Traffic sense- an attitude that needs to be cultivated with two wheeler riders

An edited version of this blog appeared in TOI Doon about 2 months ago. I sincerly feel that the blog is true for the whole country.

“Traffic sense” is an oft repeated phrase I have heard in India, with most claiming that we Indians do not have any traffic sense. While I do agree with the statement what always puzzled me why was this the case? Why do we Indians break traffic rules with impunity? Of course, breaking rules is common for us in many more areas but why does this happen in traffic where the end result is loss of life and limbs?

The realisation dawned on me when I shifted to Dehradun. In the smaller, non metro towns, two wheelers are the backbone of public transport. They are not only ubiquitous in their presence but are for a large majority of the population the only mode of transport. Be it for personal or even for commercial or business use. It's not uncommon to see salesmen and distributors with at least 8-10 bags of goodies hanging from various nooks and corners of a scooter merrily going about visiting retail outlets. Or even worse, plumbers with pillion riders carrying long pipes on their shoulders. And during my morning walks it is a common sight to see fathers teaching 10-12 year olds, both males and females the art of riding a two wheeler. In almost all the cases without a helmet. So not only are they learning to drive at too raw an age, where they do not understand the significance and importance of their responsibility, but they also learn that it is ok to break rules.

And that's when the penny dropped. Two wheelers are very adaptive transport vehicles. As they occupy the least amount of road area and are manoeuvrable it is easy to do anything with these. Go up the wrong way of the road, slip into the main road from a side street without bothering to check the traffic on the main road, change lanes, take last minute right turns from the extreme left lanes, park on the roads, not turn on the indicator as he uses his arms if the need arises......

And these habits are carried forward by a two wheeler driver when he gets into a four wheel vehicle. He still changes lane without checking for traffic, he still takes an right turn from the extreme left lane, he still does not indicate, he still parks on the road......basically all his bad habits, acquired while driving a two wheeler are unleashed on the four wheeler. Not to forget that most of the small car families do not give up their two wheeler. It is used alongside a four wheeler or by a minor and then becomes the training ground for the next generation of four wheel user.

Currently because driving a two wheeler is easy, because two wheelers are the medium of transport for the large lower middle class, because two wheelers are difficult to monitor the focus of traffic rules, driving license, learning to ride is on four wheel vehicles and their owners.

It is important that we look at two wheeler riders seriously to inculcate the "traffic sense" in the Indian psyche. And for that it is important that driving tests becomes much more serious and more theoretical for two wheeler riders. When I spoke to some youngsters, I realised that the theoretical knowledge of traffic rules is virtually zero. The emphasis is only, whether one can ride a two wheeler. But the focus on safety, focus on traffic discipline, focus on knowing the traffic rules is ignored.  The dangers of lane changing suddenly and arbitrarily or say even driving up the wrong way for 100 metres is never drilled into the two wheeler driver. The knowledge of rules like not to turn blind into a main road or the first right of way to the traffic on the main road does not exist. And how many people know the fact that if such rules are broken and a mishap occurs it will not be covered by insurance. Surely that's a good starting point or motivator to ensure that the two wheeler rider knows the traffic rules.

The "socialist" thinking is also in some ways reflected in our traffic sense. A four wheel owner is obviously better off and it makes more sense to blame him for mistakes or mishaps. Haven't we seen enough scenarios where two wheel riders gang up on four wheel owner even though the blatant disregard of rules was from the two wheeler rider? This also results in two wheeler riders breaking rules with not a care in the world.

The Dehradun Police has done a commendable job by instituting a special task force to tackle the traffic menace and catch plus fine people who are breaking traffic laws. Even though its focus is on two wheelers, it mainly tends to fine people on not wearing helmets or riding three on a two wheeler. That to me is the second step, the punishment stage. The first stage of teaching, of giving lessons to two wheeler rider when they apply for Learner License is still missing. Not just a booklet of rules, not a one off lecture. But a proper series of sessions at the learner stage before a license is issued. And a theoretical test to boot. Learning to ride a two wheeler is easy. Can we make learning the rules about two wheeler driving mandatory? And then unleash the punishment stage more vigorously. Not just with a flying squad but also CCTVs, traffic wardens at signals to apprehend the violators and more stringent fines.

