[StarVegabond]

Originally Posted by kvish

I am eagerly waiting for one day where I give up driving, take the metro and go to work. Atleast I can get an hour or 2 to do some reading etc. Hopefully I wont be retired by then For now I am hoping Volvo services will start covering my work route too.

I feel there is no point in talking about traffic in Bangalore. The law abiding folks are now outcasts. I have been shouted at for allowing a blind man to cross. The cribs are endless. Like other member said, the solution lies in treating us like cattle. Putting dividers is one start. Lanes will then be divided by concrete. Beating up people on the streets will be the next. I guess we as a society deserve it.

Hi Kavish

Do not loose heart so soon. i understand what you are trying to say.
Education, Exposure, Enforcement and improvements in infrastructure, and income will change the situation. note that we are a democracy, our power is in numbers. today the middle class is 30-35% of the population. in next 15 years it will cross 50% of the population, that is when things start to happen. this election we have really seen some early trends e.g. old politicians , courrupt pople have been voted out. the focus for new government is certianly on improvement of energy, education, healthcare infrasturcture and job creation. if this continues we can see better days within next 15 years.

[mjothi]

Originally Posted by kvish

I am eagerly waiting for one day where I give up driving, take the metro and go to work. Atleast I can get an hour or 2 to do some reading etc. Hopefully I wont be retired by then For now I am hoping Volvo services will start covering my work route too.

I hope that the "etc" includes chating with fellow passengers.

Man, when I use to commute in bus in Chennai, we know the whole people and everyone including bus drivers & conductors knows us. We talk with all, chat with all, share all happenings and our friends circle was growing and growing. Infact we know if someone has not made it to the bus and we do hold it for sometime.

Even now, when some drivers see us in other places, [most drivers are now in different depot etc] they wave at us, we have a small chat.

But now a days I see the reverse. Almost everyone has something plugged into their ears. Do not even smile at co-passengers and what not.

Ummm, hope those days are back.

I am sure, many would have gone to their good old days... Sorry for going OT.

[PatienceWins]

Originally Posted by Spitfire

Cooperation from public is for the public to follow rules. Cops duty is to penalise the guy in the wrong. How does the public cooperate in fining the wrong doer?

Originally Posted by lohithrao

One thing which can fix all these issues, VERY strict rules!

Strict rules and rule enforcement is the only remedy I see to our current situation.

Whenever someone provokes me on the road by rash driving I try to console myself by thinking:

1. He may be attending to an emergency.

2. I should not increase my blood pressure based on others behaviour. Calm!!

[Perez]

guys, we keep talking about law enforcement and the enforcers. well, all i can say is why cant we punish the lawmakers themselves. How many times have we seen a cop riding with a helmet or talking on the mobile while riding.

What happened on sunday however took the cake. We were all sedately standing at Jayanagar 4th block for the signal to turn green and when it does, a cop on a "cheetah" bike decides to take a u turn towards the right from the centre lane. He proceeds to do that and an old gentleman who was driving his car on the right hand side lane almost knocks the cop down. Instead of realising his mistake and moving along, the cop stops the bike thus stalling traffic on such a busy intersection and decides to give the old man who must have been close to double the cops age a piece of his mind and threatens him with dire consequences before going on his way. All this in the presence of a traffic cop who just decided to ignore the whole incident and actually look the other way trying to pretend he didnt see what was going on.

@kvish, i agree completely with you, especially on dividing the lanes with concrete

[kkr2k2]

Originally Posted by alpha1

Eh, do we have any road sense course in our normal course of education?
No.
...

As far as I remember, there was a chapter on the care to be taken as a pedestrian. I dont remember any chapter on the driving sense.

[manavdotcom]

Originally Posted by PatienceWins

Strict rules and rule enforcement is the only remedy I see to our current situation.

Whenever someone provokes me on the road by rash driving I try to console myself by thinking:

1. He may be attending to an emergency.

2. I should not increase my blood pressure based on others behaviour. Calm!!

3. It was an animal (dog/cow) running on the road and can't be expected to know traffic rules !

[abhi1309]

Education doesn't do a thing.

Today when I was coming to office, I saw this guy, with a tie (of course educated) and a lady besides in a blue Wagon R cutting across from the right side of the divider hoping to get ahead of the car infront of him which was taking full circle, following the rules. I was outraged - is an understatement. I get goosebumps looking at good people doing this and imagine he was driving for about 2 kms infront of me and I hated him for every second. I was so disturbed and my wife asked me if I was thinking something, I just had to say nothing. Sometimes it is better to just NOT think about good roads, drivers, good things. Driving to the workplace is just so stressful simply by looking at people around you.

Man am I disturbed after that huh

[prince_pervez]

Originally Posted by abhi1309

Education doesn't do a thing.

Like they say: There is a difference between literacy and education.

[StarVegabond]

Originally Posted by prince_pervez

Like they say: There is a difference between literacy and education.

