RISING SUN
SENIOR MEMBER
- Joined
- Jun 1, 2012
- Messages
- 4,015
- Reaction score
- 0
- Country
- Location
Revolution hits Kathmandu, roads fall silent
In six months, road users in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, have learned to cringe at using the car horn unnecessarily. "I feel embarrassed now when I occasionally blow the horn," said Rajaram Dangal, a hotel manager. "I feel like people are staring at me from all around." Clearly, the traffic police's slogan of "Let's be civilised, let's not use the horn" is working.
Making Dangal give up his instinctive action at the wheel has not been easy. Like in most old South Asian cities, horns seem a matter of life and death in Kathmandu, with its narrow, congested, pot holed roads. Pedestrians-and animals - cross the roads at will too. There are no traffic lights and road dividers. And yet today, you only hear a few stray beeps on the street. Even these sound tentative and have none of the aggressive, let-me-through tone that you find in, say, Delhi.
The induction of a no-nonsense officer to head the traffic police, a ban on horns, strict vigilance, a fine of Rs 500 (Rs 315 in Indian currency) and threat of public ignominy have brought a degree of silence on the noisy streets.
Noise pollution had reached unhealthy highs in the Nepalese capital.
A study in the Kathmandu University Journal of Science, Engineering and Technology in 2007, when traffic volumes were much lower, had put the decibel level in a major city area at up to 110 dB.
Compare this to the average of 75dB in Delhi on October 21this year, a day after Diwali.
After clamping down on honking, 15,500 people have been hauled up.Sarbendra Khanal, traffic police chief, said this was achieved despite the cops having no mechanical device to pinpoint the horn sound and so facing challenges from people to prove they had violated the ban. And yet, the quietude of sorts is holding out.
"It's early days still, but I feel mindsets are changing," Khanal was optimistic. The government's intent to change the street ambience was enunciated in no less than Khanal's selection to head the traffic police soon after the announcement of the ban.What did DIG Khanal bring to the table? "You can Google my name," he prompted, and a quick search shows he has little traffic experience. Rather, the officer has a reputation as an "encounter specialist", having crushed 109 criminal outfits in the Terai and taken on underworld bosses, even those with strong political connections, in the capital.
It isn't difficult to extrapolate Khanal's renown as a tough cop to the willingness of the people to fall in line. Is this true? The traffic chief allowed an enigmatic smile to play on his lips and after a significant pause, whispered, "A little bit of dadagiri always helps." Perhaps this was the need of the hour - or just good planning - in Kathmandu, which has 1.04 million cars to Delhi's 10.5 million, but only 1,594km of paved roads to the Indian capital's 28,000km.
Kathmandu's roads are dense with motorcycles since car prices are prohibitive there. A Ford EcoSport that costs Rs 10.92 lakh, ex-showroom, in Delhi has a tag of Rs 31.9 lakh (Rs 21 lakh in Indian currency) in Kathmandu. Reining in these weaving, wailing two-wheelers was the biggest challenge for Khanal and his team.
However, it isn't all baton and threats. There is a continuing awareness drive, which to date has included 9,400 roadside gatherings, 1,230 sessions with bus and truck drivers and 1,680 visits to schools and colleges. The results are there to see or rather hear. Resham Bhujel, a cabbie and an inveterate horn user, relies on the Nepali idiom "kaan khanthyo", or "my ears used to get chewed", to define what it was like earlier and now "halka bhayeko chha", describing a feeling of a physical weight having been lifted.
"The success has proved that tough measures can be implemented," pointed out Bhushan Tuladhar, technical adviser (South Asia), UN Habitat. But he is concerned a tiny bit. "Initially the cop who caught a violator was allowed to keep a part of the fine amount as an incentive. But following complaints, the government instructed the traffic police to retain the percentage not for individuals, but for the department. With the incentive gone, there is some laxity and this has allowed the citizens to feel a little freer."
Tuladhar said the poor road infrastructure in Kathmandu, with a jarring lack of sidewalks, and the fact that 40% of road users are pedestrians had made the people transport conflict a serious problem. Perhaps that is also why social disapproval of honking is at a high.
Tuladhar's wife, a municipal official, makes it a point to roll down her windows if anyone around her is honking and stare down the violator, leaving him or her blushing. And Suman Shakya, a development entrepreneur, chuckled, "The moneyed and the elite earlier flouted such rules with impunity, but now quail at having to attend traffic lectures with the hoi-polloi."
Urban experts and the cops expect peer pressure to be a bigger persuader than police penalties.
But, argues Tuladhar, until the horn ban is extended to all cities in Nepal, the social and environmental gains might not be fully realised. "People will see it merely as a capital city phenomenon," he argued. The anti-horn measure is part of an overall attempt at traffic reforms in the Nepalese capital. Drunk driving has been corralled to some extent. Against 26,610 people booked for driving under the influence last year, only 6,642 were caught this year.
