Traffic jams: a daily occurrence

Posted on 4 months ago

Miangul Abdullah
A few years ago traffic jams were considered as peculiarity of big cities but now-a-days the problem has become an order of the day, even in small towns.
Almost all roads of the country are under pressure of vehicles and the traffic congestion has become a daily occurrence. While in most cities, the situation has turned into a complex problem with many serious effects that manifest itself by slow speed especially during the rush or peak hours of the day and sometimes to a complete standstill.
Wherever one goes, he finds himself in an unending wave of vehicles around him and the next time traffic jams materializes in front of you for no apparent reason on sight. This situation has created a lot of inconvenience for the people as they have to spend a lot of time often hours stuck up in traffic every day. The result is long delays in getting to and from work or other purposes, hence leading to less productivity from employees and other problems to the people.
Besides heavy traffic jams have also created environmental problems with the worst pollution in cities by increasing car emissions. As a result, the cities have become less attractive places to live in due to the presence of cloud of dust and smoke of vehicles, which is also poising severe health problems for the local people.
There may be many reasons due to which we have to face the menace of traffic jams on daily basis but a few major causes include: the growing population, the narrowing down of roads, lack of knowledge of traffic rules and missing civic sense.
With the ever growing population of Pakistan, almost all the cities are being expanded without any planning with shops and buildings built along both sides of roads. Besides, encroachments by owners of buses, coaches, trucks, rickshaws, motorcars and motorcycles showrooms set up their terminals along the roads that further aggravate the problem. As such the number of vehicles is exceeding the actual or possible supply against the need for space on highways with insufficient capacity, the roads are being narrowing down and resulting into traffic jams.
Similarly the drivers park their buses, trucks, coaches and rickshaws anywhere without stop to pick up passengers or to load and unload cargo that causes traffic jams and create problems for vehicles from behind. Likewise, there is always a parking problem particularly in cities and the drivers park their vehicles by the sides of roads due to which the number of vehicles exceeds the available space and stuck into traffic jams.
Road work is also often blamed for congestion. Unluckily much road work is initiated by utility companies to repair or install pipes and cables, which results in reduced lane capacity by slowing down the traffic and causing periodic standstills. The other less recalling causes of traffic jams are natural disasters such as flooding, sliding and political demonstrations etc.
In most cities the problem is aggravated when a single police warden, deployed on major intersections, regulate the traffic. He mostly fails to regulate the situation properly as the traffic from opposite sides would create a deadlock when the vehicles move in from all sides. As a result, he cannot keep a check on traffic rules violations simultaneously regulating the traffic. While some of them even ignore the traffic violators for some gains from drivers.
It is very unfortunate that most of the drivers are either unaware of traffic rules or they simply do not bother about them. They jump lanes, overtaking, speeding, cursing and swearing, all causes frustration, depression and hyper-tension around them due to which there are more chances of accidents because the people get frustrated or angry due to traffic jams.
Here it is pertinent to mention that rickshaw drivers and motorcyclists are particularly more careless about traffic rules and have become a major cause for traffic hazards. They are always seem to be in a hurry and trespasses the traffic rules. As a result they not only cause traffic jams by their reckless driving and over-speeding, but many of them often fall victims of fatal accidents, thus endangering their lives as well as the lives of others.
Last but not the least important point that causes traffic jams is the lack of civic sense as nobody realizes it to be his duty to come forward and help mitigate the problem despite knowing the fact that no one else is going to do it but just me and you and everybody we know. So we should teach others we know as how to quit traffic jams and road fury. It is only then that there would be no or less traffic jams if everyone knew.
To sum up by considering the availability of resources and fund, solving traffic related issues is certainly a difficult task and needs a lot of research and planning. However, it is best to utilize what is readily available to resolve the problem in the best interests of people by keeping in view the gravity of the situation.

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