Bengaluru’s traffic isn’t just a headache, it’s a job threat. Imagine this: you navigate the gridlock for an hour, somehow reach work, and then your boss hands you a traffic challan instead of that increment letter.
This is the Bengaluru police’s answer to the city’s infamous traffic troubles— naming, shaming, and treating citizens like badly behaved children. The cops seem to have taken a detour through school parent-teacher meetings for this ‘road safety’ solution, but these tactics are likely to go nowhere fast.
This approach passes the buck to ordinary people while letting other major traffic offenders off the hook. It also conveniently absolves the traffic police and government from implementing lasting solutions.
But the experiment is already in motion, starting with Bengaluru’s east division. Two-wheeler riders on the wrong side of the road are getting pulled over, ID cards are being scrutinised to identify their employers, and these details are being dispatched to the traffic management team. And then the boss is tasked with delivering the bad news.
Bengaluru’s infrastructure has not caught up with its growth story. Narrow roads, delayed projects, the lack of pavements for pedestrians, poor lighting coupled with its growing motor vehicular traffic does it no favours. The city’s traffic has become infamous all over the world, especially after the Trevor Noah fiasco. The comedian arrived 20 minutes late for his own show —because of traffic.
In a city notorious for epic traffic jams, employees often break rules to reach work on time. And delivery agents for 10-minute grocery services press a little too hard on the gas pedal to keep their jobs secure.
Will naming and shaming change anything and be a “deterrent” as some residents claim?
Informing the employer is surely a deterrent for the employee. Lets not forget people who are correctly driving and are employees can loose lives as well cause of wrong side drivers
Violated traffic rules? Cops may inform your company https://t.co/y0QnHmoSCM via @timesofindia
— Unapologetic (@akfromindia) December 18, 2023
Not if the track record of this approach is anything to go by. Take for example the State Bank of India’s experiment to bring loan defaulters in line. In 2013, the bank published photos of defaulters in local newspapers along with a public notice. But it didn’t work — a 2017 report revealed defaulters still owed 27 per cent of the total amount to SBI alone.
Targeting low-hanging fruit, while VIPs whiz by
In metropolitan cities, cabbies, auto-rickshaw drivers, and gig workers follow their own set of traffic rules, making and breaking them at will while the police look on.
It’s more out of compulsion than a rebellious streak. Platforms like Reddit are flooded with users venting about strategies to escape Bengaluru traffic. One comment stated, “For now, metro or even a bike!! Too exhausting these days to drive a car; traffic has become insane.”
The big corporate companies might not bother about challans as long as their employees come on time. They might laugh it off over a cup of coffee. But for gig workers already grappling with unfair compensation, this name-and-shame approach could prove fatal for their jobs. Another excuse for employers to throw them out.
In 2019, Bengaluru police had a meeting with the representatives of Swiggy, Zomato, and other food-ordering apps. The cops raised their concerns about how these companies structured payments to gig workers based on timely item deliveries, leading them to often flout traffic rules.
Nothing seems to have changed on that front. Meanwhile, the Bengaluru police’s campaigns to strike fear or build awareness in commuters have also generally fallen flat.
In 2018, for instance, they enlisted Yamraj, the God of Death, as their brand ambassador. The tagline warned, “If you break traffic rules, be ready to be chased down by Yamraj.”
In 2016, the police, in collaboration with students from Lissa School of Design and Creo Valley School of Film and Television, distributed stickers explaining traffic rules to violators.
Now, as Bengaluru cops play the name-and-shame game with citizens, it’s high time they extend their scrutiny to VVIP movements too. Instead of relegating citizens to the sidelines during these traffic nightmares, maybe they can find a way to let people get on with the day instead of delaying them and giving them a reason to speed.
(Edited by Asavari Singh)