Sir,

Of late, as many SOM readers have been pointing out, the traffic situation in Mysuru has been going from bad to worse. Having been in Bengaluru for nearly three decades spread in both millennia, I have personally seen how the traffic situation went from good to bad and then to worse/ worst. And I am not referring to the volume of traffic here.

Irrespective of the volume of traffic, there are a few main reasons why we Mysureans must be worried about the traffic situation, namely — attention while driving, rider and pedestrian safety on the roads, peace of mind for kids (and their parents) in residential areas, avoidable pollution, and of course lastly, respect for driving rules. I wish to point fingers at two aspects which in my opinion are the main reasons why we have this worst traffic situation.

One: Traffic minding authorities need to emphasise equally on cutting short “bad” driving habits on the road as much as they emphasise on nabbing the commonplace violators. While a helmet-less rider or a seat belt-less driver may be considered a violator today, a reckless lane-changer, an indicator-less turner, a careless over-taker, a poor vehicle parker, a high-beam driver, a pedestrian scarer, an overloaded rickshaw/ truck, or even sometimes an unusually slow driver is not even being watched by the Police, let alone being nabbed. Authorities are urged to work with the public to help them in bringing such problematic drivers to their attention by using handheld phones/ cameras. The authorities can in-turn advise/ warn such drivers to improve their driving lest their driving licences should be revoked or fined as may be suitable.

Two: Before the traffic situation worsens further, civic authorities minding traffic network must plan ahead and equip roads with proper infrastructure (like signages, boards, lane markings, smart streetlights, smart signals etc.) that will not only help but also encourage drivers to drive carefully.

A helmet-less rider harms himself by violation but a reckless car or a high-beam tempo can harm others too. They can even create a long mess on a busy road with cascading effects elsewhere in city. The basic driving tests conducted by the RTO do emphasise on ‘good’ driving practices, but who is ensuring drivers are following them is the question that is staring at us today. Authorities need to brace themselves to monitor such violations in real-time and also nab such violators immediately. Responsible citizens define the city of Mysuru. Mysuru doesn’t deserve to go the Bengaluru way, and it is certainly in our hands, still.

– B.R. Rohith, Jayalakshmipuram, 10.9.2018

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