Callousness towards others is the major cause

There are 250 to 300 self-motivated people like Nambiar who have joined The Traffic Warden Organisation (TWO) to assist Bangalore City Traffic Police in enforcement and regulation activities. The organisation has doctors, engineers, bank employees, businessmen, IT professionals. There are also a dozen women traffic wardens, some of them house wives, who have joined TWO with the sole interest of serving the public cause.

Nambiar, explains that the spurt in pedestrian accidents is due to the increase in vehicle population, making people walking on roads prone to accidents. Pedestrians feel that civic authorities have failed in providing safety to them. The general attitude of people towards traffic rules that they obey the rules only if they see a traffic policeman. “The public should not disobey rules even if nobody is monitoring,” he asserts.  

With the motto of ‘Enforcement - Education - Engineering’, TWO organises many campaigns to educate citizens about road safety like the ‘Catch Them Young’ programme which focuses on educating the school and college students.  They also screen hour-long animation movies on safety in various educational institutions. Five lakh students have been covered under the programme.

“Once a week, we organise road safety activity in a traffic park for 500 school students for almost two hours,” says Nambiar. They also assist the traffic police in controlling traffic across 40,000 junctions. The “Each one and teach one extra” slogan the TWO encourages public to join the organisation and collectively work for road safety.

Most of traffic rules are motorist-centric, and so is the regulation. The authorities pay less attention to the enforcement of rules for the pedestrian. Has any pedestrian ever been fined for breaking a rule?

Speaking to Deccan Herald, Psychologist Vinaya Prabha V Baligar said: “Since pedestrians are confident of escaping punishment, they indulge in stunts on road. This could lead to fatal accidents.” Further, experts opine that zoning violations also pose a threat to pedestrian safety in the City. Psychiatrist Vatsa points out that lack of appropriate zoning, corporate houses rising in residential blocks and shopping centres in the vicinity of schools et al were leading to chaos in traffic management affecting pedestrian safety.