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Originally Posted by V.Narayan I am surprised (or maybe I should not be) at our entitlement mentality of the middle and upper middle classes rearing up on this thread. We read the usual hackneyed refrain "Govt should do this" and "the Govt should do that" so long as none of our little pleasures are trampled upon. |
Very well said, Narayan! I absolutely agree.
Sadly, this comes across in multiple multiple areas. I hear my colleagues complain about roads, infrastructure, lousy MLA in the area, etc. etc. But do they even do one small mite to make a difference - i.e: put their votes when it matters ? You should see Bangalore's voting stats. It is dismal - Never crosses more than 50% and in that lion share would be that of very low income group. A good percentage of colleagues would gladly seize the holiday given for excercising their franchise rights to go for a vacation. Who wants to stand in a Q and vote anyways ? and yet, when it comes for any problems - be it infrastructure, rain water flooding, you name it - ALL are ready to come out and do arm chair criticism of their so called elected representatives!
While I don't fully subscribe to the proposal of imposing speed governors, in our country where jugads, workarounds and "chalta hai" attitude rules the roost, sometimes even these ludicrous "rules" may be needed.
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Originally Posted by The Brutailer Sorry to say, but I can’t fathom your statement. Why should be speed limited on every car or bike? I understand reasonable speeds but 80? What if you’re on highway?
As a reasonable community let’s not support unreasonable, unscientific, obstructive suggestions by dim-wits in power. You think accidents will stop if such rules are implemented? I think not.
Instead why not give the suggestion of installing speed-cameras all around? Charge heavy penalty, suspend license..I’m all for it. What kind of humongous budget would it take to install speed cameras all around considering our great government spends a lot more on things which don’t require spending?
Regards |
Mate - You are missing the bigger picture here.
Some thoughts:
Firstly most of our roads/infrastructure are NOT designed/suitable for high speed driving - even the four lane/8 lane highways. There are far too many crossings and un-fenced stretches where anything from a dog, stray cow, or a short-cut hankering two wheeler may suddenly appear.
Just for reference - most of our express trains are calibrated to run at about 80 to 90Kmh, even though they can be easily made to run at 150+kmph - main reason ? Preference for safety.
Secondly, the number of law enforcement officers vis-a-vis the number of motorists/vehicles on the road are badly skewed ratio. For instance, Bangalore city just has about 3000 or 4000 policemen. Speaking of highways, the ratio will be more skewed.
Thirdly, with our penchant for flouting the law and finding loopholes, the number of violators who will be brought to justice will be very less.
Fourthly, most of our driving training, attitude on the road are highly inadequate - It is so easy to get DL without really knowing how to drive properly. Given this background, it is indeed an extremely risky proposition to hand over a high power/high speed vehicle to these "raw" and green hands who really don't have the skills to drive these machines. Sadly, this percentage of people owning a far more powerful vehicle than they can safely handle is quite high since the disposable income available to the youngsters are quite high these days
Fifthly, the so called "enthusiasts" are much much smaller percentage compared to the mass market and population - hence the preference for a "solution" which caters to the larger section may be more attractive to the law-makers.
So what is the solution ? I wish there was some readymade easy solution - but this is not so. At the end, hopefully, a decision is taken, which is beneficial for the "most" road-users. What it will be - difficult to predict at this juncture.