Good road manners

While we have several traffic systems and cultures across the world, they are a few general road manners which need to be observed. We may not get accolades for our effort we can be rest assured of self-satisfaction, which is considered among the best human healers.
Given below are a few general traffic rules and their relevance to Indian roads.

a)Honking is considered as an extreme rude behavoir in a mojority of the nations. If it requires to make your presence felt, its better to flash your lights. This should be used sparingly though.
In the Indian roads, people have got immune to honking so many do not object and ultimately the purpose of honking is also not served.
But whatever maybe the case honking is always impolite. So lets make a conscious effort to avoid honking on our roads.
b)Overtaking. Its a general rule that you overtake only from the right side (for left drives). In this way the driver would have a better view of the vehicle that passes. Overtaking from the left is dangerous as vehicles often swerve to the left for reasons of halting or finding their destination.
In our roads you could say there is less room to overtake from the right and it is in the leftside where you find more room. The leftside is usually avoided or left empty for pedestrians, cycles, carts and even parking. But once this rule is universally observed, it becomes easier both while overtaking and being overtaken.
c)Lane-rules. Also cycles, carts are to be kept of the roads most of the time. This would be considered impractical in a developing country as India. So we need to follow a rule where the slower vehicles move in the leftmost lanes.
d)Care for pedestrians. Everyone at some point was a pedestrian. Pedestrians have to always be given respect. Therefore slowing at zebra crossings and stopping at signals for pedestrians to cross is an essential aspect of good road manners.
e)Avoid pollution.With pollution and dust is prevalent in most of our roads we need to regularly check and service our vehicles. It's for the good of your vehicle that you monitor its performance.

Now it isn't right to blame only our vehicles and their drivers. There are several other causes that make driving on our roads inconvenient and difficult. Instances of pedestrians walking 'blindfolder' in the middle of the streets, public transport being the highest polluters, parking issues to trafficjam initiators etc., we need to find solution for such cases too.
i) Pedestrians need to follow a simple rule where they need to cross only in zebra crossings, or at signals if there aren't any zebra crossings. Its better to be late than never. The goverment should do better to create more overbridges and zebra crossings at important locations.
ii) In the case of public transport the government needs to step up and create more efficient road transport system.
iii) Last but not the least the trafficpolicemen are the most important men on the road, the government needs to invest more on them. Also the roads need to be promptly checked for damaged and need to be repaired without further delay by the concerned authorities. Regular checks on damaged roads are necessary and traffic policemen need to have the authority to report any discrepancy too.

Now here are a few more major rules which one cannot compromise on.
1. Never drink and drive. Its better to take a chance on money than on a life.
2. Always wear a helmet while driving a two-wheerler, even if you're on a bicycle. Also the pillion ride needs to think about wearing a helmet as this position is more prone to the dangers of the road.
3. Always wear a seatbelt while driving. If your cars dosen't have a seatbelt don't complain, go get it done.
4. Never use a mobilephone while driving. Do not talk your way to an accident.

If efforts are made to reach such levels of road manners we can definitely make a roads a much better place.
So let's get it started now and Wish you all a very Happy driving.
pic:prabhakar.net

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