Horn OK Please, Pune

Its been exactly 3 months I have been in this city, Pune. And now I think its high time I write something about it. And when I am writing this please be assured that it will mostly be a comparision between Bombay, where I have spent most of my recent life and Pune. Cannt help it would say. Secondly, I am missing Bombay and my friends over there.

I have been complaing about the traffic in Bombay during most of my travelling in the city. The roads are always congested. And it takes anywhere between 20 mins to 3 hrs to cross the same stretch of road depending on what time of the day you are travelling. But Pune is a different ball game. Here its no more about traffic but people themselves. The traffic sense and rules are conspicuous by their absence.

Normally we have two sides for overtaking in any part of the world. Right and Wrong. Pune seems to be a rebel for no cause here. There are no right or wrong sides for overtaking. Its all about speed and how close you can get to the other biker and scare him/her before going past. You can overtake from left, right, top, through.. everywhere. And its perfectly OK. If you feel something wrong about it, probably, you are new to the city (like me).
Crossroads are a place to watch; its a complete new learning in itself. And Pune is wasting lots of taxpayers money in putting up those signals that no one seems to even notice forget about following them. Usually the whole world stops when they see RED light and goes on when its GREEN. Pune is close, difference being they dont see the lights in front of them but for the road thats cross to them. They stop when the light for the other road goes green and start when it goes red. Somehow they expect the flow of traffic on the other road to stop abruptly when the signal goes RED. The Orange/Red light that still in from of them doesn't matter to them. To this extent its OK. But the problem arises when the people from the other road (cross) also do so.
Ergo, we end up vehicles from both the road networked in middle of every square when there is a signal change.

Railway crossings are another thing to ponder on. Whenever the gate closes vehicles from both the side of the road leave their lanes and get piled up in the adjacent lane opposite direction. This happens on either side of the gate. So when the gate opens its a full flow of traffic from both the lanes in both the directions. So its a deadlock situation on the railway tracks itself. It needs at least 15 mins to get this things a little moving which takes a lot of honking etc.. etc.. The surprising thing is this happens almost everytime, everyday.

Just to prepare a little more for the drive, I will list some typical species that you can find on Pune roads.

'Bicycle-wallas' or simply put 'Cyclewallas'. These species are unaware of the whole traffic around them. They think all the rules, directions, lanes etc are only for the vehicles not for them. Its OK to stand in the middle of the road talking with each other, parked on their bicycle. They think all the traffic should travel at the same speed as they are. So dont be surprised you suddenly see them coming out of nowhere in front of your car, suddenly change the direction or turn. Its all in the game.

Secondly, there are Auto-Rickshawwallas. Its like they hold sway over the roads. Like they are unions on the roads. No one should dare to teach them traffic rules. They go in the wrong lane in the opposite direction and if you are not careful enough to notice this you may just go and bang in to them.

Lastly, the most pitiful ones on the Pune roads are the traffic policemen themselves. No one seems to be listening to them. And neither do the police care if anyone is following the rules or not.
PS: I just couldnt help thinking if we put the traffice police from Bombay on to Pune, things might actually change for better.

To conclude, I will give you two rules that will make your life simpler on Pune roads,
Rule 1 : Follow all the traffic rules.
Rule 2 : There are no traffic rules.