Yellow line fever

I remember the film White Line Fever, in which monstrous trucks race across America. The world has changed a lot and it is now possible to track down crazed drivers, but in Chennai, it is now Yellow Line Fever.

You might wonder what the purpose of these lines are. Police personnel occasionally take the trouble of painting these lines, continuous yellow or broken yellow and broken white lines that are supposed to mean something to drivers.

But not in Chennai.

Look at the response of drivers to plastic bollards that have been placed by traffic police on Anna Flyover at Gemini, and you get an idea of what I mean.

Earlier, we had traffic ignoring the double yellow lines painted on the flyover, and going the wrong way into T.Nagar. They closed that entry at night, because vehicles began to have head-on collisions.

Then, the police have a set of cones on the lines, to demarcate the two halves of the road. Many of those cones were crushed by drivers with impunity. After all, what do a few cones mean in a city that has no rules? People don't even stop at red lights here!



So the police got plastic bollards, thin red cylinders about a couple of feet tall. We have seen even these getting crushed, because no one in the traffic police is ready to wait on the flyover and get the Mad Maxes who are knocking them down and crushing them!

Look at the Lancer car in the picture, straddling the broken white lines, ignorant of what they are supposed to mean. The British brought the automobile to India, but they never taught Indians what lane discipline means. If you are getting very hot under the collar because I talk of the British, why not show me Indian leaders who have done better?