Onus lies on local traffic police, say residents

Chaotic traffic remains one of the major problems of Ludhiana. The onus of taming the traffic congestion lies majorly on the local traffic police. The traffic police should not only spot out the defaulters efficiently, but also give them suitable punishments without any fear of administrative or political influence. It must also initiate traffic drives in schools and colleges to educate the youth about the traffic problems and remedies. Similarly, educational programmes may also be taken up for the general public. The District Transport Office must also participate by cancelling driving licences or in denying vehicle documents to the defaulters. Other strategic steps needed to be taken by the police include tackling different types of vehicles such as bicycles, two-wheelers, cars, horse-driven carts, bullock carts and even man-driven carts simultaneously on the roads, separating the path ways for bicycles and pedestrians.

The path ways for carts must be separated from other heavy traffic roads. The heavily-loaded trucks should not be allowed to enter the city during the peak traffic hours. At the road crossings for pedestrians, zebra markings must be painted and police must ensure that the public uses them for crossing the roads. Further, at all crossings, the light poles must be in a working order. More speed breakers at strategic points must be constructed to check the speed of traffic. The speed limit areas in the city roads must be marked and vehicles exceeding that speed be punished. The police must increase the road checking units to watch that the public followed traffic rules and the guilty are punished.

Dr G Dev, Kitchlu Nagar

Improve public transport services

We have all been late for meetings, exams, flights, movies, and family functions. Majority of the times, we blame traffic conditions in our cities. Then we start blaming lack of infrastructure and the ratio of cars on the road to their narrowness. However, we tend to forget our own responsibilities in this regard. The randomness that we encounter on the road is that we are not only driving among cars, but also amid bicycles, humans, animals. There are traffic lights, but like lane marking, we can choose to abide by them if we wish to do so. Traffic can be controlled by encouraging more and more people to opt for bicycles. Road tax should be levied on car owners depending on their road usage each day. Buses and other public transport services should be improved. Proper lanes should be made for four-wheelers and two-wheelers separately. Heavy fines and penalties should be imposed on those who fail to produce emission test reports.

Dr Jasdeep Kaur

Educate residents about traffic rules

The traffic congestion is a problem which varies from city to city. Ludhiana witnesses a severe traffic congestion problem which poses various problems and threats to commuters. Various policies have been framed in this regard, but the problem still persists. The problem comes within the purview of the local government and can be solved if we put our best efforts by cooperating with the government and the traffic police. Some important measures which can be taken include re-carpeting major and link roads which are in bad conditions, proper lanes for slow and fast moving vehicles, putting sign boards in bold letters to indicate meaning of various traffic signs, the traffic police should educate people about various rules, sign boards for no-parking zones should be placed at reasonable heights, people should use public transport while going to their offices or work places, heavy parking fees should be charged in peak time to discourage the use of four-wheelers, heavy fine should be imposed on those who violate the traffic rules, one big parking complex should be there in market areas and no vehicle should be allowed to park on either side of the road. The government should make it mandatory to shun the use of four-wheelers once a week, except for some cases, and people should be encouraged to use bicycles or scooters on that day. Under passes should be constructed for the smooth flow of traffic. At each chowk, traffic signals with time display should be installed and CCTV cameras should be installed at chowks to monitor traffic and catch traffic violators. People should park their vehicles only on those areas which are reserved for parking. The problem of traffic congestion will only be solved if people cooperate, involve and coordinate with the traffic police.

Dr Mohd Saleem Farooqui

Set specific time for heavy vehicles

It is a common daily sight regarding chaos in traffic management in the city. It is a lacklustre approach of the administration and police personals who are least bothered about the traffic management. The sensitive issue regarding accidents needs to be discussed at a higher level. The police personals need to watch tractor and trolleys on traffic signals. Such vehicles are meant to be on fields not on roads. These vehicles are really dangerous when these are overfilled with ‘toori’ blocking an entire road for other commuters. These vehicles should not be allowed on the main roads, especially between 8 am to 9 pm. Similarly, milk vendors on bicycles /scooters with drums, are dangerous on the road, as they do not follow proper traffic rules. One can also notice that trucks are lined up at the municipal octroi posts which leads to traffic jam. It causes troubles to commuters.

Dr BL Jain, Tagore Nagar

Adopt multiple-step approach

Increasing traffic congestion is an inescapable condition in the city because faulty traffic signals, narrow road spaces due to different types of encroachments and overtaking tendency prevail in every nook and corner. Various attempts taken by governments (whether it is SAD/BJP, Congress or else) as well as special meetings with the agencies concerned to devise means to help reduce the intensity of traffic problem didn’t serve the purpose. The traffic police usually remain indifferent to their usual duty as the state government stresses upon generating revenue by way of issuing more and more challans. That’s why, the drivers of buses, trucks, and auto-rickshaws in the city continue to be as defiant as ever. Instead of regulating the traffic, they often create congestion by way of setting barricades in the middle of a road or crossroads. Moreover, as and when, a security checks post in created anywhere in city, they simply issue challans in the aid of security checkups. Senior officers have been instructing their subordinates to issue more challans to motorists every day. For the traffic police, it is usually challans first, regulations next. The state government must realise that we are becoming increasingly urbanised, but one of the major problems we are facing today is traffic. Apart from the fact that it puts pressure on the infrastructure which constantly has to be expanded and repaired, traffic problem also has other negative effects. Traffic congestion has a major impact on business in Ludhiana — loss of productivity as time spent in traffic impacts directly on the working hours of an employee that could be better spent for productive working, lowering the motivation level of an employee by affecting his/her mood, making them tired and frustrated, etc. Besides this, congestion is not only bad for business, but also harmful to urban resilience, impacting negatively both the environmental and social sustainability, in terms of emissions and global warming, plus air quality and public health. Pessimists on a hand say that road traffic problems can’t be avoided all together, but opportunists believe that it can certainly be reduced. So, in order to curb the issue of traffic congestion that has gone to an extent of affecting our urban economy, no single strategy can adequately address the problem of metropolitan congestion. We should adopt an approach that covers all possible strategies. Instead of stop-gap measures, there is a need for long-term solutions such as imposing restrictions on the numbers of vehicles plying on various roads, elimination of too much intersections or cuts on a road, widening of roads in and around the city, optimising the signal timing to reduce the unnecessary delay at traffic lights e.g. rectifying the inadequate green time wherever it is required, instructing cops to concentrate on moving of traffic instead of issuing challans.

RAVI CHANDER GARG

Set up multilevel parking lots

Ludhiana is perhaps one of the most disorganised cities in the northern India. Several steps could be taken to overcome the congestion on roads such as not allowing ‘rehriwalas’ on any main roads and making special ‘rehri’ markets for them, marking motorcycle lanes in red, so that people could cycle rather than use vehicles for short distances, declaring Ghumar Mandi, Court complex, Feroze Gandhi Market as no-car zones and providing multilevel parkings, not allowing shopkeepers to keep anything on roads, the traffic police should be facilitators at points where lights are non-functioning or malfunctioning. We need to follow rules on roads, otherwise the situation might go from bad to worse.

Major Gurdeep S Samra