The menace of traffic jam still continues

Now we are living in 21st century digitalized world and loss of a minute matters a lot for everyone and for every civilized society. Hence, spending hours on traffic jam doesn’t sound good too much. Kohima city being the smart city still continues to reel under heavy traffic jam. The irony is that, we need to move out at least one and half hour or an hour in advance to reach the destination and the scheduled program and seriously we can’t always use traffic jam as an excuse for being late all the time.
In a place like Kohima city, where urbanization is at its peak; the business establishment keeps on expanding day by day, with standard educational institutions coming up and with the increase of palatial buildings constructing everywhere have thus led to the increase of migrant workers coming from all over India to Nagaland for construction work. Not an issue for this development but, it is a sign of increasing population for an unplanned city and congested roads. As we all know, when there is increased in population then there is increased in vehicular movements too on congested road finally leading to traffic jam.
Traffic congestion increases vehicle emissions and degrades air quality, have shown excess morbidity and mortality for drivers and commuters, stressed and frustrated motorists, encouraging road rage. Commuters who are exposed to air pollution, especially those riding in non-air conditioned vehicles double their health risk from chronic lung diseases. Air pollution can cause blood pressure, increase risk in heart attack and stroke. It can also cause lung cancer, asthma and other respiratory disease. During traffic jam cars move slowly, so the drivers are exposed to longer emissions.
For everyone, cars have become a ‘utility need’ not a ‘want’ and therefore, some families owns three to four cars out of necessity. Some go on purchasing every new car on arrival as a passion to drive and own it. So never on earth by anybody can impose on anyone to have limitations in owning cars (as it clearly infringes individual and fundamental rights). As a result of this, the car keeps on increasing and flooding the streets. There can’t be a traffic problem without plying any cars on the streets. Both go hand in hand together along with the development of the city. Another reason for overpopulating of cars is because the cars are becoming cheaper and affordable to everyone.
In order to have smooth flows of traffic is of course the need to have a gigantic flyover road but this will be technically impossible because of its geographic location and non-stability of the soil. However at least there is a possibility for the expansion of road by giving compensation to the landowners whose lands could be affected during expansion. Kohima city is developing fast and is moving and expanding beyond imagination. Just for instance, the stretch from High school junction to secretariat area was empty and forested area just some few years back only but now the area is fully developed and can hardly see any empty space. Likewise, the same is happening in every nook and corner of Kohima city.
As envisioned from my previous article which was written decade ago, now multi-parking structure has stood up and it is playing an important role in reducing heavy traffic jam at least to some extent. So many by-pass roads and footpaths have been constructed in and around Kohima city. It is also good to see many commercial and private buildings wisely/eagerly constructing parking space sacrificing ground floor of the building as meant for parking space. However, the traffic jam still continues to exist. The possible reason may be because of parking/illegal parking on the roadside, construction of building on the road side where materials are being kept, fairs and market on the roadside etc. If it is so then are we enough civilized to be called as civilized and responsible citizens? We can’t build metros, fly overs to reduce traffic jam. Plying of Odd and Even numbers can’t be enforced upon just for the sake of smooth running of the vehicles. So, the only option is to act responsibly as responsible citizens.
The stretch of road from Lerie colony to NPSC office is large and spacious enough to fit the moving cars on opposite side but the real problem also starts from colony roads. Our colony roads are very congested and small but it doesn’t mean that it is very small to pass two cars freely. The reason is due to over parking of cars on the roadside of the colony with out of no option and this is could be the possible reason that affects free flow of vehicular movement inside the colony road and finally leading to the main street of the city roads making traffic jump more vulnerable on every day basis.
Many times traffic jam is considered as a tool to test and control our patience. Remaining in traffic for long can cause anxiety, exhaustion, frustration and impulsive behavior which could affect our upcoming performance due to losing of our attention and interest. The trauma being faced during traffic jam is not less. Sometimes traveling time duration from Dimapur to Kohima take faster to reach than traveling from Lerie colony to Secretariat Office. Our wellbeing deserves a better place with no pressure on time management. Proper city planning and expansion of the road system is the urgent need of time. A provision for parking space is needed in order to accommodate more cars because sometimes searching for parking space especially in the peak hours seems like searching for most valued treasure on earth. Except in case of emergencies, we must adapt the habits of using two wheeler vehicles in order to reduce traffic jam as well as in order to save our economy as huge money is spent on fuel caused by burning of fuel during traffic jam.
Traffic police are doing their best effort for smooth traffic flows sometimes yelling and shouting at the commuters who breaks the traffic code. We must always obey traffic rules as disciplined citizens and as disciplined commuters. A comprehensive plan is needed to work on war footings from concerned authority in order to check the menace of traffic jam. Otherwise, it is getting worse.
To sum up, understanding the cause of traffic jams is crucial for addressing the broader implications. Healthy life- healthy driving without any tension is vital for human existence and therefore, it is my ardent request to continuously check on illegal parking/double parking on road side that cause unnecessary traffic jam. Just imagine Kohima city after ten years. Can we be able to thrive our life healthily with these kind of existing traffic problems?
Yarangchang Imchen
Lower Chadmari,
Kohima