Traffic - The Hyderabadi Ishtyle

Every time I move into a new town/city I keep getting the feeling that, “If someone can drive/ride a vehicle in this traffic, they can make it a cake-walk in any other place of the world”. This has happened to me 5 times till date and still counting…

As a young boy, I used to travel in my dad’s bike or car in the streets of Coimbatore; that was way back in the late 80’s and used to get a feeling that the traffic there was intense and my dad is doing a real great job driving there. Then I moved to Madurai, a place where most of the public infrastructure was developed by the Pandya Kings. The streets of Madurai were comparatively of lesser width and adding insult to injury, the general public used the platforms and even part of the road for shops. This made it difficult for the commuters to find their way through the city. This was where I started riding a bike and the same feeling crept in to my mind; “I am doing an awesome job and I can do this in any part of the world”.

I became a little older, moved to Chennai for a job and by that time Chennai was not the same city which I saw in the late 90’s. The radius of the city had increased manifold and the traffic – needless to say. I started my career in a sales profile and I had the tough task of not only driving the sales for my company but also to commute in the hot sun of Chennai and the mindless traffic of that humongous city. I had to get ready at least 30 minutes earlier than the usual time needed to reach the destination in time, because of the traffic. There in Chennai, speed does not matter; a guy with a Pulsar 180 and a guy with a TVS 50 will be traveling at the same pace due to the intense traffic congestions. Nostalgia again, “I am doing an awesome bla bla bla”.

I used to hear a lot about the traffic situations in Mumbai from my friends, colleagues and through the media. I also had a chance to visit Mumbai on a couple of occasions for official reasons and the traffic there was again a shock for me. Long lanes filled with honking vehicles, but by far the most disciplined traffic I had seen till date.

Then I moved into the mother of all traffic congested cities. HYDERABAD!!! Yes, believe me, it is Hyderabad. This city which came to the limelight due to the rapid growth in IT companies is now being brought to the limelight again for a different reason. The first time visited Hyderabad I was amazed by the wide roads and the smooth flow of traffic. But that was the last time I had that thought in my mind. It was literally a paradoxical situation of traffic and road-side drama when I permanently moved to this “city of pearls”. The traffic sense of individuals in this city is the most “uncalled for” types and by this I am not sparing anybody. Let it be a two-wheeler rider, car driver, auto-wala, city government buses, you name it and they violate traffic in one way or the other, and let me tell you it annoys me a lot.

There used to be a comedy by Vivek (well known Tamil Cinema comedian); “We’ll put the right indicator (in the vehicle), indicate that we are turning left with our hand and keep going straight by confusing one and all around us”. This is what happens in Hyderabad in the literal sense. Lane discipline, traffic lights, yellow lines, zebra crossings, free-left turns, one-way; you can bet with at least 60% of Hyderabadis to get all of them correct. Although I am exaggerating the situation here, this is very much closer to reality.

To add more to the traffic conditions of the city, most of the traffic lights do not work even at 10 AM in the morning, the traffic constables are mere spectators and you wear a Helmet in this city and you are even eligible of running down people with your vehicle. Cabs operated by IT companies are driven only by Schumachers, Hamiltons and Alonsos; All bike riders are Cappirossis and Melandris. All auto-walas are "top-gun pilots".

Some interesting facts about the Hyderabadi Ishtyle of driving (from my observation):

• 1 out of 100 commuters stop before the stop line in a signal
• At least 1 out of 10 vehicles break red signals
• 6 out of 10 block the road on a “free-left” intersection
• 1 out of 10 take a right turn from the left hand side of the road by disrupting the on-going (straight) traffic
• 8 out of 10 police constables are afraid to stop vehicles not adhering to traffic rules

Best of them all:
A police constable tries stopping a two-wheeler rider for not wearing a helmet, the guy points the helmet locked at the rear of the bike and pushes off. Cool tactics, huh!!!

A beautiful and busy city like Hyderabad deserves more than this from the commuters and city police. It has to come either from the commuters themselves or the city police has to take some strenuous actions to bring the city’s traffic under control, else the development that the city saw in the past 5 years will just be history in the next 5 years.