Traffic towards the city centre is the rowdiest anyone can possibly experience
LAHORE: A journey for a professional, who travels daily from one end of Lahore — Wapda town to the opposite corner to UET, faces a major problem. The new traffic police department was established during the government of Shehbaz Sharif with much enthusiasm, only to fall into such a sorrowful state of what is observable today. The traffic wardens have been reduced to guiding traffic at most signals instead of the traffic lights. This leaves no police manpower to keep traffic in order.
Traffic towards the city centre is the rowdiest anyone can possibly experience. High traffic density already existing on those roads with hasty drivers take every advantage to squeeze in through the narrowest spaces, least bothered about other road users beside them. There always seems a sense of urgency especially with the motorbikes and rickshaws which make use of their compact vehicle size. The worst parts are the chowks where such drivers usually block traffic, wasting valuable time and fuel, not to mention increasing levels of temperature and pollution which lead to smog.
What can be done to bring the traffic to a sane level? The driving testing system should be made elaborate where all traffic rules be taught and tested through a written and a practical driving test. On the other hand, the traffic law enforcement can be turned austere, very much like in the developed countries, which moved to this extreme to create humane vehicle drivers. Additionally, actually fining traffic rule breakers will help the department earn more money to facilitate it even further.
Ammarah Niaz
Published in The Express Tribune, December 4th, 2019.
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