As a member of the "NRI-return" species, I have the usual habit of pointing at every thing that is not right around me and asking stupid questions like "why is the footpath broken?", "isn't this a one-way street?", "does the Pani-puri cart guy have FSSAI certification?".
I think mostly I'm frustrated, irritated. Many times I'm bemused. Occasionally I embrace it. Sometimes I get all righteous and I want to go on a crusade. I regularly call up local government officials. Mostly I get ignored or told it will be done and nothing happens. But overall I think I have been quick to assimilate and just enjoy life without asking too many questions. It's a certain willful blindness and acceptance.
This is mostly while I walk or take public transport - which I do a lot. When I take a vehicle - a cab or an autorickshaw - is when my frustration peaks. My frustration at being stuck in traffic that is constantly stop and start is not because I'm in a hurry or anxious to get somewhere. It is because the typical traffic jam in Bengaluru is not caused by sheer magnitude of vehicles or a lack of good roads.
I know this is going to infuriate people as they point out the crater-field that passes for a street close to their residences. From my observation, traffic jams are created by the driving style and haphazard parking. The traffic piles up in gargantuan proportions because of the number of vehicles, but the cause is one of the above.
Either on an already narrow, crowded, cramped street, someone thinks "I'll just leave my vehicle here for a few minutes and it won't cause any bother" (or more likely, "I'm just going to park here for a few hours because I don't even marginally consider the impact of my actions on others and I just want convenience and who is going to catch me anyway??")
Or at a turning, a number of people want to outflank the traffic and end up creating a bottle-neck out of nothing. Since I am observant of these things, I can off the top of my head name at least 20 junctions close to my residence where simple lane barricades (I'm not delusional enough to hope for lane discipline coming from habit and behaviour, there has to be something physical to enforce it) would eliminate the constant pile-ups.
The worst configuration is of the tiny street that joins the main road from the left just a few metres from the traffic light. And a constant flow of vehicles who emerge from that street and want to turn right immediately. They choke off the lanes and block the flow of traffic in those few seconds when the light turns green. Those kind of traffic-lights are just forever blocked. A simple barricade that says "hey, if you want to turn right, go back and join the right lane. Or just spend a minute and half more to make a U-turn slightly ahead" would solve the problem. It's the same with wrong side driving - it's the desire to save a few 10s of seconds.
Even without this small road leading in from the left, any right turn from a T-junction is a nightmare. Because when the lights are red for the right turn, all the vehicles that want to turn right pile on to the left lane and try to cut ahead of the traffic.
My little service that I render to Bengaluru is that I always give a lecture to every cab and auto driver about two things - the ineffectiveness of honking towards decreasing your drive time and the immorality of sneaking up the lane to cut the traffic. I know my words are a complete waste of breath, but I hope if it comes from enough quarters, the feedback might just be taken up.
I believe there is a deeper point to be made here. As a driver of a vehicle, on one occasion I may sneak up on the traffic and buy myself a minute. I could annoy one person and cut them off to gain 30 seconds. But overall, when everyone thinks this way, when every single person is in a tearing hurry, everyone is a loser. For every time that I get to gain a second, there are 20 instances where I'm the one at the back, unable to move ahead because vehicles that want to turn right are blocking the left lane meant for traffic going straight.
For every time that I narrowly squeeze into the gap and force another vehicle making a turn to suddenly stop, there are 10 occasions where I am actually behind the vehicle forced to brake. Even as I believe I'm gaming the system and making small gains over everyone else, I'm actually fostering a system where I lose along with everyone else.
If everyone just waited patiently. If everyone stuck to their lanes, went straight without driving waywardly, the overall traffic would actually flow so much better, that everyone would be able to reach their destinations faster, even if momentarily it feels like you're needlessly waiting all the way at the back of a lane.
Everyone being in a hurry actually causes everyone to be late.
If we all just slowed down, we could all go faster.
And I would end this piece by saying - I ride a scooter regularly in Bengaluru and occasionally drive cars as well. I honk maybe once a week. And I just go slowly in a straight line. To quote a friend of mine, "you drive like an Unc." I get honked at like crazy, but I'm happy to be the crazy NRI return who hasn't re-learnt the ways of my country. We need to adopt this at a large scale to make our cities more livable. Enough has been said about rapid urbanisation and pathetic streets. Even on those streets, some basic empathy for a fellow driver and human being would be half of the solution.