The areas where members caught the offenders were: Koramangala (near Total Mall), Jayanagar 4th block (near BDA complex), Silk Board Junction, Iblur, Agara, HSR layout, Bellandur (in front of Intel) etc.
A rule is not a record; records, as the cliché goes, are meant to be broken, but not rules. But the public in Bangalore doesn’t seem to understand the difference between the two. On Thursday, at 13 junctions in the city, a staggering number of 2000 traffic violations were recorded in just two hours. Yes, two thousand. And if you increase the junctions and multiply the violations, you will get an idea of what the traffic department is up against.
This shocking data is courtesy of Outer Ring Road Companies Association (ORRCA) which observed Thursday as a Traffic Day, an idea pioneered and initiated by the association.
Fed-up with the daily traffic woes, the association came up with an innovative initiative in which the traffic violators would be given a yellow rose and a chocolate each – a polite way to make the offenders respect and follow traffic rules.
“We have always complained of traffic chaos in our city, but we are to be blamed for the unruly traffic scene on the roads. With the thought of setting things straight, we initiated the Traffic Day,” said Seetharam Vishwanath, member of ORRCA.
Two or three members of the group, along with the city traffic police of the respective areas, stood on the roads and gave roses, chocolates, stickers, pamphlets and also cards with helpline numbers to the offenders.
The areas where the members caught the offenders were: Koramangala (near Total Mall), Jayanagar 4th block (near BDA complex), Silk Board Junction, Iblur, Agara, HSR layout, Bellandur (in front of Intel), Kadubiserenahalli, Kundanahalli and Whitefield (near SAP Labs).
“We had bought 1500 roses and 2000 chocolates, and they were exhausted within one hour. I had to buy more roses to continue on the first day itself,” said Vishwanath.
This huge number indicates just a small proportion of the population which breaks the rules everyday at different times and different places. And also the difficulty of the traffic police in regulating offenders as well as keep the traffic moving on the roads.
“Most of these offenders were educated, but they still end up violating rules. It is really surprising that people still break laws so callously,” said Ravindra Nayak, member of ORRCA.Nayak said they got a taste of what the traffic police go through.
Vishwanath told DNA that they will continue this initiative in the coming months. “We will observe it on the ninth of every month and try to cover more places,” he said.
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