With quotes from Jane Jacobs
“It may be that we have become so feckless as a people that we no longer care how things work, but only what kind of quick, easy outer impression they give. If so, there is little hope for our cities or probably for much else in our society. But I do not think this is so.” - Jane Jacobs
It is just three months into the new year and already we have been confronted with a series of tragic road crashes.
170000. One hundred and seventy thousand. Each of these numbers has a name. A name that’s precious to a circle; to whom this person represented more than a statistic. This number represents the total number of lives lost on our roads in 2025, working out to 465 lives a day. Unfortunately, this number along with other data about why and how these crashes occur are not a part of our general perceptions about safety and risk assessments.
Speed gives us a sense of freedom. The open road, the wind in our faces, the vast blue sky overhead. Cars and bikes are often advertised as speed machines with little thought given to their safety features. Yet, apart from the ever present danger to life, this thrill has another cost that is often ignored. Speeding pollutes the air, damages ecosystems, endangers wildlife, and ultimately harms the very environment that makes these journeys enjoyable.
Every day, thousands of children in Chennai walk, cycle, or are dropped off on streets that were not designed with their safety in mind. While streets where schools are located are officially labelled as “school zones,” the ground reality is very different. Speeding vehicles, broken, encroached or no footpaths, unsafe crossings, and chaotic pick-up and drop-off practices expose children to serious road safety risks during their daily commute.
The other day I was watching a film called ‘Dude’ and no, this is not a movie review but I will say to watch it at your own peril. I was struck by a scene in which the hero and his friend are riding without helmets on a bike (mystifying because in earlier scenes they are shown wearing helmets) and are chased by a pack of dogs. While trying to avoid them, they both collide with a car, fly over the car and land on the road beyond. I winced watching this pretty sure that this would lead to a grave injury or at the very least a lot of pain. But lo!
What is it about buses that brings a wave of nostalgia over most of us? I still remember the bus numbers of routes I used to frequent decades ago, and my heart skips a beat when I come across them on the road today. I remember taking the bus alone for the first time in Madras (now Chennai) when I was ten. My father gave me his visiting card to show a grown-up in case I got lost, but my older brother had little faith in this plan and surreptitiously followed my bus on his cycle.
Who does our city belong to? Is it the pedestrians’ - people on errands, senior citizens taking their evening walks, children walking to school ? The lack of safe and continuous pavements in our city says a loud NO. Is it the bicyclists’ - the school children, the daily workers, the recreational cyclists who all traverse this city on two wheels? The lack of cycle paths say a resounding NO. Is it for the buses - that take at least 40 people to work, to school and back home? The lack of a bus lane for its smooth and congestion free travel says an emphatic NO.
This article was first published in elets egov (print) on September 24, 2025.
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) recently released its Road Accidents in India 2023 report. The findings are grim. India recorded 4,80,583 road accidents in 2023, a 4.2% rise from the previous year. These crashes claimed 1,72,890 lives—an average of 474 deaths every single day, or one life lost every three minutes—and left 4,62,825 people injured
This article was first published in https://roadsafetynetwork.in/ , CAG is a part of the Road Safety Network.
