Lack of ‘Road Sense’ in Green Nation

It is a well-known proverb that a nation is identified with how it behaves on roads. Keeping in view this parameter, the Pakistani nation deserves to be rated as the worst one, because, we act like savages while moving on roads. Ignoring traffic signals, defying line and lane rules, overtaking other vehicles and hitting the passersby, we are always hell-bent to rush fast as if we are going to conquer the world, but our routines and activities depict the phrase “hurry everywhere, go nowhere”.

On roads, especially in metropolitan cities, you see long ‘queues’ of vehicles, hear mind-breaking noise of horns, breath in disastrous smoke of hydrocarbons and experience quarrels and abuses. Why is it so? Very simple answer— we lack patience, always wearing our hearts on our sleeves.

And we are not nation at all, rather we are crowd of heterogeneous people who differ a lot in their interests, approaches and objectives. We are not indulged in caring, loving and waiting. We always try to excel and expel others instead of going forward by taking all together.

And most of all, we lack discipline. We take pride in violating laws and harming fellow beings. Standing on traffic signals and waiting for the green light to turn on seem troublesome things to us, and when signals allow the vehicles to move on, there is a scene of doomsday as every driver presses accelerator desperately in a bid to go like the animal whose cage door has been opened for a moment. Are we human?

The ever increasing class divide in Pakistan is also in sight on roads. It will not be wrong to say that our roads are no more left for commuters who have to move with their lives on high risk at every moment. No bike rider, bicycle driver and passerby knows that when and where he will be hit and thrown into the valley of death. There are vehicles everywhere on main boulevards, service lanes and streets, and these vehicles do not consider it odd to hit and run.

As far as the role of out traffic police is concerned, it has rendered helpless as we give no importance to the law enforcers, rather consider them usurpers. Though there are some black sheep in the police but five fingers cannot be equal. A number of traffic wardens stand on roads from morning to evening, facing roaring vehicles, sweating in heat and wetting in rain just to save our lives by making us to follow traffic rules, but we do not bother all this as we have to ‘move’ on and on at every cost.

This entire scene is pity and pathetic. When will we be mature? When will we be civilized? Who will tell us human ethics? No one—–we ourselves have to change our attitudes individually and learn to move gently on roads instead to rushing savagely. Lets us start loving our fellows. Let us be civilized. Let us be a nation.

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Posted by News Pakistan Admin on Oct 12 2011. Filed under Editorial. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry