Talking Shop: Chaos on our roads

“One starts a journey in a

strange land—taking many

precautions, until he tires of

the exertion and abandons

his care in the worst spot.”

―Graham Greene

I got a call, while asleep, from a club late last week, saying my wife had forgotten her phone there. It was past midnight. Clad in shorts and an oversized T-shirt; I started my car and moved to my D-day, because it was just short of the G-20 meet in Delhi. I was met by security barrier after barrier. They had but one agenda — “Kahaan jaana hai? Kaun ho tum?” (Where do you want to go? Who are you?) Luckily, they didn’t arrest me and I focussed only on the Smartphone that had cost me over Rs 40,000. Nothing could have stopped me that day, except traffic signals, which I indubitably obey. I reached the blessed club and picked up the volatile instrument and headed home.

I then witnessed mayhem. There were barriers still, but people in vehicles around and behind me were either whimsical or wish-worthy. At every ‘red’ signal that I stopped at, these people whizzed past, even honked me to deafness as if I was a moron to keep waiting for the green light. I even checked the traffic signal again to ensure I had not gone colour-blind. Damn—is it red, or isn’t it? Autos, cars, bikes, buses, trucks and even e-ricks chastised me. It was a free-for-all, for I was the dumb idiot waiting for the timer-countdown. And for the cameras to realize that there’s only one law-abiding citizen here. But do the cameras care? If they do, are these jokers penalized or in remorse?

Discipline is not easy

I realized that night that discipline will not come easy in the wild free-for-all India’s city traffic has become. How do you tame speeding cars, overzealous bikers and auto-rickshaws, indolent e-ricks and dangerously overloaded and near-teetering trucks? Simply, we could do it with overzealous legislation that seeks in one sledgehammer blow to curb excesses permitted for decades. Ironically, we tried that in our Capital Delhi, with fines so harsh that everyone should have fallen into line. Delhi decided otherwise, as has almost every other Indian city. The harsh penalties, traffic cameras, computerized systems and stern warnings have all failed.

You will be further shocked about this when you see what the new fines are. In Delhi, for instance, driving without a license will put you back Rs 5,000 (earlier Rs 500); if a minor drives your car, the fine is Rs 25,000 (it was zero earlier); over-speeding will cost you Rs 2,000 (Rs 400 earlier); driving without valid vehicle insurance will cost Rs 2,000 (Rs 1,000 earlier); riding a two-wheeler without a helmet now carries a fine of Rs 1,000 (earlier Rs 100); driving after drinking costs Rs 10,000 and possible impounding of the vehicle (earlier Rs 2,000 and no impounding); obstructing an emergency vehicle now costs Rs 10,000 (zero earlier); dangerous driving carries a fine of Rs 5,000 (it was Rs 1,000), and so on.

No one really cares

There are many other sections of penalties with serious penalties, but to no avail. Despite the steep fines and thousands of traffic cameras, the paper tigers on our roads continue to prance around, blatantly flouting traffic rules. Having spoken of Delhi, here are vignettes of other Indian cities which are even worse, with hundreds of people driving on the wrong side, even on state and national highways. Across India, the number of fatalities on Indian roads due to violations and accidents has jumped. In 2021, a total number of 153,972 road accident fatalities were reported by States and Union Territories, much higher than the 2020 figure of 131,714.

Which cities are the worst ‘performers’ on the traffic violations front, you ask? Delhi tops this regrettable list—the Capital reported the most traffic violations in India, according to data provided by none less than Union Road and Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari. Delhi has seen the highest number of ‘challans’ at 7,189,824, followed by Tamil Nadu (3,626,037) and Kerala (1,741,932). In Calendar Year 2021, the relevant authorities issued nearly 1.98 crore challans worth Rs 1,898.73 crore for traffic violations across the country.

There’s more—the authorities issued more than 4.73 crore challans for traffic violations in 2022, with the revenue collected through these challans being Rs 2,874.41 crore, while an amount of Rs 4,654.26 crore is still outstanding. A final pointer on how the collected monies are used—well, only about 10 per cent of the collections have been utilized at the ground level. Mind you, this is Government-released data doing the talking.

Little change in 35 years

I first wrote on this subject 35 years back—sadly, little has changed in these three-and-a-half decades, despite the authorities introducing stringent curbs, stiff (even draconian) penalties and a slew of tech-enabled measures like traffic cameras and the issue of e-challans that arrive on the violator’s Smartphone. One of the reasons, perhaps, for this lackadaisical performance of drivers on India’s roads is the consummate ease with which driving licences are issued, even ‘purchased’. We have all heard stories of a blind man in Rajasthan acquiring a driving license only to prove a point about corruption, while another gent went a step ahead and got himself not one, but two driving licences—in the names of top ruling politicians, with his own photograph adorning the precious documents. With less than deserving and proficient drivers and riders traversing our streets, chaos and mayhem is bound to happen.

What is the way out? Well, an obvious move would be to be even more tough with violators, including immediate cancellation of licences; another would be to increase the number of traffic policemen throughout the country, with clear targets and KRAs (Key Result Areas, akin to Corporates), with their salaries linked to on-ground performance on the roads (monies collected from fines would be more than enough to pay them); blacklisting of frequent violators for a stipulated time-period; and even banning serious offenders altogether.

The media needs to play a part too. Regular and prominent reports of the number of violators fined each day would send a shiver down the spine of wannabe offenders—and we need that desperately, for fear is a great motivator. Look at what has happened on the Delhi-Chandigarh highway; for six straight months, speed cams caught and road-detained violators with others watching. In the last three years, hardly anyone has overtaken me on this highway when I am close to the speed limit—the point is simple; that if we behave like monkeys, we need to be treated as such. As Edwin Muir said: “Without fear, the lawless roads ran wrong through all the land.” Only the fear of God can rid us of the shenanigans on Indian roads.

The writer is a veteran journalist and communications specialist. He can be reached on narayanrajeev2006@gmail.com. Views expressed are personal