Travails of a Goan commuter

Commuting on the roads of the major metropolises in the country comes nowhere near the ordeals faced by drivers in Goa maneuvering through impossible thoroughfares which amount to severe tests of an orthopedic forbearance on the human body. It is said that development of any region comes with its own share of hardships for the public, and for Goa it has been the travails of commuting that has assailed them.

Already weighed down by traffic bottlenecks and roads resembling ‘impossible terrains’ difficult to drive due to dilapidated conditions as endowments of the progress promised, commuters in Goa have a long wait ahead for things to improve.

While pot-holed surfaces continue to take their toll on the bones and muscles of the body, a driver cannot resist cursing the perennially dug-up state of Goan roads that virtually turn into cesspools during the monsoon.

The civic fathers in Margao had resolved to have any further digging of the city roads banned from sometime early this year. Has this ‘sanction’ been applied in toto by the MMC Chairperson!

Not to say that locals have made it any easier for the commuting public! The sadistic practice of erecting unauthorized speed-breakers outside almost every residence in some villages needs to be condoned and brought to the notice of the authorities. 

Time now to ponder over the vacillation by the district authorities over the installation of traffic-signals!

In any city teeming with traffic, automated signal systems have had a distinct role to play in regulating vehicular movement. With traffic junctions in most of the cities in the state witnessing a persistent commotion having man and motor vying for commuting space, vociferous demands for traffic signals at crucial T-junctions and Y-junctions to moderate traffic were being heard as never before.

However, once the traffic signals were commissioned, the situation worsened with many exhibiting their ignorance complying with the traffic signal codes. This called for immediate steps to educate the public on the nuances of traffic signals and how to abide by the rules of the changing lights.

But more importantly, it was the complete unawareness about the ‘rule of the circle’ that fouled up the orderly flow of vehicles at traffic intersections which directs both turning and through traffic onto a one-way circular roadway.

The one at the Old Market junction in Margao for instance! Ever since the installation of traffic signals at the island here, a visible delay in the vehicular traffic has prompted the public to question the wisdom in having a regulator for vehicular movement at the crossroad.

The rains, too have a unique way of disrupting traffic. While inundation and other wet-spell woes in major cities have not been catastrophic enough to attract concern, they have nevertheless made travelling by roads an ‘unhealthy’ exercise in the state.    

With the slew of development works being carried out in Goa, it hasn’t been unusual to have heavy earth moving machinery traversing the highways. Besides being the cause of traffic snarls at peak hours, the damage the asphalted surfaces suffer due to the movement of these machines has further compounded the woes of the travelling public.

It just cannot be denied that the movement of construction equipment and machines at the new Zuari bridge site has definitely contributed to the inordinate delay in vehicular movement along the Bambolim-Cortalim stretch leading to the traffic jams witnessed.

The utilitarian value of the machines has further prompted various industrial establishments and private entrepreneurs to employ them for major works to tide over the recurrent problem of manpower shortage that hampers their functioning.

But with the heavy equipment virtually running riot on Goan roads, it is definitely a worry that addressing the safety concerns of the general public has never featured in the order of priorities for the authorities.

The courts of the country have been very emphatic about the manner in which the heavy equipment needs to move on the public roads. Yet, frequent accidents involving heavy-duty machines fails to spur the administration into action over the blatant flouting of Motor Vehicle rules.

The sensibility of allowing heavy machines to ply on the highways and busy thoroughfares of the cities and adjoining areas has always been questionable.  

Considering that it has been a norm in foreign countries to facilitate the movement of such heavy machines by mounting them on trailers, why are we deliberately ignoring the safety standards on the roads and jeopardizing the lives of the travelling public!

Awareness campaigns on road safety should include this aspect of ‘traffic violation’ which could otherwise invite disastrous consequences.

Mob-fury over accidents involving heavy machines is thus a futile and senseless response to the ineffective ways of the concerned authorities to curb the malaise of these ‘road-monsters’ running amok on public thoroughfares.

The urban ‘wildlife’ and its pestilence have already come in for enough criticism as a hindrance to the uninterrupted flow of traffic.

Touted as a state with one of the largest population of motorized vehicles on its roads, it becomes pertinent that the travelling public is not put to inconvenience over anomalies that make commuting by roads a nightmarish experience in Goa.