Traffic

It is not an uncommon sight to witness people traveling in vehicles on the roads of Chennai lashing out with their arms and pointing fingers at fellow commuters, who according to them, seem to have committed a traffic violation.   Often pillion riders take care of the latter and indulge in the customary mouthing of expletives, appearing to do some sort of panicky dance in the process.

With an astounding number of cars alone being put out on the road everyday, it is hardly any surprise that Chennai’s traffic troubles have been mounting. If statistics and the tag of Chennai being the ‘Detroit’ of India are anything to go by, Chennai is soon all set to have a production capacity of 2.2 million vehicles per annum, according to state deputy Chief Minister, M K Stalin. In addition to automobile giants like Ford, Hyundai, Daimler, Renault-Nissan, Mitsubishi and BMW, Peugeot is also looking to set up operations near Chennai. Needless to say, a lot of consumers from Chennai are going to be major customers for these companies. However, this is only limited to cars. The Metropolitan Transport Corporation, according to latest figures, operates 3, 421 buses in its fleet in Chennai, and ferries close to 55.29 lakh passengers every single day, across 690 routes. Add to this, the burgeoning two-wheeler population, and then one can imagine the scenario of Chennai’s traffic.

With so many people plying the roads, it is of absolute necessity, now more than ever, that the population of Chennai is educated on road rules. The Chennai City Traffic Police (CCTP) has also been playing quite an active role in this regard. It has conducted various safety camps and awareness programmes, but by and large, it boils down to every single person in ensuring that there are no major mishaps. However, to assist in such endeavours, CCTP has set up a few programmes. One of these is the Citizen for Safe Roads (CSR) programme. Under this project, any member of the public, provided they are above the...