Right lane - faux pas

I got a rude shock when the right lane was blocked for motorists in a city already clogged with traffic. Billions of taxpayer money spent to expand the road infrastructure in the capital has frittered owing to this brilliant idea.

When I ask traffic policemen, most of whom recognise me as I designated and implemented the traffic plan for Islamabad, all they say is “ooper say order hai” (superiors’ orders). I only pray it is not a police officer’s faux pas, because that would hit me like a thunderbolt.

As a nation one of our predominant traits is that we like to pretend we know the other’s job better than our own. Wouldn’t things improve overnight if we focused on what we are trained, paid, elected and appointed for?

In the context of traffic management and enforcement, the situation is even more pathetic as we have hordes of self-appointed and self-anointed phony traffic experts.



I beseech them to have mercy on road users and leave the job to trained officers. After misconceptions were promoted through a writer, I was left with no choice but to correct them.

It is said that the interior minister intervened after motorists complained of harassment by the traffic police for using the right lane. Couldn’t the minister stop this illegal practice or is he the author of it?

On some expressways and motorways there is a dedicated lane for overtaking. I would like to be educated because there is no such lane around the globe. Of course, there are dedicated lanes for fast traffic for which one has to pay extra toll, mostly to facilitate people who want to reach their workplace on time.

In Islamabad, traffic is seriously hampered by a multitude of cement barriers and now you have one lane outlawed.

The rationale for doing it on the motorway was entirely different and despite vehement opposition from foreign and local traffic experts, who even threw the Geneva convention in my face, I stuck to it and will always own it as my decision. But replicating it in Islamabad is like “kavva chala hans ki chaal apnee bhi bhoola.”

I recognise that a majority of our drivers tend to enter the right lane way before taking a right turn and don’t let anyone overtake, effectively blocking it, the decision is whimsical nevertheless for intra-city roads. No solution can be so simple. Pragmatic solutions, particularly where millions of people are affected and billions of man-hours are at stake, have to be professionally analysed and evaluated.

Traffic management no longer is an art. It is a specialised science.

Unfortunately, there is little expertise in the country with the result that even simple decisions such as fixing speed limits are based on whim.

The way to resolve traffic congestion in Islamabad is to conduct a professional road safety audit and a phased pragmatic action plan based on it. And lastly, a task force with adequate representation of traffic experts from the private sector to implement this plan.

Islamabad Traffic has tremendous scope for improvement without any financial investment. I for one am prepared to help gratis.

If the author of this decision does not see merit in my argument, I can suggest an even simpler solution for which he will be remembered for generations. Make it a donkey cart lane.

The writer is founder of Motorway Police who designed and implemented the Islamabad Traffic Police

Published in The Express Tribune, October 23^rd, 2013.