Absence of driving sense, rising tempers, and the urgent need for our civic responsibility
The Kashmir Valley has never been as motorised as it is today. Over the last decade, the number of vehicles on our narrow, fragile roads has multiplied many times over, while our sense of driving has hardly moved an inch. The result is there for all to see: endless traffic snarls, frayed nerves, rising accidents, and a daily erosion of the quality of life. What passes for “driving” on our roads is, more often than not, a mix of impatience, indiscipline, and a startling disregard for basic civic norms. In Srinagar and other major towns, one lane is routinely eaten up by haphazard parking. Drivers treat footpaths as extensions of the carriageway. Lane discipline is almost an alien concept. The moment a traffic light, if functional, turns green, vehicles surge forward like a released dam, with honking replacing any notion of right of way. Pedestrian crossings exist more on paper than on the ground; where they do exist, they are rarely respected. The vulnerable, the elderly, children, and women are left to fend for themselves in a hostile traffic culture. This breakdown is not merely about individual behaviour. It reflects a deeper institutional failure. Licensing remains lax, often more a transaction than a test of skill and responsibility. Public transport is poorly regulated, with sumos and public transport buses frequently stopping in the middle of the road, racing one another for passengers. Road engineering, too, has not kept pace with the new reality: blind curves are left untreated, signage is inadequate, and many stretches lack even basic markings. Yet, it would be convenient and wrong to blame everything on the administration. No amount of policing can substitute for a basic sense of civic duty. Wearing a seatbelt, yielding to an ambulance, slowing down near a school, or letting a pedestrian pass do not require a constable’s baton; they require conscience. Reckless driving is not just a traffic offence; it is an assault on the commons. What is needed now is a three-fold intervention: strict, even-handed enforcement of rules; sustained, school-level education on road ethics; and a visible improvement in road design. Above all, there must be a change of mindset. The steering wheel is not a symbol of power; it is a responsibility. Unless we relearn this simple truth, the Valley’s roads will remain a mirror to our collective indiscipline and its growing cost.