Coupled with deteriorating roads, too many vehicles, the lack of traffic etiquette among drivers makes an everyday concoction of chaotic traffic and hair-pulling frustration for commuters
Morung Express News
Dimapur | August 19
While driving etiquette is a term which dates back to the early 1900s, its implication apparently still hasn’t entered the mind of many drivers here in Dimapur living in the 21st century.
Coupled with the back-breaking potholed roads, an over-excess vehicle population; the lack of traffic courtesy among the drivers turns Dimapur road into an everyday concoction of chaotic traffic and hair-pulling frustration for overworked traffic personnel, office goers, students and the general commuters.
Brazen drivers cutting away from the uniform traffic lane to create a double or triple lane on a narrow strip of road, auto rickshaw taking a detour to ply on the left side of the single lane road, which are prohibited, in order to get to their destination faster, has become the rage of Dimapur traffic.
For instance, Moayanger, an entrepreneur travels everyday on his Maruti Alto from 4th mile to the main town where he runs a stationary shop. A commute which would normally take only 20 minutes on Sundays to reach his destination is an hour long journey for the remainder of the week.
The entrepreneur defines the experience as “a ride of exasperation and testing patience.” Besides the bad road condition and the over populated vehicles playing delay tactics, Moayanger blames the antics of the passenger auto-rickshaws for most of the traffic congestion and delay.
Much of the commute time is wasted at the Purana Bazaar road stretch considered as the epicenter of traffic congestion in the whole of Dimapur. “Traffic jams wouldn’t be this bad and there wouldn’t be delay in reaching our destinations if brash drivers, mostly the passenger auto-rickshaws in particular, are not pulling sneaky moves by cutting off the single traffic lane and create double lane on the wrong side of the road,” Moayanger pointed out.
Apparently, it is not only the auto-rickshaw drivers that are flouting the traffic rules. “While the most common defaulters are the auto-rickshaw drivers, vehicles belonging to well-to-do families, gazetted officers,” are equally found to be lacking in traffic sense, East Dimapur Sumi Students’ Union (EDSSU) president Reuben candidly informed.
“They should be the one showing the right way on road etiquette, but sadly they are ones equally flouting the traffic rules,” Reuben rued.
This observation was formed after the EDSSU members’ led by the president volunteered three-days assisting the over-stressed traffic personnel in monitoring the traffic at the Purana Bazaar road stretch recently. What the student union volunteers did was to ensure that no vehicles cut off lane or create a double lane or ply on the wrong side of the traffic along the road stretch.
The Dimapur District Auto-rickshaw Drivers Union (DDADU), which claims to oversee the welfare of the auto drivers, did not deny the accusation on the lack of traffic etiquette among section of the auto-rickshaw drivers. However, most of the defaulters are drivers who have not registered their membership, have no union identification card and are either part time or new to the profession,” DDADU treasurer, N Nihoto Swu claimed. He maintained that the union has been trying to educate the auto-rickshaw drivers every year with seminars on traffic rules and etiquette on the occasion of Road Safety Week, which it appears, is not bringing in much effect.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Traffic, Sendongmeren, also admitted that when it comes to flouting traffic rules, the auto-rickshaw drivers are the worst lot. “The Traffic police department has sounded caution a number of times; we have engaged with them on traffic rules and following them through seminars, but to no avail,” he said.
On a wider perspective, the DCP stated that the genesis of drivers in Dimapur or elsewhere in Nagaland failing to adhere to traffic rules may come from lack of driver education/awareness on traffic rules and road safety.
“Almost all the drivers here are self taught- we were only trained on how to drive the vehicle and not on how to behave in traffic-the end result is what we are witnessing every day,” the DCP pointed out.
This puts the onus on the numerous driving schools existing in Dimapur and other districts where only the physical operation of driving a vehicle is taught. “Driving schools ought to teach aspiring drivers not only on the aspects of driving the vehicle but also on traffic rules as well,” the DCP opined.
“In addition to the lack of education on traffic rules, it is also a lack of social values, or simply put, selfishness,” Dr Yanger Aier, who commutes daily from Duncan Basti to Marwaripatti to his clinic, pointed out.
“Traffic rules needs to be respected. No matter to which rung of the social hierarchy one may belong, no matter the size of the vehicle one may possess, one cannot disregard the traffic law,” the doctor added.
