How much does it take to obey traffic rules?

Been a resident of Chennai for the past 25 years and have noticed the degrading public attitude towards observing proper road rules. This includes pedestrians and cyclists. This has been a favourite thinking topic for me from my early school days and have still not got an answer to my agony. So what does it take to obey traffic rules and behave on roads? I find it strange that people sit in judgement of the government and of what it hasn't done in the last 50 years since Independence, have we stopped and asked ourselves what have we done to maintain what we have been provided?. I have even heard someone tell me that we shouldn't have got freedom from the British in the first place as India would have been a better place had it been them still around here. Don't agree one bit with this view but yes, i think one of the things we ought to have learnt from the British is how to behave / be more organised (notwithstanding their football crowd). Thanks to them, for example, we atleast have a good sewerage lines system laid down in the city of Chennai, not many probably know that the lines laid by them are still around in some places, standing rock solid.

Come to think of it, it really isnt a government problem always. What are we as citizens doing to ensure that we use the infrastructure properly. For that we first need to respect the space around us (not only the space we call home for those who respect the space in their home but are quite the opposite once they step out of them). Once we stop and pause for a few minutes and respect the space around us, it is logical that we start wanting it look better, feel better, and smell better. And once we feel these 3 emotions, we will automatically feel the need to keep the space around us better for ourselves if not for the sake of others. Now isn't it really a simple thing which we make out as something that requires committees to be set up and generate reports after reports on how to improve the traffic situation (and not forgeting the fact that these guys make money in the process at the cost of a worsening situation).

Stop and think, if we were to each just keep these simple rules in mind, i truly believe we would make our lives riding/driving/walking around Chennai much easier and less stressful:

a) Stick to your lane even if there isn't one marked (like on Mount Road). Am sure it needs minimum common sense to know which lane is best suited for our mode or transport.

b) Use the indicators provided on your vehicle, and use them sufficiently in advance and not after you already have turned your vehicle a bit or already moved a bit into an adjoining lane.

c) Don't honk unless very necessary. Believe me, during my drive to office one day, I once saw this car driver honking in specific intervals of time even when there was no vehicle in sight for quite some distance ahead of him. I assumed, here was a case of something that's lost its purpose and has become a second nature.

d) Don't drive on the wrong side of the road. For example, I have been amazed at the sheer guts of cyclists and even 2 wheeler drivers who comfortably ride on the wrong side of the road next to the median on the road from Loyola College till the Nelson Manickam signal, just to beat the heavily held up traffic on their actual lane.

e) When at a signal, and if you don't find many vehicles at the end which has their 'green' on, then don't decide to cross the signal. Wait for your turn.

f) If you intend riding/driving slowly for some reason (maybe you are looking out for some place and you need to read shop numbers), then watch which lane you are in, because even if you might have your reason to be slow, it’s terribly wrong to slow down the traffic behind you. Better thing to do would be to park your car some place when you are close to your destination and walk a bit to find your place.

g) If you are fairly new to riding/driving and/or you got your riding/driving license only recently, then don't feel ashamed to put a 'L' board on the back & front of your vehicle. Believe me, its only ego that can stop you from pasting an 'L' sticker but look at the bright side of things, you not only make yourself more predictable but you also provide for people around you to be more predictable to you which only aids your learing process in the end whichever way you look at it. I might have been a minority that put a 'L' board even on my 2 wheeler apart from when i got my car.

If we don't do something about the situation here and now, god it's going to be crazy once the Tata Nano comes on road!

To sign off, i would like to quote something that touched me recently. I read an article in the 'TOI' about a lady who spends a few mins every day outside the school her son/daughter attends on Harrington Road, whereby she helps ease the clogged traffic. Hats off to such effort and I'm ashamed that even as i write this post i haven't got myself to do something like what she's doing.