, it might slow down for sure, but no one will learn to drive.

[sgiitk]

Originally Posted by bblost

I got a challan from Hyderabad Traffic Police for driving at 102 kmph in a 100 kmph zone.
They deleted the challan when I emailed / whatsapped them about it.

I will say crazy. There is a tolerance allowed. Furthermore, globally they allow a bit over the top!

What still bugs me is the very mild penalties for drunken driving. Yes, we should fall in line with the European 0.08 rather than trying to insist on our 0.05. Fines are too low, disqualification unheard of. In the UK drunk driving gets a compulsory ban and it stays on your license for ten years.

[shady8701]

Originally Posted by rovingeye

There is one point that's glaringly absent from this list. Where is the stiff penalty for wrong side driving? I see bikes and cars driving on the wrong side of the road, most of the times under the nose of the traffic police - whether it be Okhla or Noida or Gurgaon. Why aren't these illiterate people punished for causing traffic snarls?

I'd think this comes under the purview of rash driving, does it not?

[for_cars1]

Most of the improvement points only aims at increasing fine amounts drastically which can lead to increase in bribery given that majority of the masses won't be able to pay the steep fines and the rest will avoid paying the actual fine.
The legal protection for bystanders who help accident victims looks good.

There are no real beneficial changes such as:
* Centralised authority for driving license issue.
* More stringent driving test qualification.
* Uniform vehicle registration charges across the country.
* Abolishing RC transfer hassles and related costs across states.
* Centralized vehicle record and driver record database and centralized process for all transactions during vehicles lifetime.
* Re-evaluation of all age old and impractical speed limits currently set.

[San Phrangmung]

I saw Aadhaar being made mandatory, just wish that the Police Harresment Process politely called Police Verification Process is scrapped for good since Aadhaar biometrics would be accessable to govt agencies of each individual applying for fresh license or renewal.

If Modi really wants to end the unnecessary trouble Indian citizen has to go through for basic services Police Verification must be discontinued with Aadhaar in place.