Improving Traffic

India is one of the few countries where the traffic management is poor and as a result of this people have never disciplined themselves and drive as they would drive in their backyard ignoring that there are others on the road. I am not trying to show India down but amjust trying to analyze as to why this is so and how can this be improved.

India till the mid 80's had very few vehicles on road, both 4 wheeler and 2 wheeler. It was only in 1985 most of the auto companies started operation and it was only in the early 90's that sales picked up as affordability increased post liberalisation in 1991. The govt was not ready with proper training schools and neither did the govt put proper checks and balances in license authority. Why blame the govt. alone even the riders/drivers adopted easy way out by bribing to get license.

Now that this is current state of Indian roads, is there hope and will ever improve. YES , it can provided we all decide to change. Some things todo -

1. Govt to make issuing of licenses based on merit,which means stop bribery. One possibleoption is to privatise this department.
2. Make it mandatory for every one to attend driving school before they apply for license
3. Seriously check for license less drivers and don't just penalise them with fine but force them to do social service.
4. Reduce the validity period of license from 20 years to 5 years
5. Every mistake should be penalised and recorded and based on no.of errors withdraw the license
6. Create infrastucture so that lane driving can be enforsed
7. NO HORN - atleast to start with near hospitals, schools and later everywhere
8. Ensure that every vehicle is maintained well and accessories are avaialble like rear view mirror
9. Drunken driving should be handled severly like 3 to 6 months in prison
10. Increase fines to unaffordable level - currently fines are too less and even a person can get away with fine of 100 -500 Rs.

I am optimistic and India some day will have the best managed traffic, but for this each one of us has to contribute.