Editorial: Personal impact of traffic jams

Last week, netizens had a field day after a Maharashtrian politician’s wife offered some timely insights into why divorces were spiking in Mumbai. 

BJP leader and former CM Devendra Fadnavis’s wife Amruta Fadnavis was referring to the potholes and traffic on the roads of the metro, and surmised that 3% of the divorces were on account of people being unable to spend adequate time with their spouses, on account of the hours spent battling traffic in their daily commute for work.

Twitterati lampooned the lady’s inferences and some of the best jibes came from citizens of Bengaluru, where traffic congestion is a major pain point. 

Some of the zingers fired by Bengalureans include how a distance of 5 km qualifies as a long distance relationship in the Garden City; as well as how folks travelling on routes such as Silk Board, Electronics City and HSR Layout have a divorce rate of 80%. 

On a serious note, the global 11th Annual Traffic Index details trends seen in 404 cities across 58 nations in 2021. Four Indian cities have been featured among the top 25 most congested urban spaces in the world. While Mumbai has been ranked 5th in this index, Bengaluru has bagged the 10th spot, Delhi emerged as the 11th most congested followed by Pune at rank 21.

And even though Chennai has not figured on this list, we are aware of the trauma inflicted by traffic congestion here. A case in point – the episodes of flash floods that were witnessed in Chennai in the final days of 2021. 

On that one night in December, we were left marooned on the roads as vehicles broke down in the deluge and commuters were compelled to leave behind their cars right in the middle of the highway and seek emergency assistance. These might be extraordinary circumstances and not representative of an ordinary day’s traffic. 

However, Chennai can’t be let off the hook on that count. Commuters here spend unnecessary hours on the road on account of substandard workmanship, thanks to contractors who use low quality materials and skip on essential aspects of road construction. 

Chief Minister MK Stalin had recently come down hard on the officials of the government and private contractors on account of improper milling of roads. Construction quality aside, encroachments and illegal parking are also major issues, which Chennai’s traffic police should deal with an iron fist.

According to NGOs working in the space of urban planning, among cities in India, Chennai is ranked among those with the highest vehicular densities. In 2015, just about 10 vehicles passed by Pondy Bazaar every 90 seconds. 

By 2020, that number has risen to 60 vehicles per 90 seconds. While conversion of streets into one way has allowed for a greater number of vehicles to ply through these parts, automobile ownership has also peaked in the past decade.

Since 2011, when the Chennai Corporation’s limits expanded from 176 sq km to 426 sq km, we have been troubled by inadequate parking spaces in some of the most heavily traversed commercial zones of the city. 

Areas such as Velachery, T Nagar, Purasawalkam, Royapuram, and Sowcarpet are living examples of such neglect. Despite the Madras High Court ruling in 2017, which ordered the closure of hotels and restaurants sans parking spaces, little has been done to enforce the order in letter and spirit. 

Public transport wise, there are 3,500-odd city buses in operation that deal with the commuting needs of the masses, when the actual requirement is close to 6,000 buses. The absence of last-mile connectivity also hinders the uptake when it comes to the use of the Chennai metro.

Plans for new flyovers in Chennai are certainly welcome, but we need area specific, micro-level solutions to reduce congestion in Chennai. One only hopes that the new corporation council when voted into power looks at these problems with the keen eye they deserve.