Column

If you drive in Mumbai, the city's accident statistics will not surprise you. What will is that the number of crashes and fatalities isn't even higher. Every ride in a Mumbai cab is an accident closely averted, every bus represents death on wheels, each water tanker wants to drown you in its contents. Every arrival at a destination is a miracle in itself.

But no one really goes unscathed. Accident statistics give you figures of death and injuries, but who can put numbers on mental and psychological stress? If people have begun to crash on the Sea Link, it's only because its relative emptiness acts as a relief to any driver, and the urge to accelerate and break free is irresistible.

What has brought about this situation? The obvious answer is over-population, both of people and cars and the inevitable congestion on roads which were already inadequate to start with. But this over-population is not something which should have caught anyone by surprise; the upward curve of car production and people reproduction are well-known and widely documented. The problem has been in anticipating the change and planning for it. Planning, to state a truism, is to plan ahead, not to react to a situation after the event.

But now that is so much water under the flyover.

The metro and elevated railway will no doubt make things better, but that's a few years wait. Until that happens, do we all have to suffer in silence, having a stroke or two on the way? There are common sense suggestions to give some relief to commuters, and here are mine:

Make driving tests more stringent. It's no one's god given right to get a licence to drive a vehicle. It's a responsibility which should be earned. For professional drivers, especially those who teach in driving schools, for taxi drivers and drivers of heavy vehicles like buses, trucks and tankers, the test should be comprehensive and extremely tough.

A minimum educational qualification should be mandatory to get a driving licence. A few years ago a draft code had mooted this idea, laying class VIII as the minimum. It's not just a question of reading road signs and instructions, education trains the brain in many ways and an illiterate driver is a menace to society. There is bound to be resistance to this idea from populace, but unless hard decisions are taken, what improvements will ever be made?

No naka bandis except late at night. The other evening the cops decided to enforce one on both sides of the highway flyover linking Bandra east to west. The resulting traffic jam added an extra half hour to the commuters' woes. What purpose do naka bandis serve anyway?Will a reader make an RTI enquiry to find out what has been achieved so far except to catch a few errant motorcyclists?

Only a body as insensitive to its public as the Mumbai Municipal Corporation would dig up every major road at the same time. Common sense suggests that road repairs be done in phases. Visual observation also suggests that many of the roads didn't really need doing. Is someone making a fast buck here?

Taxis double park with impunity. Either moving away when told to do so by a passing policeman or greasing his palm with a grubby note. A three-lane road is thus reduced to a single lane. How long can we tolerate this? Should motorists and motoring bodies like the WIAA not bombard the authorities with protests? Perhaps the Professional Party of India can take this up on a war-footing. It will earn the gratitude not just of motorists but the lakhs who travel by bus.

There are too many taxis and autorickshaws in Mumbai anyway, a combined total of 150,000 as opposed to 25000 to 30,000 in London and New York. Not renewing cab/auto licences when the come up for renewal is the only solution. There will be a hue and cry from those affected, but look at the man hours that will be saved across the city.