Car Pool maadi!

                I was on my way to office this morning listening to my favorite RJ Rachna. She said something that pushed up my eyebrows. She said Bangalore traffic police are now back to promoting Carpooling, because the traffic has drastically increased in last few weeks & they were finding it difficult to manage. I was in disbelief because I realized it wasn’t just me feeling that the traffic was getting worse in the last few days. I had thought it was probably just in the route I was travelling in or maybe I was getting impatient.

                Now that I knew it wasn’t just me experiencing this, I was wondering what could be inducing this increased pain to travel in the city. Just think about it for a minute, the roads haven’t become smaller in these weeks neither has our government suddenly taken up road work all over the city. So it has to be the vehicle volume or driving style. Has everyone in the city suddenly developed good road sense or has everyone lost it completely? Neither is true. So it has to be the vehicle volume. People have either suddenly become rich & started taking out their own vehicles instead of using office/public transport or most offices have changed their timings to let out a whole lot more people on the roads. We of course know the latter is only imaginative.

                Is it the job market that is on a new high? Or is it bonus & pay hike time already? Either of the cases if the earnings have increased, shouldn’t one be directing it in more wise investment avenues than wasting it on fuel & jamming up the city? Seriously, I see now value in using a super large SUV or Innova or a cool looking sedan or even a small 800 for the convenience of a single person. And I am ready to argue that it is not cool or makes one be seen as ‘Bade Saab’, it might have been that way a few decades ago but not now, not anymore.

                I appreciate the traffic police thinking out of the old school minds to make the city better, but will it work? Will, people who use cars for self-esteem agree to share their pride of driving? It is in the hands of each of us to bring out a more peaceful living city from an extremely stressful one. I urge to fully support the BTP in this move & will avoid driving alone to the utmost possible extent, will you?

       Stating in the lingo all of are very used to 'Saar, please car pool maadi' :)