Honestly speaking, every time I see people breaking rules on Bangalore roads my blood begins to boil. People rampantly driving on the wrong side of the road, not caring for traffic lights etc. May be because I was brought up with the sole ideology 'obey the rules of the land'. So quite obviously, if I'm driving alone on Bangalore roads I'll be full of rage, unless I have a companion to talk to or there's some good hummable music playing on the radio.
This time, when I drove the rage levels were really low. I was amazed at the 'respectful' Bangalore junta. On all the days I drove, I couldn't see a single instance of signal jumping. On the contrary, I failed to notice a signal in JP Nagar and got a ticket !!!. As the cop was writing the ticket, I started chatting with him about the efficiency of BTP (Bangalore Traffic Police) and the guy was quite thrilled. He must have been quite shocked to see how easily and cheerfully I paid the fine (albeit it was a negligible amount). Neither did I find people driving rampantly on the wrong side of the road blocking traffic from the other side. I think this is mostly due to the concrete separators, but never the less - there was some order in the otherwise chaotic Bangalore traffic.
So to say, at least in the prime areas, traffic violation incidents have reduced mostly due to strict policing and fine enforcement. (500 Rs fine for talking on mobile phones while driving). I was quite happy to witness this personally. At the other non prime areas, the violations are the same as before as there are not enough policemen to keep the people in check.
Sometimes I think, are we Bangloreans so retarded that we need a policing system in order to drive properly? I mean seriously, living in one of the most cosmopolitan cities of the world, belonging to one of the highest concentration of high-tech employees, we lack the common driving sense and need someone to whack our a**es and tell us how to drive ? I guess I'll stop writing before my mind wanders off in a rather rhetorical direction.
This time, when I drove the rage levels were really low. I was amazed at the 'respectful' Bangalore junta. On all the days I drove, I couldn't see a single instance of signal jumping. On the contrary, I failed to notice a signal in JP Nagar and got a ticket !!!. As the cop was writing the ticket, I started chatting with him about the efficiency of BTP (Bangalore Traffic Police) and the guy was quite thrilled. He must have been quite shocked to see how easily and cheerfully I paid the fine (albeit it was a negligible amount). Neither did I find people driving rampantly on the wrong side of the road blocking traffic from the other side. I think this is mostly due to the concrete separators, but never the less - there was some order in the otherwise chaotic Bangalore traffic.
So to say, at least in the prime areas, traffic violation incidents have reduced mostly due to strict policing and fine enforcement. (500 Rs fine for talking on mobile phones while driving). I was quite happy to witness this personally. At the other non prime areas, the violations are the same as before as there are not enough policemen to keep the people in check.
Sometimes I think, are we Bangloreans so retarded that we need a policing system in order to drive properly? I mean seriously, living in one of the most cosmopolitan cities of the world, belonging to one of the highest concentration of high-tech employees, we lack the common driving sense and need someone to whack our a**es and tell us how to drive ? I guess I'll stop writing before my mind wanders off in a rather rhetorical direction.
