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good
motoring
What is worse than these roads? There is something more that adds in the chaos and confusion on our roads. It is the road signs or to be more exact, the lack of them. Most of the ones in existence are wrong. They have been designed by a person who does not drive. As you pass Chandigarh Cantonment on the Madhya Marg extension it meets NH 22. If you are going to the hills and follow directions from the signboard, you find yourself in the wrong lane. Irritating, exasperating and off-putting. Driving should be fun, not so in this case. You curse the road builder and sulk for the next few kilometres. Just as the bad mood was passing you come to the entry point to the National Highway. It is simply a break/cut in the concrete divider separating the service road from the highway. To negotiate this break/cut, you are obliged to break speed to almost a crawl, and do a zig-zag, entirely defeating the purpose of a high-speed expressway. The entry point should be a road that merges seamlessly with the National Highway to join traffic which is moving close to 100 kmph.
This is made all the more dangerous when a truck or bus has to join the National Highway because of his excessive length he needs two lanes to make this move. In the process, he disrupts traffic on the highway. The exit and entry points are the same. They should be separate. While exiting, a bus or truck has to come to a near halt and becomes an impediment for the fast flowing traffic. Entering or exiting a highway should be a smooth, swift and uninterrupted move, not a zig-zag to be negotiated in first gear. Putting it simply, it is a badly designed road and extremely dangerous. It is one of the main reasons Indian roads kill 1.4 lakh people every year. Poorly designed roads and badly signposted ones lead a driver to miss his exit. So he reverses, probably the most dangerous move a driver can make. This is the road designer’s fault not the drivers. Signage is very important. Alas! Our road builders don't know this. Imagine yourself in a row-boat without oars. Same as poor signage. According to police, the NRIs visiting India are the worst offenders of road rules. It is hard to believe because NRIs follow road rules and are disciplined. On Indian roads, there are no rules and no discipline. For sheer self preservation the NRI will make a wrong move. Of the thousands of kilometres I have driven on National Highways and the Golden Quadrilateral I have not seen one "Keep Left". This is the very basis and essence of driving in India. No one follows this rule. The accompanying photograph shows two heavy trucks in the fast lane and overtake lane. How does one overtake? The driver of a fast car is forced to overtake from the left. An illegal and dangerous move. Actually it is quite safe because the trucks are not going to allow a pass and the slow lane, extreme left where the trucks should be, is left clear for an overtake. Happy Motoring !
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