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n India, vehicles are parked in every city. Ogra discussed how
anywhere on the road sustainable enforcement strategies Today, our streets are
congesting the already could help in managing the traffic
congested Roads. Vivek Ogra, situation in cities. He raised the occupied with different
Iwho moderated the session, relevant questions: Is enforcement activities, and parking
opened the discussion citing uni-directional or bi-directional?
reasons for vehicular growth. Does enforcement come only from takes a considerable
Currently, the authorities are traffic police or even the citizens are amount of space. There
battling on two fronts; increase in equally involved? And what are the
vehicle ownership, enforcement reliable ways of enforcement in a is absolutely no space
gaps and limited city infrastructure sustainable manner? to walk, and people
for parking, due to which owners To this, Gugulloth Lakshman
park vehicles anywhere. Hence, it is added, “The enforcement of traffic walk on the road. So
important to discuss, how parking rules is just not the job of traffic where is the traffic
matters to citizens. The growing police, but citizens are equally
urbanisation has seen policy shifts responsible too. In Kerala, most supposed to move?
and now, the need of the hour of the schools adopted awareness
is to think out-of-the-box to find programmes where students
sustainable solutions. are taught about traffic, on-road
According to Sree Kumar K, crossing, and road safety. Besides, enforcement agencies to decide
currently, all the major cities are the Kerala police also conduct on diversions and the manpower
highly congested, unplanned classes for residential colonies required at various junctions during
parking being one of the major and societies, in various parts of road congestion.
reasons. For example, in Mumbai, the state. For swift traffic flow, in The Kerala police have also
around 35 to 40% of the road certain areas, we have converted introduced ‘a pay and park system’
space is occupied by on-road one side of the road into non- especially during major festivals
parking. Besides, haphazard parking zones.” and during band. The technique
vehicle parking disturbs the traffic Enforcement authorities in Kerala started yielding results for the
flow too. Moreover, a parked are creating a database for on-road State. Lakshman agreed that
vehicle hinders traffic while exiting and off-road parking sites. For instance, traffic signboards and markings
the parking place. In cities, where we always identify playground or also played an important role. “We
a huge amount of money is spent open space for parking, especially are coming up with an integrated
on creating a road network, the during religious festivals; political traffic enforcement system for
onus is on city authorities to utilize rallies etc, where there are chances the entire state. Besides, on a
urban space efficiently. of a huge gathering. Meanwhile, pilot basis, we are implementing
Sree kumar explained, “There there are different standard automatic challan system across
is a need to move away from a operating practices during peak 200 places. What’s more, for
fragmented approach to more hour traffic. Such strategies help analysing the traffic, we will be
comprehensive planning for the
entire city. Infrastructure should be
put in place: Marked parking lines,
signages and technology to count
the number of vehicles. These
infrastructure and technology
could be remotely accessed.”
Enforcement

Speaking about enforcement, the
panel members agreed that it was
the most difficult part to implement

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