At the heart of this chaos stand Nepal’s finest in blue, blowing whistles and gesturing relentlessly. One signal from them brings the wriggling automobiles to a complete standstill. This, in its full glory, is a typical Kathmandu traffic jam.[break]
The Week File Photo
The job of a traffic policeperson is a tiring and testing one. Standing in the sun and smog for long hours and subjecting oneself to the continuous honking of horns everyday is not a joke. However, with the increasing flow of vehicles in the city and people thronging into the capital, roads are turning into fish markets, and traffic jams have become an everyday affair.
“We have around 600-650 cops on the roads at the moment and sometimes they have to work for 18 hours a day,” says the Metropolitan Traffic Police Division Chief DIGP Keshav Adhikari.
Traffic cops are few in number and the vehicles are way too many. The situation worsens particularly during rush hours when, at times, in the busiest parts of the town, about half a dozen traffic cops have to be mobilized and yet things get difficult to handle.
Kathmandu is infamous for its congested roads and mismanaged urbanization. In addition to that, the road widening project has left piles of construction stuff lying around in the most haphazard manner. In addition, there are stray animals and flooded roads that make commuting in the Valley a nightmare. However, the long hours of traffic jams cannot be attributed only to these factors.
Suresh Lohani, a teacher who rides a motorbike, has found the traffic islands, traffic lights and dividers as dissatisfactory both in number as well as in condition. Sometimes the traffic cops are not even visible and traffic lights are more often than not out of order.
“The cops are often lost in the sea of vehicles. Pedestrians too keep crossing the streets rampantly since the traffic lights don’t work and the zebra crossings are faded,” he analyzes.
It is indeed difficult in the streets where road infrastructures are in such poor state. Traffic lights, for instance, rarely work and traffic cops have to do everything manually. Chandra Subedi, Senior Divisional Engineer of Department of Road, agrees that the situation looks bleak in terms of human resource and overall traffic management. But he is rather optimistic that the government is soon launching the system of intelligent traffic lights.
“Before, we had this system where the lights of the entire city were connected to one another. Now, we’re planning to launch the intelligent traffic light system which helps the vehicles of one particular location maneuver in the right direction,” he informs.
He further adds that road geometrics of our city are rather problematic due to haphazard urbanization and unmanaged plotting system. The vehicular density of a certain area is not calculated beforehand, and sometimes the drivers and traffic cops themselves are confused regarding certain rules.
“We need better trainings and better road planning if we wish to have lesser traffic jams. Discipline on the roads is one of the chief factors,” he says.
Lack of road etiquette has also been felt by Anuradha Sharma, a graduate student, who rides a scooter. She has witnessed countless rows between drivers, conductors and traffic cops while commuting in the city. She is tired of people parking their vehicles in the wrong places. She also gets irritated when public vehicles board and drop off the passengers in the middle of the road. It is extremely annoying when two bikers ride side by side, making small talks. These seem like little things but when they accumulate, they create a rather mismanaged picture.
“People have no road etiquette. They don’t follow the traffic rules and they don’t know how to behave on the streets,” she declares.
An IT professional who drives a car, Sohan Joshi has often witnessed this kind of mismanaged attitude. He is particularly annoyed with the bike riders who are, according to him, an impatient bunch. Unlike car drivers, who are stuck in the jams, they always navigate their way through the wrong lanes while disturbing vehicles coming from the opposite direction. Sometimes, the bikes even pass through the sidewalks.
“Except for those working at prime locations and in rush hours, traffic cops too don’t seem very alert or motivated,” he comments.
Suresh agrees with him and even gives examples of those traffic jams created due to “sawaaris” or VIP escorts. Whenever a VIP decides to step out into the street for a few minutes, the whole city suffers for the entire day. The traffic cops often seem inconsiderate and adamant under these circumstances, considering this a matter of national security.
“The traffic cops are biased when it comes to the VIPs and the commoners. Even while regulating the traffic, they flow the vehicles from the areas around the embassies more quickly,” he comments.
DIGP Adhikari credits the smoother flow of vehicles to the priority of locations. He takes an example of the Putali Sadak roundabout and says that as vehicles coming from Kamal Pokhari side are more in number, that route would gain more priority in comparison to the road stretching from Dilli Bazaar.
“And for VIPs, we’ve started stopping vehicles only fifteen minutes prior to the “sawaaris.” But in a city like Kathmandu, where roads are narrow and vehicles are numerous, drivers and pedestrians too need to be more patient and accommodating,” he points out.
Moreover, the vehicles of government offices like the Supreme Court are allowed to take those turns that the others are forbidden to. The dividers are removed for them and as they come out and there is a jam in the street.
“That can’t be avoided but we make sure that such vehicles don’t cause much obstruction and the traffic flow is smooth once again,” Adhikari claims.
At a press meet on Thursday (yesterday), he gave further emphasis on following the traffic rules to minimize vehicular congestion in the capital. He demonstrated this new strategy through the new traffic control room which makes it easier to monitor the most sensitive locations of the Kathmandu Valley through CCTV cameras. He also expressed that the traffic cops are doing a lot, and despite that, due to the overall circumstances, they are not being able to produce the desired results.
“There are 700,000 vehicles running on a 1,500km road networks of the Valley. In addition, the traffic cops sometimes have to push those vehicles that come to standstills due to lack of fuel or maintenance,” he says.
In countries where traffic is better managed, there are strict rules regarding road etiquette and traffic rules. In Nepal, perhaps the main problem is that the rule breakers are not punished as severely. The government has not been implementing all that it plans, and the traffic situation of the city requires a lot of improvement and maintenance.
Kathmandu needs more road furniture, fewer vehicles and a lot of patience, training and abiding when it comes to implementing and following traffic rules. Traffic jams do not happen just due to the weakness of a single party; it is a consequence brought about due to collective recklessness that needs to be rectified in the days to come.
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