Introduction
India is now the world’s fifth-largest economy. For better opportunities, people are migrating from rural areas to urban areas. India ranks number 2 in the list of countries by ppulation. The rate of urban population is larger than the rural areas. Despite its strong economic growth, the country still faces its share of problems. Due to the deprived facilities, people face many problems. In metro cities one serious problem is Traffic. Traffic Jams have now become a part of our daily lives. Traffic Jams can simply be defined as vehicles stuck on the road and having difficulties in moving smoothly. Vehicles can remain stuck in one place in a Traffic Jam for a very long period of time sometimes. But Traffic Jams are not as simple an issue as defined by the concept. It affects our lives and the national economy.
Reasons for Traffic Jam
There are various reasons why Traffic Jams occur and why they have become an indispensable part of our lives in an unwanted way. Most of the time, Traffic Jams happen due to the infrastructure of Indian roads and bridges. During the rainy season, the pavements of the roads deteriorate due to various factors like cracks, potholes, depressions, rutting, revelling, etc. This causes a lot of distress for people. They have to face unnecessary harassment during their day to day travelling. In our country, public transportation has not been able to cater to the growing travel demand. When urgent situations arise and or people have to reach somewhere within a scheduled time, they are not able to depend on public transport. They prefer to use their own vehicles. This leads to the number of vehicles on the road becoming much more than the capacity of the roads and the flyovers.
One more unfortunate reason as to why Traffic Jams occur is the negligence of Traffic rules and complete ignorance towards the consequences. As a basic Traffic rule, one should always make way for ambulances, but people most often fail to follow this rule as a part of their daily habit. This leads to ambulances getting stuck in Traffic Jams. This in turn can again lead to anyone losing his/her life. By facing problems of pathetic Traffic Jams every day, people become impatient. This affects their attitude towards Traffic rules and they lose the patience to follow the same. People end up flouting Traffic rules causing accidents and injuries. Road rage has become a very common cause of accidents nowadays and more than half of the drivers are guilty of this.
Issues Faced by People due to Traffic Jams
People's lives are greatly impacted by Traffic congestion. It is one of the most important difficulties that residents in big cities face on a daily basis. Because most individuals have to deal with it on a regular basis, they may be affected psychologically. It also has a negative impact on people's employment, education, and personal lives, as well as the country's progress. There are multiple issues that people have to face owing to the increasing problems of Traffic Jams.
It is due to increasing Traffic Jams that most of the time people get late for their work. To avoid getting late, people start driving faster than the prescribed speed limit. This increases the chances of accidents. Because of the issue of increasing Traffic Jams, kids also have to leave their homes early in the morning for school. Many kids spend more than an hour on a school bus because of road congestion even if their schools are a few minutes to hardly half an hour away. Moreover, facing pathetic Traffic every day affects people’s general attitude and mood. People start to get hyper and frustrated and sometimes they take out their frustration on others. A general frustration and hyper attitude affect people’s daily performance at work too.
Most often Traffic Jams are also breeding grounds for increased air pollution and noise pollution. This affects people’s respiratory organs. Kids especially are at higher risk since at such a small age being exposed to pollution reduces their quality of health. Traffic Jams badly affect our health and further reduce the air quality by increasing polluting fumes, unnecessary honking of horns etc. It also results in a waste of fuel. This again can be a cause of unnecessary depletion of our non-renewable energy. Increased Traffic congestion also can be responsible for an increase in the emission of greenhouse gases. This can also lead to increasing global warming.
Solving the Problem of Traffic Jams
Nowadays the government is starting to take some positive steps toward this big problem. Public transport frequency and efficiency are developing day by day. The authorities are also taking care of public transport vehicles, online booking facilities, and following up with scheduled time slots. As people are also becoming more and more aware of the problems arising out of Traffic Jams, they are becoming more and more responsible as well. People are now preferring carpooling and public transport like local trains, metro, buses and so on. They are reducing the usage of their own personal scooters, bikes, cars, etc. Simultaneously, there are many more improvements that are happening in strengthening modes of public transport. Metro and Subways help people to maintain smooth travelling in their day to day lives. With the help of modern technology such as Google Maps, people can now avoid Traffic Jams. If people and the government come together then we can overcome the problem of Traffic Jams.
FAQs on Traffic Jam Essay: The Growing Issue of Traffic Congestion
1. How do traffic jams affect our day to day lives?
Traffic Jam affects our day to day life enormously and has now become one of the most serious problems in big cities especially for the working people who need to reach the office on time. Traffic jams also cause mentals and psychological stress that can bring negativity towards work, education and personal life. Traffic Jams tend to waste a lot of time resulting in a non-productive activity. This time could have actually been utilized on some productive work. Employees suffer a maximum loss due to delays for their important work. Traffic jams not only wastes time but also wastes fuels and causes air pollution. To cope up with the time wasted in traffic jams people opt for unsafe driving which leads to road accidents and injuries. Traffic jams also result in constant blowing of horns which creates noise pollution.
2. What are the measures to be taken to avoid traffic jams?
Use of public transport is one of the best ways to avoid traffic jams as collection of unnecessary personal vehicles not only uses space in your garage but also occupies space on the road. Use of carpool and sharing vehicles reduces air pollution and also results in less traffic jams. Traffic rules must strictly be followed and vehicle registration and driving license policy must be strictly implemented. To avoid accidents the authority should improve the condition of roads in India.
3. What are the major causes of traffic jams in India?
With the increase in the population, the number of vehicles in India is also increasing as people are buying more cars and two wheelers to suit their needs. Moreover, the condition of India's road is also not well. This becomes the major reason behind the traffic jam in India. Apart from that there are various other reasons like private encroachments and non-cooperation among drivers leads to traffic jams. Unscientific road design, lack of free ways and footpaths results in the crowd using the main road which also consumes space and leads to traffic jams. Proper bus bays and cycle tracks are required to encourage people using public transport and cycles.
4. Why have traffic jams become a global problem?
Traffic jams have become a global problem because most of the countries are wasting their time unproductively due to traffic congestions. The U.S is the most affected with almost 10 most congested urban areas. Boston approximately loses 164 hours in traffic congestion, Washington wastes around 155 hours and Chicago wastes 138 hours of its time. Other places like New York City, Los Angeles, Seattle, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, etc also lose approx more than 100 hours in traffic congestion. U.S. cities compare to the rest of the world because Boston is the only American city that makes the list of the top 10 most congested cities in the world, weighted for population. Moscow in Russia loses around 210 hours of their time in traffic jams. Istanbul, Colombia, Mexico, Brazil, London, Italy all are the top places suffering from traffic jams.
