Investment in public transport and its management is the basis of growth of any economy. The right direction is that first roads are built, then comes traffic management and finally, there is growth of vehicles. In India, we see exactly the reverse scenario – growth of vehicles, no traffic management and roads being built to accommodate the growth.
This has had catastrophic consequences. With 1,45,000 road crash fatalities and an estimated 21 million serious injuries, the social cost attributed to this mismanagement is approximately Rs 1,00,000 crore. Around 85 per cent of the victims were male and 75 per cent within the age group of 15-49 (the most productive period of life). The average total number of road accidents in the country is high, at 4.5 lakh annually.
What is especially worrying is that there seems to be no accountability or co-ordination in terms of road safety or traffic management. For instance, urban development should have been transport-led as in the developed world. But in India, land is sold, construction begins and habitations spring up, without planning any road system and public transport. Goa is a live example of this.
Change of land use (CLU) is a systemic failure of our system. Take for example any of the prime localities of Goa, like the capital city Panjim, Vasco, Margao, Mapusa, etc. Initially, a 250 sq metres plot could be built up to 60 per cent, with a place for a car and two motor-bikes. Today, with CLU, there are at least four flats with an average of two cars and all are parked outside the plot. House owners, after obtaining completion certificates are conveniently utilizing the built-up area, as well as the open space (if any) and moving the parking outside the premises.
The thing to remember is that roads are like the arteries of the human body. These are not meant to be blocked by parking of vehicles. These are for movement of traffic. The choice therefore, is ours – should we allow every residential area to change to a commercial business area; should we allow changes in land use, without considering the saturation point of parking availability? Or allow these to happen and then get into a crisis and look for multi-storeyed parking complexes, congestion charge and the likes?
The situation is going from bad to worse day-by-day. The main reason is lack of traffic management on Indian roads. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development defines lack of traffic management as governments that are either unwilling or unable to assume their responsibilities. In the case of Goa, this argument may be viewed as a stretch given recent policies undertaken by the government, including introduction of the use of helmets by two-wheeler riders, increased traffic police presence on the roads, proposal to prosecute drivers/ riders caught drunk, etc. But none of this is enough.
Experts point out that good traffic management should be defined to include efficient planning; transparent laws and their effective implementation; planned roads taking into account the behavioral patterns of users and traffic flows; consistent width of lanes; working traffic signal lights with sensible signalling; properly trained drivers and monitoring by well-trained, well-informed and well-mannered police personnel.
Poor traffic management has led to formation of road-related habits that are hard to change. For instance, many drivers do not drive in a lane nor signal their intention to change lanes. First, do clearly marked lanes even exist? Second, have these drivers been trained to change lanes in a safe manner? Evidence from various studies conducted in the last few years show that using an agent to get a driving licence is encouraged everywhere in the country, and it is possible to get a licence even without taking a driving test. People pick up driving skills later.
Even assuming people are formally trained to drive, does the training manual go into details about, say, changing lanes? Not at all. Ill-trained drivers think driving just involves rotating the steering wheel and honking to manoeuvre a way through traffic. Even with driving classes, training manuals need details. For example, Goa traffic police’s list of road signs on its website is woefully inadequate. And how many of us are even aware of the website? A related point is that most trainers are themselves ill-trained.
A World Health Organization (WHO) study shows India receives a low 2.0 score on laws related to drink-driving, motorcycles and helmets. The irony is that 21 per cent of road accidents deaths involve two-wheelers. Clearly policing is a joke. At major intersections, from traffic police merely stop people from over-speeding and crossing red lights. There is need to mark lanes for particular directions at every conceivable point, teach people how to drive properly and penalise them if they don’t follow directions. But Just penalties or the mere presence of police on the roads are not deterrent enough.
As for crumbling infrastructure, road lights often do not work and symbols or road directions are often hidden behind trees or posters. A crucial point that the authorities miss is that urban planning in India is inefficient. A common feature seen in various cities like Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi etc is that they have built stretches of roads with flyovers but forgotten to build infrastructure for pedestrians. This, despite the fact that 9.3 per cent of road accident deaths involve pedestrians. Yes, some places have subways – which are often dark or flooded – and overbridges along a stretch. But these are limited in number or unenticing. Habits are hard to change when the assumption is that existing infrastructure is crumbling.
Government intervention – that is, good traffic system – is the key to combating the menace of chaotic road traffic. People will always try to violate traffic rule, for instance over-speed, because they want to reach their destinations faster, not thinking about its negative impact on society. So, policy-makers need to recognize that time is a resource constraint and road planning must address the issue of making optimal use of time spent on the road.
(The writer is a freelance journalist)
