RoadSpace : TURN ON YOUR SENSES

Chennai traffic .... no no not a remake of the Steven Soderbergh film... Good ol' Chennai's traffic is getting way outta hand these days. Be it early in the morning or late at night , there's always a flurry of vehicles and people. Chennai's lifestyle has drastically changed from the 6am-8pm days to 6am-11pm days and it's always the 'Rush Hour'. A misnomer by itself, Chennai traffic is becoming a bane to the city.

Reasons are many...solution just one - 'Common Sense'.Only when the 'mahkkal' learn to respect one another on the road, this problem can be fought. Following the traffic rules is no more a requisite while driving, vehicle-regulations are no more valid, fear of cops has been conquered by the almighty banknotes...roads are now everyone's own hallway. People drive without the slightest concern of whose coming beside or behind or who's in front of them.

At this point, I would like to bring forth a concept called 'RoadSpace'..this was something I had deliberated for a long time and found it a very scopious way of overcoming traffic jams. Over the few years I have been observing, the city buses take up most of the road space and the drivers think they're just driving 6 wheeled cycles... and the other shylock are the bi-cycle riders, who think they're driving buses. And yeah I don't have to say about our pesty auto-rickshaws.

Resource utilizations is the 'Mantra' for many successful firms...so then why can't this 'Mantra' be used in day-to-day life to control traffic. Fundementally there are no lanes and vehicles run helter-skelter all over the place. 'Junta' just can't wait at a traffic signal,they occupy the most umimaginable place a vehicle can occupy while there's the 'RED' signal and once it's green, it's takes them infinite time to move. Why in the world isin't there discipline while driving?, why is there no concern for others on the road? These are questions, we need to ask ourselves!

Coming back to 'Roadspace', it goes like this - 'The amount of free usable vehicular space on the road is proportional to the potential cause of traffic jams'. To go further and explain it, there are lot of bottle-necks on the roads.. Obvioulsy not all roads are of the same width and places where wide roads become narrow are potential mainsprings for traffic jams. Imagine a big slowmover at this place.. it creates havoc and doesn't even allow vehicles to overtake it. It's like there's so much unused space on the road which can be made use of !

It's all about maintianing the minimum vehicular gap and make use of all the space on the road. Obviously there are roads which are completely inaccessible for proper driving but then we can atleast make good use of the one's which are! All one needs to do is keep track of the person in front..if everyone can maintain a close-to-uniform speed and not trouble the person in front, the entire stretch of traffic can be controlled.

Ultimately,the bottom-line is make use of common sense and utilize the roadspace...afterall it's for our own good!