+1 to that. I fully agree. Education is not just about degrees.
one of my first boss (s) used to lecture us about education and learning.
a human being goes through education and learning.

first 3 years age : sensory oriented learning
3-6 years age : learning common sense
6-22 years age : schooling / literacy oriented learning
15-30 years age : Social sense (what is right socially)
22-35 years age : Job oriented learning / experience
30 - 45 years age : family oriented, success/failure oriented learning
40 - 55 years of age : maturity / expertise
55 + years of age : wisdom

e.g. the meaning of an accident is very well understood by a driver who has survived a fatal accident. no amount of bookish knowledge or reading news about accidents / seeing photograhs or reading rule books will give the real meaning of accident w.r.t what is at stake.

second aspect is learning from one's own experience as well as that others. Such people can survive better for longer term.

[mannubhai]

Quality of Education has deteriorated over the years. With lakhs of management seats churning out fresh management/engineering/medical professionals each year, we are looking at a dark age ahead.

In 17 years of my professional life, after interviewing so many candidates, I can vouch for the fact that the fall in quality has been steep.

This probably would have made it to a joke thread but this is not a joke, this is the quality of talent coming out from todays colleges. 12+3+2 years of education is not helping.

[EFF-EIGHT-BEE]

You are absolutely right on that point sir, even i have also witnessed this phenomena. I am a law student and in our state there are many law colleges. During the time when i was taking admission, one has to go through the entrance test which made sure the quality of students getting admission but the quantity of the students use to be less but now they have abolished the test and admission is given on marks obtained in +12 which has increased the quantity of students but at the cost of quality. The huge number of colleges have surely deteriorated the quality. I would also attribute this phenomena to the trend of current generation being a bit careless and the 'chalta hai attitude' in being satisfied with passing marks only, they are just not serious to say the least.

[mannubhai]

Originally Posted by EFF-EIGHT-BEE

You are absolutely right on that point sir,

Couple of interesting stats :

a) Tamil Nadu is set to get more than a dozen new engineering colleges this academic year. The All India Council for Technical Education has lined up 23 new institutions for the final leg of the approval process . Last year, around 1 lakh seats, including more than 58,000 government quota seats, had no takers in the state by the end of the single window counselling for admission to engineering courses.

http://articles.timesofindia.indiati...n-new-colleges

b) There are nearly 491 Engineering Colleges with more than 2,00,000 Engineering Seats in Tamilnadu. Out of 7,43,822 12th standard students appeared for the Tamilnadu state board Exam, nearly 6,62,001 students cleared the exam

http://www.eduhelp.in/after-12th/eng...g-in-tamilnadu


1/3 kids have to be engineers in TN alone to fill these seats. Is there so much demand in the market for engineers ?

One wonders about the quality of teachers. Where are they going to get so many teachers from ?

[apachelongbow]

Solution to this menace is very simple and can be implemented if the govt wants to.

Increase the fines for traffic offenses exponentially. Current fine for signal breaking is Rs 100. Increase it to Rs 1000 for first time, repeat offense should be compounded by a factor of 1.5 or 2 times. More than 3 offenses the driver gets license suspended for a period of time. Two times suspension calls for automatic jail term etc.

Make the traffic police accountable. They must record the offense on camera, give a legal printout of a challan , connected online to the traffic police server. A percentage of fine collected must be credited to the salary of the cop concerned. Say 20%. This will prevent bribery to a large extent.

Make driving license renewable every 5 years, with strict medical tests, looking at online driver offense and records and like the passport office, no middle men involved, the driver has to be present and take the test.

Non serious offenses like breaking a signal, driving on one way, lane cutting etc should not be allowed to be contested in court, if there is video proof, then fine must be paid.
At least court time will be saved from frivolous cases.

Serious offenses like hit and run, drunk driving, not wearing helmets should be viewed seriously. Any offense involving jail time should be recorded in a FIR and appropriate records be provided to passport offices, IT offices, employment records etc, make the life of a offender so miserable, that it prevents others from even thinking of trying.

I know these measures sound very harsh when we see how lax its is currently, but most of the better managed countries take traffic offenses very seriously and have enforced several such measures to good effect.

[a4anurag]

Originally Posted by apachelongbow

I know these measures sound very harsh when we see how lax its is currently, but most of the better managed countries take traffic offenses very seriously and have enforced several such measures to good effect.

Good suggestions buddy but we a supportive government to enforce these rules and see to it no bribe is taken by the police. Problem mainly is that many offenders are left free by paying a bribe to the police who puts that money in the pocket.

I am admitting a traffic offense I had done 2 years back where I and two other bikers were caught for wrong side driving. The police took away the keys and asked all to go the police van where the fine was to be paid with challan. Agreeing all three of us went. We were charged Rs 300/- for this. Seeing this the two other guys openly told that they have less money and is paying a bribe ok to get away from this challan. The police guys said ok and asked Rs 100 to be paid and leave without issuing a challan. Hearing this I told a NO and asked that I wanted a challan for the mistake I had committed. Collected the challan and paid 300.

Before leaving that place the police in the jeep called me and appreciated for paying the full fine without arguing or asking for a bribe. I was happy seeing that gesture from that police.

Education, 75% of the road users are educated to a respectable level to understand whats wrong and right but still we see so many offenses done every now and then. Ignorance and that "Chalta Hai" attitude is what creates the whole problem. If an offender who is caught and fined the appropriate amount then it is expected from the guy to not repeat the offense. This will create awareness and fear in the people to be careful on the road and not be casual like they own the road.

Cheers,
Anurag.