Car drivers in the city are facing a difficult task reading the signal of traffic cops particularly in the evening hours after sunset. Local cabbies, private cars, trucks and other vehicle owners said that they are unable to read the manual traffic signals of the traffic cops because of the fading light during the evenings.
A local cabbie said that though the traffic cops wear white hand gloves, the same is not visible during the night. “I was once caught for taking a wrong move. I told the cop that I was unable to trace his signal but he did not agree,” said a cabbie. A private car owner agreed with the cabbie and enquired about the light batten (an electronic traffic signaling stick). “These light battens were seen in the hands of every traffic personnel during the visit of the Vice President of India to Shillong. Why can’t they utilize the same now,” he questioned. Another driver of a tourist vehicle said that during the recent thick foggy evening he was unable to trace the signal of the traffic cops. “The white glove is not normally visible at night and on that foggy evening I was fined for not reading the signal of the traffic personal,” rued the car driver adding that he explained to the cop that the white colour of his glove created the confusion in the thick fog.
A lady who drives her own car said in a lighter vein that perhaps the battery of these light battens ran dry like the dry batteries of ticket dispenser machines in the SPTS buses right from day one. Meanwhile, an elderly resident questioned the non-utilization of these battens by traffic personnel. “The traffic personnel are themselves to be blamed for this. As a common man I assume that it is easier to fool vehicles and extract money from them on the pretext of a wrong move,” he said.
These drivers also said that the traffic personnel do not use the box provided to them to man traffic. Though traffic personnel reasoned that it is not viable practically to man traffic from the boxes drivers say that the cops are better visible when they are inside these boxes.
Meanwhile, many drivers said that with the dysfunctional traffic signaling poles in the city and the light battens seen only during the visit of VVIPs, it is time to bid goodbye to the hand signaling system and make way for electronic gadgets. This will ensure safety, misreading of signals and full proof in the times of thick foggy situations, they said.
(Rajib Roy)