Daily Times

Traffic jam is a menace that we all face in our daily life. That never-ending patience, hoping that the roads might clear before we run late for whatever task we are running or places we are going to. It makes us feel helpless and at the same time wasteful of both time and related resources like fuel, energy, efforts, & morning motivation to work with enthusiasm. We feel lethargic waiting for hours and hours to reach on the proper time to our respective places. People reach late to their offices even after driving fast, especially the students are the most who suffer a lot.

Pakistan’s most populated & famous cities like Karachi (also known as the City of Lights), Lahore, Faisalabad, Hyderabad, Gujranwala, etc. are faced with an alarming situation of Traffic congestion. It is a preoccupied era where everyone is found struggling hard for their own benefits and want quickly as much as possible to arrive at their places on time without delaying.

The ever-increasing rush of heavy traffic on the roads often results in loss of human life. The traffic in Karachi is now almost uncontrollable. Drivers drive recklessly. The traffic police mostly disappear, the roads are left abandoned where the police is utmost needed, or do not bother to monitor about the ruthless drivers as they put lives of the passengers at risk. This is due to a lack of civic sense in people which results in violation of traffic rules and laws. Sometimes traffic signals in particular areas of the cities are also not in workable condition, they should be maintained properly to regulate the city traffic.

There is an ignorance of the traffic signs like Zebra Crossing, One-way, Stop, Parking, etc. The number of road accidents is also growing apart from pedestrians facing a lot of inconvenience while crossing a road. Dishonesty of traffic police& avoidance of taxes by the general public are also the reasons of this poor system of traffic in Pakistan.

The roads are too compact to facilitate the movement of cars, taxis, rickshaws and other vehicles. The endless construction work in cities is another reason of massive traffic jams on roads, for example, work-in-progress of buildings and offices can be seen in every area of Karachi as it is an urban city and businesses are encouraged to set up due to the growing needs of the population.

Moreover, poor condition of roads also contributes towards traffic accidents and traffic jam, Drivers are in a hurry to reach at their respective places and this is dangerous as road accidents can happen.

Ambulances are not given space to go through the way, and it is risky for the serious patients inside the ambulance, drivers have to reach hospital as quick as possible to save patients’ life. People arrive late to their homes in the evening after waiting for prolonged hours in the queue of cars even they are tired after full day of working in their offices.

There is a need to have a serious consideration over these factors for improvement. We can gain advantage of this competitive high-Tech environment by implementing an automatic IT system to control traffic, proper training of traffic police should be conducted according to the current laws, regular monitoring and maintenance of the traffic should be there on roads daily, a proper traffic regulatory department in the cities should be developed to have a check & balance on the daily issues of road traffic.

New roads, overpasses, underpasses can be built and widened to reduce traffic congestion on one particular road. We can often get rid of Traffic lights by using roundabouts, it is a much safer way to control traffic and reduce vehicles’ congestion also by lowering speed of cars and better angle.

Unnecessary usage of cars should be reduced, for example, going on nearby shops and using cars for that, instead a person can walk along to reach to that nearby shop. More shopping malls can be built so that all roads selling can be moved to those buildings as the stalls at the side of the roads are the major cause of increasing customers and blocking ongoing traffic. Most of the cars are often parked on the side of the roads wrongly which stops the way of going traffic, so proper parking lots in different areas of the cities should be developed to prevent unnecessary parking as well.

All these efforts will hopefully bring about a positive change in the traffic situation of the city. Keeping in mind the potential hindrance of the traffic problems, an optimistic approach should be adopted for the implementation of these steps to prevent traffic issues in the country and hopefully everyone will be able to travel with comfort and ease.

AMINAH KHAN

Karachi

Published in Daily Times, November  5^th 2018.