A noisy urban environment is made worse by bad planning and carelessness.
Shhhhhchoool Ahead!
By Gina Dantes with Jofin Jose
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Motor Vehicles Act 1988
119. Duty to obey traffic signs.
(1) Every driver of a motor vehicle shall drive the vehicle in conformity with any indication given by mandatory traffic sign and in conformity with the driving regulations made by the Central Government, and shall comply with all directions given to him by any police officer for the time being engaged in the regulation of traffic in any public place.
(2) In this section "mandatory traffic sign" means a traffic sign included in Part A of 1[The First Schedule], or any traffic sign of similar form (that is to say, consisting of or including a circular disc displaying a device, word or figure and having a red ground or border) placed or erected for the purpose of regulating motor vehicle traffic under sub-section (1) of section 116. | | .Feedback! |
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| There’s a commercial on TV for tyres which says the street is filled with idiots. Let’s just see how Kolkata (Calcutta) rates… People running across the road through traffic – check; Vehicles overtaking left and right – check; Cars (suddenly) taking turns without indication - check , Weaving, speeding bikes with three or more on the seat – double check!
Whew! They don’t say for nothing – if you can drive in Kolkata, you will be able to anywhere in the world – if you call that driving! Yeah, we all already know the traffic problems of Kolkata. But amidst the ever worsening road etiquette and lawlessness there is one detail that stands out - noise pollution. Sure we hardly notice the roar of those bikes anymore or the deep rumble of trucks past our windows (except at night when we’re afraid our homes may collapse with the vibrations,) but besides the lung searing pollution caused by their vehicles, our motorists are on a mission to deaden our hearing - and it’s not just the sound of their conveyance. Observe any traffic light. There is 60 minute left till green, but drivers are leaning furiously on their horns. The noise is deafening. Senior citizen, Maureen Lobo, who lives at the Park Circus roundabout in Central Kolkata, complains, “All the drivers coming down the flyover blare their horns incessantly – though it’s a red light. It has become difficult to bear as our windows face the intersection.” She wishes they had the manners – and the brains, to realize it needs to be green before they can move. Did we say “idiots”?  © 2011 EarthSmiles.net . All rights reserved. Made from 100% recycled pixels.     Noise pollution (or adverse environmental noise) is displeasing, annoying noise which is unpleasant and potentially harmful, human, animal or machine-created sound that disrupts the activity or balance of human or animal life. Honking = Noise pollution.
So, when some time back, I saw traffic officers hauling up vehicles around the Mayfair Road /D.I. (Dalhousie Institute) area for blowing the horn, a.k.a. honking, in a no horn zone; I thought it was a good thing. While many argued that the sign boards were not visible, a few of shrugged, paid a fine and got going. Perhaps they were the minority that know that the area around a school is always a no horn zone, as the Modern High School for Girls, a popular city institution is on the road - just before the intersection where the officers had set up camp, the Syed Amir Ali Avenue and Mayfair Road crossing.
Looking around, EarthSmiles.net found a sufficient number of 'no horn' and 'school ahead' signs, two sign boards on either side of the front gate of the school, a few placed closed to each other like a romantic couple, and a few others playing hide and seek, hiding behind a billboard and lost in the foliage of a tree. To be fair though, lack of signs is not the real problem. It’s where they are placed. For example if you were coming down the (SA Avenue) road, you would have to reach the school first to see the signs – too late, because you would have honked past a dozen classrooms already… the school gates are at the other end. Given the traffic and the general lawless weaving around popular in Kolkata – drivers would be using their horns… and a lot! Placing the No Horn boards a little ahead would warn all but the most obsessive “honkers.”
Then there is Mayfair Road, which exits right in front of one of the school gates – there’s not a single ‘school ahead’ or ‘no horn’ sign on the approach. However, there was one that said ‘No Parking’. When the vehicles come out of Mayfair Road, they don’t see any sign and hence drive right into the traffic with their horns blowing. And of course, straight into the arms of the waiting policemen, strategically camped here. What’s not good for our ears is definitely music for the cops, whose fine-books come out straightaway. On bringing that to the attention of a traffic constable, we observed he seemed totally unaware and least interested, too. A few other officers, who were stopping vehicles and charging fines, shooed us away saying they had work to do. Which I believe they did very sincerely… they were busy!
Finally, a Kolkata Police traffic signal operator, Tarak Saha, told EarthSmiles.net that though the Kolkata Police do the installation, and have a department assigned for it. It’s a continuous process, where in the officers inspect and install signals where ever necessary. He said “Our duty is to make sure that the citizens abide by the rules; we are here to serve the people…The people need to cooperate and follow the rules as well. We cannot put signals everywhere.”
Well, the last part is true. One does not always need a sign to act. In some countries blowing the horn unnecessarily is considered equivalent to slang… and here we are, least bothered about others and even less about our environment. All that the public needs to do is to use their civic sense and be careful and alert. It may not be your kid in there; but if it was, would you like her/him being disturbed exactly the same way?  Cars come out of Mayfair Road... horns honking as they slip into the flowing trafic on the other side of the road... and MHS School Ahead and No Horn signs.... after you PASS the school! The guard in the picture is standing at the last school gate... the signs are beyond that! |
