Blogs

Sumana takes a humourous look at the unique and zany space that is the Indian road.

Are pedestrians and two-wheelers given enough space on these roads to navigate safely? Do the powers that be look at road infrastructure from the perspective of keeping everyone on the road safe? Sumana recaps what a road audit of 100 roads in Chennai found.

Visiting a Regional Transport Office (RTO) after 2 decades, Sumana Narayanan concludes that the old adage, “the more things change, the more they remain the same”, is very apt.

Road accidents claim lives and limbs by the thousands, across the country. While the mere numbers must tempt traffic policemen to arrive at an accident site, do a preliminary interview with eyewitnesses, apportion blame and dispose of the accident debris, there is more to a road accident investigation than the cursory nod it currently receives.

Once your teenager turns 18, it is inevitable that s/he will want to get behind the wheel and go cruising around the streets of the city. However, her/his safety is at risk every time s/he takes the car out for a drive as according to recent data, more Indians have died in road accidents than in all the wars the country has fought.

How many road crashes take place in India? How many people die or are injured in these crashes? What vehicles were involved? Where did these crashes occur? All this and more information is essential to understanding road safety in the country and to reducing fatalities and injuries. This is self-evident.

Before we talk to others about their road behaviour, we need to look at ourselves. Do we follow the rules and drive safely? Each citizen should ask themselves - are we following road rules because we believe in them or are we acting when we are being watched by the traffic police (or the security camera)?

How important can this phone call have been?  Image courtesy: www.allindiaroundup.com, 20th July, 2016

Defraying risks has been a goal for humans ever since trading began, perhaps even as far back as the Early Bronze Age. The Code of Hammurabi speaks of traders insuring their goods in ancient Babylon. As trade and human civilizations grew more complex, so did insurance.[1] Today, you can insure almost anything.

When I took the driving test for my LMV licence I was quite nonchalant, having driven a two-wheeler for about two years before and schooled in road rules by the extended family, mostly in the form of asides when other road users behaved badly, “Idiot! Pulling into traffic without looking, without signalling! What is this country coming to?”. At the RTO, for the driving test, I remember being packed into a Maruti 800 with five other 18-year-old women and the Motor Vehicles Inspector.