Road Sense

In India, we have very recently realised the importance of a maintaining a good net work of roads. Roads are required to transport men and material from place to place efficiently. The efficiency with which this can be done is very important to ably compete with others (the rest of the world) in the present days of global trade. National planning requires to be done to transport men and materials from place to place in the least possible time with no loss of men, material and equipment (caused by accidents).

UK has an elaborate road network. Having an elaborate road network is a sign of its developed status among nations. The roads here are broadly classified as ‘Motor’ and ‘Arterial’ as I see them. Motor roads have not less than six-lane roads- three on each way with pavements on each side and servicing facilities at intervals of every 20-25 miles for the convenience of passengers. Roads with less than three lanes on each side are called arterial roads.
Amongst a population of 60 million, to say that 75% of them regularly use cars for conveyance would be a safe assumption. People using two-wheelers are a rare minority and we do not see people moving by walk except in the shopping areas of satellite townships and city centres. For this traffic to run on the roads smoothly and without any accidents, a sense of discipline is very much necessary. Discipline is easily enforced if the necessary infrastructure exists. By that I mean a net work of interconnecting roads, flyovers at convenient distances , a good system of traffic and road signals, penalising accessories to check over-speeding and rule-breakers and elaborate parking places in all required places. UK has all these things and all these facilities are meticulously used by the people to derive the maximum benefit.

Parking facilities occupy a lot of place and in some locations they are built in several storeys also. Needless to say that Parking charges are quite steep. The British are inveterate foot-ball addicts and so all matches are arranged on the weekly off days of Saturdays and Sundays. People here are fond of going on weekly outings considerably far away from their cities/ towns. Hence, week- ends, i.e., Friday evenings are traffic hazard times for the people. Vehicular traffic on all roads is at its peak with vehicles moving in all directions resulting in a lot of traffic snarls. Even in such circumstances, the sense of discipline shown by them is worth emulating. Nobody tries to jump their lines and signals are obeyed lest they attract a penalty for unruly behaviour. Movement of emergency vehicles such as ambulances and security vehicles are given preference generally and even during such snarls. We do not see any policing with lathi- wielding policeman growling against the rule-breakers but they are omnipresent with their special vehicles sniffing trouble almost instantaneously to nab the violators. The spirit shown by vehicle drivers towards ignorant pedestrians (who may be crossing the road without proper signal) is also an indication of their heightened civic sense as they vehicles almost always stop and allow pedestrians to walk across safely.

Telephones are provided at intervals to enable vehicle owners to call for maintenance service. Vehicles which can not be repaired by the road-side are towed to avoid congestion on the roads . Service centres provided at regular intervals of distance are very helpful in enabling the passengers to attend nature's calls. Vehicle drivers/ passengers avail facilities to refresh themselves by playing some games and relax at these centres before moving ahead. Speed limits exist on arterial roads and excess speed is recorded by cameras fixed at vantage points. Large distances are covered in relatively short times as the vehicles move at speeds ranging from 90 to 120 kmph.
The road accident rate is very less and those that occur are largely due to drunken driving.