The Curse Of The Roads

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Hardly anyone would disagree with the fact that driving in the busy roads of Lahore is nothing less than a nightmare. You have to be alert and even a second's loss of concentration, can land you in trouble. Hours long traffic jams are routine for commuters. Imagine the traffic, from trucks, cars, rickshaws, motorcycles and bicycles to horse carriages and donkey carts, all jammed up back to back and cursing the moment they decided to take that road.      

Lahore sees traffic jams regularly and daily I get stuck in traffic on my way to university while crossing Bhatta Chowk in the high heat, humidity and dust pollution on the road. The roads are flooded with cars, buses and rickshaws. They are heavily encroached by parked vehicles, hawkers and roadside business forcing pedestrians to walk on the road. The route which I take daily is congested with heavy traffic. Reckless drivers try to overtake just to reach their destinations on time. Traffic jams in Pakistan are not just a menace to those on the streets; they also impact the overall productivity of our society and are a real threat to our development. It is not unheard of for an office worker to be delayed by up to an hour for work, or be late for important meetings because of traffic jams. From official meetings to personal affairs such as wedding and other parties, the most common excuse for being late is being stuck in a traffic jam – and unfortunately it is often the real reason as well. 

Since you wait for long hours in traffic it aggravates your anger and frustration. Sometimes I see ambulances carrying patients fail to move ahead on signals due to traffic mess. Traffic jams causes increased road rage and overall agitation, aggression and hypertension in people. 

Some major reason for traffic jams are overpopulation and mismanagement of traffic system. Traffic police and wardens have failed to successfully maintain the traffic flow on the busy roads. Some other reasons are just plain ridiculous. Road constructions, vendor encroachments, unlawful parking especially outside school zones, frequent and illegal bus stops, sewage spills, lack of rain water drainage, security for VIPs, and a general lack of civic sense in the driving population are reasons that can be easily identified by any of us who have had the pleasure of being stuck in a traffic jam. 

Question then remains what are the authorities doing about it, and what should be done? Little progress has been seen in the development of the road system but there are places which are still the same with bumpy rugged roads and unwillingly I have to take that route since alternate routes will take a lot of time for me to travel. Pakistan has experimented with bridges for pedestrian crossing on some major streets, but that has seen limited success in a population that does not seem to want to climb a few steps when they can just run across the street. 

I also believe that it is not only the duty of transport control department to keep an eye on the traffic maintenance but also ours. We need to play our own part by becoming responsible and create an awareness to drive carefully. On my way to university I have seen many car accidents due to over speeding and car racing that also needs to be stopped. Due to impatience and recklessness while driving people put their lives at risk. This is especially seen in youngsters. I request everyone to follow traffic rules and develop safe driving habit, avoid using cellphones, stay with in speed limits and always use seat beats, many lives could be saved with just the seat belt on! 

Let infrastructure planners do their job and leave our part on us. Last but not the least, value human life and have a happy and safe drive. 

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure! 

Mahrosh Ilyas Bhatti 

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