TRansition from TRaffic to TeRrific?

By now, I am certain beyond any doubt that a lot must have been said about the traffic in Bangalore not just in newspaper and magazine articles but also in a number of blogs. I myself have written about it a few times and have pondered over it many more times than I’ve spoken about it. What could be the possible solutions to the problem that this city faces? What are the traffic police doing about it? Aren’t they thinking of solutions that the public is thinking of? Or are they not able to implement their ideas? Questions to which I don’t know the answers for sure. But these are possible solutions that I can think of:

·         traffic police should set up a committee of devoted and sincere members from a cross-section of the society and brainstorm it out

·         traffic police should learn from other cities across the world that found themselves in similar situations

·         traffic police should influence Corporates to bring in some changes in the corporate world that helps overcome some of the problems – like options to work from home, work shifts, placement of teams in same offices to avoid inter-office shuttling,

·         creation of traffic police blogs to instruct, communicate, inform, and advice the public

·         traffic police to search the minds of general public (and blogs) for possible ideas, problems

·         in-depth traffic analysis using intelligent software and recommendations based on type of traffic, routes adopted, peak hour traffic, restrictions on certain vehicles, etc

·         administrative initiatives like better city planning, expansion and migration assistance in case of high severity  

·         utilization of tools to promote innovative and creative solutions that may even seem absurd. Residential quarters for office goers near office; mini-flights from central areas to electronics-city, ITPL, Peenya etc,   

·         during execution/implementation of solutions – prioritization of solutions to implement the top 3 to achieve quick wins 

The thought of a Blog from the traffic police sounds exciting to me. It would be one way to keep Bangaloreans happy as it would eliminate problems of transparency and communication gaps and even invite comments, feedback, ideas etc from the public. 

Extending the thinking a little, it would be cool to see government and ministry-based blogs that tell all thereby capturing knowledge for ever so as to sustain initiatives irrespective of which party is at the helm. Of course, this is assuming that political parties are serious about their responsibilities.  

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I just finished writing up this post and caught up with the daily news and was pleasantly surprised to read this piece of news: Instant gratification!

DAKSHINA KANNADA DISTRICT POLICE LAUNCHES WEB LOG 

The Hindu Business Line 

In keeping with the policy of the Karnataka Government to implement e-governance in the day-to-day administration to the maximum extent, the Dakshina Kannada District Police launched its official Web log (blog) on Thursday.  Addressing presspersons after launching the blog, B. Dayananda, Superintendent of Police, Dakshina Kannada, said important matters relating to the district police would be regularly posted on the blog.  All can easily access this. With this, authentic and official information of the department can be given to the press and the people swiftly.  He claimed that the innovative idea of launching a blog is the first of its kind in the State. The high penetration of Internet in the district has helped the department to host this blog. 

Opportunity "in the middle of" traffic jams

The traffic jams in Bangalore are terrible no doubt. I find myself spending a lot of time in the bus to EC both in the mornings as well as in the evenings. There were a lot of people pointing it (the darker side of things) out to me when I moved from Madiwala to EC, not pausing to think that I may perhaps know that I have to travel to EC and not to Madiwala! ;)

But I am beginning to see the positive side – the opportunity – in the middle of the difficulty. In the mornings, it has given me more time to say my prayers, reflect on what I want to do (short-term and long-term), read books and maybe simply gaze at the skies. In the evenings, it has given me time to talk to friends who I am not able to chat with during office hours and also just relax and grab a snack before dinner. Einstein certainly knew what he was talking about when he said, “in the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity”.

Opportunity Amidst Difficulty

The traffic in Bangalore leaves a lot to be said. It can be killing. It can make you want to run away from Bangalore even if you've been a Bangalorean all your life. 'To be Bangalored' ought not to be a phrase restricted to only the reference to jobs being outsourced but also to denote that one is caught in traffic.

Okay. But here's the silver lining that I saw in the cloud . In the evenings, people in my office van (including me) who'd earlier restricted themselves to thinking about work and home or gazing outside have started chatting up. Because there's nothing else to do. There isn't enough daylight to read; and there's nothing much to watch outside except cars and buses. So, new friends have been made and new insights gained through discussions about simple matters like Bangalore's hotels and complex matters like solutions to the infrastructure problems that the city faces. We've even come up with some amazing and seemingly ridiculous business propositions to combat the problems that people face on the roads.

And here's a bonus that I got - A couple of weeks ago, there was an occasion when I was desperate to spend time on something that would help me take my mind away from the frustrating 20-minute long wait in the traffic. I decided to fiddle with my Mobile and got into the Messages feature. In the past I've not had the necessity to send SMS' to people, but, of late, there is a friend and colleague of mine with whom I've been exchanging messages about work, people etc. All the while, I've been using the keys multiple times (for example, pressing the "ABC" key thrice to get to 'C' ) to type in the messages and haven't used the built-in SMS dictionary. When I first tried it some years ago, I was confused about how it worked and had given up after a few trials. I'd not asked anyone either, about how it worked, because I was anyway not using the SMS feature so much.

Coming back to the present, I started fiddling with the messages feature and switched on the dictionary thinking that was one thing I had not cracked and it was a good time for me to learn to use it instead of getting frustrated with the traffic. So, I started typing in words - I tried typing in 'good' and once again felt it was easier to switch off the dictionary and select the alphabets rather than use the dictionary and then use the star button to choose the alphabet I wanted. For example, when I chose the 'GHI' button with the dictionary on, the alphabet that came on the screen was 'I' and not 'G'. Given the situation I was in, I decided to do something - I decided to take the risk and plunge in and go ahead and let the dictionary take over. I settled for the alphabet 'I', then pressed the "MNO" button to see the screen show 'In' , went on to press "MNO" again and saw the word change to 'Inn'. I persevered and finally pressed the "DEF" button and Voila! the word had changed to "Good" from "Inn"! Would you believe it? Of course, if you are an SMS freak, you must be thinking I am one big dumbo. But for me, it was a significant learning and it happened because of two reasons - one, I had the need to learn to send SMSs more efficiently and two, the traffic problem gave me no other option but to use it as an opportunity to learn/do something constructive. Now, I can send SMSs more efficiently and quickly and I am beginning to enjoy the magic of seeing the word change in the last second....or rather...at the last alphabet. :)