Crossing the road – absolutely easy & free
I recall this incident that happened a few years back. A father was educating his kid when one should cross the road. This was on MG Road & the duo was at the Cauvery Emporium junction. The father was pointing towards the signal post at the opposite end & telling his son what the red & green light indicates and when one should start walking to the other side. While this tutorial was in session the light was red & yet a lot of people around were crossing the road. I am not sure if the kid spotted that & questioned his dad as to why others were not following it.
Crossing the road at junctions today in Bangalore is a no holds barred activity. Nothing absolutely nothing matters. There may be a bunch of cops in the corner, but they’ll ignore it. The signal could be showing red, but we become color blind at that moment. All that matters to us is to get to the other side. Nobody has the time or the patience to wait for it to turn green. So much so that the signal posts at every zebra crossing has become redundant. But to also be fair to the public not every zebra crossing at a junction has a signal post & if it does it is not working.
What will it take to inculcate these habits in people? Will tougher laws & stricter police help? A more pertinent question probably is – Do parents teach their kids today when to cross the road?
Great point Lokesh. Perhaps we teach ‘Civic’ only at elementory level in schools and conviniently forget about it, there are more examples such as Queue discipline, Road Rage, Cell phone manners etc are the subjects one can look at even at Higher secondary / graduation level, just to reimphasize the need on larger benefit and social welfare.
I’ll share another aspect to crossing the road, that’s equally disturbing. The other day I was on CMH Road in Indiranagar, driving towards 80 ft road; I suddenly spotted my friend’s 70-year-old mother trying to cross the road.
I was caught in the momentum of fast-moving traffic so I couldn’t stop.
45 minutes later I was driving back and saw the poor lady on the same side of the road. Far too nervous to navigate the crossing, with fast moving vehicles and … nobody sensing that she needed a little assistance.
Can’t always wait for girl scouts to help old ladies in distress.
“Civics” as a subject must be made compulsory even in college I guess. But at the end of the day, its how you conduct yourselves outside of that “policed” environment!. Cause I know all Indians follow traffic rules when in a foreign country!!. Self-discipline??
http://naveenroy.blogspot.com/2007/06/educated-fools-and-traffic.html