CHENNAI: When people head out anytime after lunch, they believe driving will be quicker in Chennai. Not too much traffic, they say. That would be true, unless your route has the misfortune of having a cluster of schools on the way. With great schools come greater traffic. Add to it the fact that school autos have mostly given way to school vans and class dismissal time can look very much like your average Monday morning peak hour, along these particular stretches.
"We simply cannot have bigger roads. So, all we can do is make sure we distribute the growing number of school vehicles along other roads so that the congestion is lesser," reasons Sanjay Arora, Additional CoP, Greater Chennai Traffic Police. The upper crest schools draw a greater number of individual cars, while the mid-range schools draw a large number of vans. Buses have almost become obsolete.
"We have asked schools to co-operate by adjusting their closing times by small margins. With more personnel deployed, we will try to keep the traffic low," he adds. But even he admits that this is merely a "band-aid" and not a cure. Who are the worst- affected? People who use these roads as thoroughfares during the afternoons, unwittingly get stuck for ages, till the vans, cars and bikes clear. Ironically, sometimes, the shortcuts are more congested than the main roads.
Comments
0 comment