Does India lack a traffic culture that is sensitive to millions of pedestrians, rickshaw drivers and riders of two-wheelers who form a majority of road users in the country? Yes, say experts.

Unlike in other countries, Indian motorists have scant regard for traffic lights or pedestrian amenities like zebra crossings. And, pedestrians and cyclists account for the maximum number of fatalities in the reported road accidents, the experts noted.

"We are yet to evolve a comprehensive traffic culture in India which respects road users," Rohit Baluja, president of the Institute of Road Traffic Education (IRTE), told IANS.

"Our behaviour on roads while riding or driving reeks of insensitivity to fellow users of the roads."

IRTE is an NGO formed by police officials, doctors, journalists, engineers, educationists, former military personnel, architects and automobile experts to strengthen infrastructure for driver training, traffic engineering and road user awareness.

"Nordic countries, for example, are known for their low road death levels because apart from the fact that their population level is much lower than ours, they have immense mutual respect for road users," Baluja said.

"An automobile driver will stop the vehicle if he sees someone waiting to cross the road irrespective of the traffic signal or the absence of a zebra crossing. Can you imagine that in India?"

That is a difficult picture to imagine in India, which accounts for 10 of every 100 deaths in road accidents worldwide.

According to a study by P.K. Sikdar, head of the civil engineering department at Mumbai's Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), India records six percent of the world's total road accidents that kill 1.2 million people every year.

Sikdar's study has revealed the maximum number of all reported fatalities involved "vulnerable road users" - as pedestrians, cyclists and riders of two-wheelers are termed.

And yet India has just about one percent of the world's vehicle population.

According to Sikdar's study, the major causes of road accidents in Delhi and other cities are poor traffic culture among road users and authorities, non-maintenance of traffic signals and lack of road markings.

"With the rapid growth in vehicle ownership and construction of high-speed roads and expressways, the demand for road transport is expected to increase further. This will lead to more road accidents and fatalities," Sikdar told IANS.

European countries like Spain and Denmark are experimenting with a road design that removes all paraphernalia like traffic signals, zebra crossings and road signs attached to a typical heavy traffic road.

The theory behind the system is that signs and signals create exclusive spaces for road users, which if removed will make users shed their on-road complacency.

"It is difficult to imagine the system's success in India because here roads are not made for its majority users unlike in European countries," said Dinesh Mohan, coordinator of the transportation research and injury prevention programme at the IIT here.

The flow of vehicles on the Ring Road at the Moti Bagh flyover in south Delhi is testimony to the point made by Mohan.

"I have often waited for close to 15 minutes to just cross the road and go to R.K. Puram," said Anuradha Mathur, resident of Anuradha Enclave that lies along the Ring Road opposite R.K. Puram.

"I almost feel roads are not made for pedestrians like us," Mathur said.

Mohan said: "The public will behave according to the kind of facilities provided. On most Delhi main roads, pedestrians often have to walk up to three kilometres to cross medians. This shows scant respect for commoners."

According to IRTE, a total of 1,850 people died in road accidents in 2004 in Delhi, which on an average day records 20 million traffic violations.

This is despite the fact that there are 700 signalled intersections and, on an average day, close to 2,000 Delhi Traffic Police personnel are spread across the city of 15 million.

Lamenting the lack of traffic sense among people, R.K. Meena, assistant commissioner of police (traffic-north), said many using the capital's roads do not have any idea what the rules are.

According to him, the city's roads had to cope with several types of problems, ranging from the haphazard halting of buses to the presence of hawkers and beggars.

"The most immediate solution could be foot over-bridges with escalators as subways pose security problems and eventually become shelters for beggars and the homeless," he said.

Indo-Asian News Service