Dear Sir,
With the recent deaths of two children in the city through unfortunate circumstances, the grim reality of the dangerous nature of our streets is increasingly becoming more and more apparent.
The death of a 13-year-old boy while riding in an auto to his school has thrown the spotlight on the dangers of overcrowding vehicles. The newspapers are all filled with reports on how the police have swooped down on auto-drivers, and have been charging them fines for carrying more than the allowed number of children.
The effort is laudable, but I get the feeling that we are being more “reactive” than “proactive” here. The RTA in the city need to be proactive in making the streets safer for both the pedestrians and travellers. This will need a major shift in the way they work and approach road safety.
From where I stand I can immediately see a few things that need to be set right.
1. Focus should be on ensuring good driving. The RTA is today getting away with standing at safe corners and “challaning” people who dont carry the proper documentation. It is very ironic to see a policeman fine a person for carrying only a photocopy of his insurance papers, when all around him people are cutting lane without using indicators, and overtaking from the left.
2. Use technology. The RTA today issues licenses on plastic cards. I am sure that it is just a small step away to convert them to smart cards. The policemen can then award negative points to erring drivers. There should be a cut-off and when a driver has “accumalated” sufficient points, the license should be revoked.
3. Stricted norms should govern auto-drivers, bus drivers, taxi drivers and truck drivers. They spend more time than any others on the road and bad driving habits by them translate to more deaths.
4. Clear pavements and ensure that people use the pavements to walk and are not forced to walk on the roads due to hawkers.
5. Enforce pedestrian crossings and heavily fine drivers who flout pedestrian crossing rules.
6. Tax petrol heavily. This will force more people to use the MMTS.
What we need now are tough decisions. We look to you as our leader for strong no-nonsense decisions.
I hope and pray you will be able to make those decisions.
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