DNA

Mumbai, Dec 10: Uff, the traffic! That’s the foremost problem of Mumbai that comes to my mind. It’s become impossible to deal with it. I remember many years ago, I had been to Bangkok and had said I’d never visit the city again because of its traffic snarls. But it’s become the same here as well.

I am amazed that the people of Mumbai can take this misery day in and day out. The idea of going to Town from Juhu means your entire day is gone. It has led to the severing of my ties with my friends in Town because the idea of spending so much time travelling is absolutely terrifying.

A ‘car pool’ system, where people use a common car to reach office could be adopted. It can also be ascertained that four members from the same family do not use four cars to reach the same destination.

It’s more about making slight changes at a personal level so that we facilitate things for ourselves and others.

You also have to open the East-West corridor. Even if you have flyovers all over, all cars eventually get caught in a bottleneck, crowding where the flyovers end.

A method, which was unpopular in the UK, called ‘congestion charges’ could be adopted. This implies that during peak hours a certain amount of money — congestion charges — are levied in certain areas.

Though this was not much favoured, it did help traffic decongestion. Something drastic has to be done here too if we wish to make commuting better.