Even though there are preceedents; in the west riding a bike or scooter above 50 cc has to have a two wheeler license which means taking a written test; in the far east, where two wheelers are rented out to tourists and are a good source of income for locals, countries have started implementing stringent license norms; I strongly think that in our country we have a problem that has to be looked at from our own viewpoint. Our inherent lack of following rules and lax policing coupled with corruption means we have to take a wholistic and realistic view to the “traffic sense” issue

Unless we take the riding habits of two wheeler drivers seriously we are doomed with a generation of four wheeler owners also, whose driving habits and traffic sense will be disastrous. It is in the overall benefit of our traffic system that we focus on two wheeler riders and their knowledge plus awareness of traffic rules and traffic sense.

Teacher as a student

 

For the past few weeks I had become a student again. I spent almost 4 weeks at various business schools in Hyderabad and Pune. Ostensibly I was teaching. But actually I was learning. Interacting with post graduate students on the cusp of starting a career or charting out on their own, understanding how tomorrow’s customers think today, gauging the pulse of a small sample size of today’s dominant youth has been always fascinating. And this time was no different. So here is what I learnt. A few pointers.

1)      The youth are homogeneous yet are influenced by geographical nuances. Take the example of Patanjali. My experience with the youth show that youngsters are not too fond of the brand. It’s mostly being bought by the 35 or 40 plus who have been influenced by Baba Ramdev’s yoga or his Ayurvedic medicines. In the north youth know about Baba, have seen someone in the family try the brand, have tried it themselves too. But in the south Patanjali is more conspicuous by its absence. Youngsters are more amazed by it’s success story as they have neither seen or encountered the brand. Patanjali is clearly a north phenomena. Has someone access to its regional sales or distribution data?

2)      The thinking of the youth is very urban. All the business schools I went to, had a fair bit of the crowd from towns like Jaipur, Nashik, Haridwar, Ludhiana etc but their thought process on the whole was very urban. They seem to have either forgotten their roots or are embarrassed about it or worse do not realise the potential of these places. In one business school I was judging a competition where students were presenting how to position and launch some known brands in unrelated categories. One category which was spoken about was hotels. And almost every team focussed on big towns. No one even thought about a potential business opportunity which exists in the small towns. If tomorrow’s marketers also ignore Bharat then we and they are in trouble.

3)      The English hangover dominates. At least two set of students approached me to bounce off an ecommerce based home delivery business model. I was thrilled by their entrepreneurial spirit. They were targeting towns like Lucknow, Chandigarh. Aha! At last someone who was sensing business opportunity in Bharat. But their thinking, ideas, branding and even apps were all in English. There is no doubt that knowledge of English and its use is very critical to be part of a global system. But are the youngsters getting so brain washed that they were not thinking in Indian language or using Indian languages when it was really required? In my mind there is no doubt that mobile or digital based business models, apps or even money transactions will explode if we provide the interface in local Indian language. It’s not the lack of knowledge of English. But it’s a lack of ease of use of English. And yet when the business model demanded Indian language, the students were overpowered by the aura of English.

4)      Traditional media is dead. At least for the youth. They don’t read newspapers. They watch TV rarely. Their life revolves around the smart phones. You tube, whatsapp and even Facebook. As one student put it very bluntly, “the last time I read newspapers, watched TV and read business magazines was when I was preparing for interviews and group discussions for admission to B schools.” Viral seems to be the hottest media. But I must say I was surprised at the lack of attention towards LinkedIn. They were unsure about how LikedIn could help and how could they use it.

5)      Finally, I am convinced that AIDA is now AISDAS. After interest is search and after action is share. And if the share is positive then it generates new Interest and the cycle can go on repeatedly, unbroken. The youngsters are practicing this model. And brands which want to make a difference better start thinking how they can influence the two new S. Else they will be the third S. Stale.