Traffic in Lahore city is extremely congested due to the rapid increase in motor vehicles in the city. Even with the ever increasing oil prices people are buying more and more cars. At a time, one could never think of getting in a traffic jam on the canal road or the main boulevard but those seem to be fleeting memories as traffic jams are common on these roads today.
Traffic is also unruly and chaotic because drivers, whether of a bus, a wagon, a car, a rickshaw or a motorcyclist, like driving in their own peculiar way. They are always in such a hurry that most of the time they forget whether they intended to turn left or right. They don’t mind parking their vehicles on sides of congested roads without realising that their parked vehicle may end up blocking the entire traffic flow.
Perhaps, the most major cause for this drastic increase in vehicles was the car finance programmes initiated by the banks through which more or less everyone was able to get their hands on a vehicle even with the price hike of vehicles. The second issue comes with the ease of getting a driver license easily, currently bribing is the standard operating procedure to obtain a driving license. We have also witnessed the widening of roads to accommodate the increasing number of motorised traffic. This rapid increase in number of cars is straining the capacity of the existing road infrastructure in Lahore. But widening of roads by reducing the size of green belts is not a viable solution.
Now anyone with a few months of job experience can lease out a car.Of course, the former is aiming at more profit and the later their own convenience. Government must take some serious steps to overcome the problem regarding the traffic issues.
FAIZAN MEHMOOD
Lahore