That is why there is quiet optimism in Kathmandu that the noise on the streets has been silenced forever.
https://m.timesofindia.com/world/so...du-roads-fall-silent/articleshow/61514078.cms
In six months, road users in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, have learned to cringe at using the car horn unnecessarily. "I feel embarrassed now when I occasionally blow the horn," said Rajaram Dangal, a hotel manager. "I feel like people are staring at me from all around." Clearly, the traffic police's slogan of "Let's be civilised, let's not use the horn" is working.
Making Dangal give up his instinctive action at the wheel has not been easy. Like in most old South Asian cities, horns seem a matter of life and death in Kathmandu, with its narrow, congested, pot holed roads. Pedestrians-and animals - cross the roads at will too. There are no traffic lights and road dividers. And yet today, you only hear a few stray beeps on the street. Even these sound tentative and have none of the aggressive, let-me-through tone that you find in, say, Delhi.
The induction of a no-nonsense officer to head the traffic police, a ban on horns, strict vigilance, a fine of Rs 500 (Rs 315 in Indian currency) and threat of public ignominy have brought a degree of silence on the noisy streets.
Noise pollution had reached unhealthy highs in the Nepalese capital.
A study in the Kathmandu University Journal of Science, Engineering and Technology in 2007, when traffic volumes were much lower, had put the decibel level in a major city area at up to 110 dB.
Compare this to the average of 75dB in Delhi on October 21this year, a day after Diwali.
After clamping down on honking, 15,500 people have been hauled up.Sarbendra Khanal, traffic police chief, said this was achieved despite the cops having no mechanical device to pinpoint the horn sound and so facing challenges from people to prove they had violated the ban. And yet, the quietude of sorts is holding out.
"It's early days still, but I feel mindsets are changing," Khanal was optimistic. The government's intent to change the street ambience was enunciated in no less than Khanal's selection to head the traffic police soon after the announcement of the ban.What did DIG Khanal bring to the table? "You can Google my name," he prompted, and a quick search shows he has little traffic experience. Rather, the officer has a reputation as an "encounter specialist", having crushed 109 criminal outfits in the Terai and taken on underworld bosses, even those with strong political connections, in the capital.
It isn't difficult to extrapolate Khanal's renown as a tough cop to the willingness of the people to fall in line. Is this true? The traffic chief allowed an enigmatic smile to play on his lips and after a significant pause, whispered, "A little bit of dadagiri always helps." Perhaps this was the need of the hour - or just good planning - in Kathmandu, which has 1.04 million cars to Delhi's 10.5 million, but only 1,594km of paved roads to the Indian capital's 28,000km.
Kathmandu's roads are dense with motorcycles since car prices are prohibitive there. A Ford EcoSport that costs Rs 10.92 lakh, ex-showroom, in Delhi has a tag of Rs 31.9 lakh (Rs 21 lakh in Indian currency) in Kathmandu. Reining in these weaving, wailing two-wheelers was the biggest challenge for Khanal and his team.
However, it isn't all baton and threats. There is a continuing awareness drive, which to date has included 9,400 roadside gatherings, 1,230 sessions with bus and truck drivers and 1,680 visits to schools and colleges. The results are there to see or rather hear. Resham Bhujel, a cabbie and an inveterate horn user, relies on the Nepali idiom "kaan khanthyo", or "my ears used to get chewed", to define what it was like earlier and now "halka bhayeko chha", describing a feeling of a physical weight having been lifted.
"The success has proved that tough measures can be implemented," pointed out Bhushan Tuladhar, technical adviser (South Asia), UN Habitat. But he is concerned a tiny bit. "Initially the cop who caught a violator was allowed to keep a part of the fine amount as an incentive. But following complaints, the government instructed the traffic police to retain the percentage not for individuals, but for the department. With the incentive gone, there is some laxity and this has allowed the citizens to feel a little freer."
Tuladhar said the poor road infrastructure in Kathmandu, with a jarring lack of sidewalks, and the fact that 40% of road users are pedestrians had made the people transport conflict a serious problem. Perhaps that is also why social disapproval of honking is at a high.
Tuladhar's wife, a municipal official, makes it a point to roll down her windows if anyone around her is honking and stare down the violator, leaving him or her blushing. And Suman Shakya, a development entrepreneur, chuckled, "The moneyed and the elite earlier flouted such rules with impunity, but now quail at having to attend traffic lectures with the hoi-polloi."
Urban experts and the cops expect peer pressure to be a bigger persuader than police penalties.
But, argues Tuladhar, until the horn ban is extended to all cities in Nepal, the social and environmental gains might not be fully realised. "People will see it merely as a capital city phenomenon," he argued. The anti-horn measure is part of an overall attempt at traffic reforms in the Nepalese capital. Drunk driving has been corralled to some extent. Against 26,610 people booked for driving under the influence last year, only 6,642 were caught this year.
That is why there is quiet optimism in Kathmandu that the noise on the streets has been silenced forever.
https://m.timesofindia.com/world/so...du-roads-fall-silent/articleshow/61514078.cms
