Enraged is the state of mind leading to road rage, which has turned out to be the major malaise, afflicting the Indian roads, more so in the urban areas especially in big towns. There has not been any serious research done on this issue and hence patterns or theoretical constructs or the granular details remain shrouded. We generally keep discussing and presuming based on our experiences, if any, and more so on hearsay. Even if we face any of these once in a while, we take it as an aberration and move ahead in life.
The recent Bengluru case of an IAF officer vs the biker has brought the road rage issue under sharp focus, with the story taking a topsy turvy turn against the IAF officer. It also forced us to believe that road rage is a reality and is happening to our detriment on a regular basis in most parts of this country. Then what is road rage? Road rage is aggressive or angry behaviour exhibited by drivers in response to the stressful and frustrating driving situations. India has every single causative factor that creates this issue, and enough fuel to make it a permanent potboiler.
Some of the visible manifestations, more so, on a near permanent basis, in an area, locality and town, would clearly define that area prone to road rages and action would need to be taken accordingly. The visible manifestations are a) yelling or using offensive gestures at other drivers, b) tailgating – driving too closely behind another vehicle, c) intentionally cutting off other vehicles, d) blocking another driver from changing lanes and e) engaging in physical confrontations or even using a vehicle as a weapon. This would give you a fair idea as to what our stand on this issue is.
Regulating traffic in an efficient is the key with the whole issue lack of traffic discipline, which at the current juncture. Everything would finally come down to positive and proactive changes in the two areas mentioned. In a place like Bangalore, lack of parking spaces adds to the perennial issue of bad traffic. Now road spaces outside of houses and business enterprises are being declared as their own and can be used for parking of only their vehicles. Even traffic cones and other gadgets to create and maintain private parking. There are security guards and valet parking guys, who keep managing their parking spaces all day. Parking rage is an issue we have decided to live with. There can be different variants.
ROAD RAGE IS DIRECTLY PROPORTIONAL TO THE QUALITY OF DYNAMIC AND REAL TIME TRAFFIC REGULATION.
Sanjay Sahay
Have a nice evening.