(In a lighter vein)

By Vincent Van Ross

Driving in big cities is a nightmare. That is what we say. And, then, we add to that nightmare! We clog our streets with our vehicles and cause traffic jams when we could have conveniently parked them at home and used public transport to get to our offices. We consider it our supreme duty to make our humble contribution towards traffic jams and pride ourselves in doing so! And, we enjoy blaming others for it.

Whether we like it or not, traffic jams are a necessary evil. Otherwise, how would we know how many vehicles are there in our city? If there is one place where we can truly gauge the prosperity of a nation, it is on these streets. The more the number of vehicles on the streets, the more prosperous the nation!

That goes for individuals too! If we are prosperous we must own a car. That is the yardstick for prosperity. Besides, how could we call ourselves prosperous when we do not even own a car? In fact, this is the feeling that drives all of us to buy cars.

Look at the advantages of getting stuck in a traffic jam. We could enjoy the music from that music system we had paid a tidy sum to buy. When there was no traffic jam, it was just playing away and we could not enjoy. Now, we have the time and the leisure to do justice to the money we shelled out. There is enough time to appreciate good music and the music system for which we never really had the time!

Believe it or not, traffic jams work as our insurance against serious accidents because there can never be serious accidents in the midst of slow moving traffic. If at all there is an accident, it would at the most result in a snick here or a snick there; or, a dent here or a dent there. But, no serious damage to life or vehicle!

What causes traffic jams? Anything! A religious function, a marriage procession, a trade fair, a sale—just about anything. But, that’s only once in a while.

Then, what is the root cause of traffic jams? Now, this one takes the cake! Since the street lights that are supposed to be on during the night also do the day duty because some careless employee forgot to switch them off, the government is left with little power supply to keep those traffic signals working. And, when the traffic signals go off, we would discover that the traffic cop who was busy jotting down the registration numbers of vehicles flouting traffic rules has suddenly disappeared! And then, there is utter chaos…

It is no secret that we are all blessed with a fine sense of driving and road sense! The moment the traffic signals go out, traffic movement becomes a free-for-all affair. All of us get into a sudden rush and vie with one another to get out of that place before we get caught in a traffic jam. We move our vehicles hither and thither. And, in the process, we plant our vehicles at such awkward angles that neither we nor others would have the slightest clue as to how we could get out of the jam. Do we secretly enjoy what follows such a traffic jam? I wonder if we are beginning to enjoy the music of blaring horns and curses that are hurled at each other!

Some problems work on auto pilot and manage to find their own solutions. Speeding is one such problem. Traffic jams have emerged as an automatic safety valve against speeding! Traffic jams do what the mobile cameras and speed guns of the traffic police often failed to do. It also saves them the bother of sending an interceptor vehicle after the speeding drivers. We have become so critical of everything in our lives that we fail to see the positive side of things!

If we need to kill some time between now and our next engagement, we would be hard put to find a place to while away our time. If we find ourselves in such a situation, there is no place like a traffic jam. Besides, it comes for free!

Who says traffic jams are a bad thing? Only those who do not see the other side of it!