How many times have you seen people breaking simple traffic laws? People just hate to stop for a red signal. Always in some hurry. You will only see people halting at a traffic signal if there is a policeman in sight, or if there is too much congestion. In that case, you will definitely encounter people who will risk their own lives, lives of others, just to get across in a yellow light. If they are familiar with the traffic signals, they will even risk speeding across on a red. Its an all too familiar scene...
One most effective method to put a stop to this is the presence of police at each intersection. A team of police at most larger sized intersections. Just the presence of a red light is not enough. The presence of a policeman is necessary. And an alert one at that.
There are many problems with this approach as are quite evident. The likelyhood of someone breaking laws at such an intersection in the presence of police is quite low. So, for all their effort, the money they collect in fines or otherwise, is quite inadequate. Plus, there is the now increased demands of a larger police force. Which links to larger budgets, for salary and everything that comes with increased number of employees. Where to get this money? The humble law-abiding tax-payers.
There may even be suggestions of positive incentivization. For each time you dont break a traffic law, you get some points. So, you are standing at a red signal, there is no traffic, no danger of collision or accident if you do break the signal and go ahead. Still, you choose to wait for the green, and you get bonus points. These points may be redeemed later in the form of lower tax, waiver or discount in processing fees at govt institutions or processes, maybe free accessories for your vehicles etc. The possibilities are endless.
Again, the problems are all too evident. Agreed, this method will definitely incite a sharp drop in the number of traffic violations. However, it also requires significant monetary might. For one, the entire city will need to have monitoring mechanisms installed, CCTV and the like. Then, all the infrastructure to support it, such as people monitoring the screens, harddrives backing up all the hours and hours of video. Sure, this can be automated to a degree, but even this requires maintenance and upkeep, upgrades. The positive incentivization should also be worth the perceived "additional effort" to follow the traffic laws. If the prize is not worth the effort, who is going to bother about it? And there comes the problem. There may be people who are not interested in the incentives being offered, there are those for whom such incentives are trivial, and there are those for whom these incentives are just too good to be true. And then comes the red tape, the bureaucracy, and the pyramid law of inversely proportional percentage of gains and position of power.
Both approaches are bound to fail as both of them operate on a single assumption and a single point of failure. They assume that someone is monitoring 24x7, for both positive incentives and negative incentives. What if there is a breakdown in that mechanism, some lapse? Rules will be followed, if there is threat of paying a fine. In the absence of a police presence to stop and collect fines, rules are bound to be broken.
The solution in my mind is clear. Each and every citizen must be an ideal citizen. You have the brains to think. You have the capacity to foresee the risk of an accident. Afterall, no one willing crashes into someone or something else. It is an unforeseen event. It is clear to the rational thinking, logical mind that following the rules will reduce the risk.
I am not concerned with either positive or negative re-inforcement. I dont care if there is a cop to take a fine or not. I dont care if there is a CCTV capturing my license plate. I dont care for any bonuses or incentives that may be offered for following rules. I know it is right and I will do it. I dont expect everyone to follow this. I dont really care if someone wooshes right past me and into a red light. I know I will stop for the red, no matter what. There are always people who will honk at me to get out of their way, to let them pass, let them go ahead and break the signal. I wont. I choose to ignore. Let them honk and curse. I might point at the red light in defiance. But I will hold my ground. There are many people who look at me like a mad man to follow signals even late at night with little or no traffic. I dont care. There are those who would have gone and jumped the signal, but they see me, and stop. I still dont care. Good for you, maybe you saved your own life today. I see someone talking on the phone while driving, I make it a point to get ahead of them and slow down. Make them slow down. Dont let them pass. Slow down so much, that they have no choice but to stop. Then I can speed away, happy in the knowledge that I saved someone a lot of money in medical bills. People argue that they jump the signal because they are late. I say that is fine. You are late, you should face the consequences. Would you prefer that someone is injured, or dies, just because you failed to plan ahead and were in a hurry? I follow traffic rules, not to avoid penal action, not to avail benefits, but because that is the right thing to do. That is integrity.
One most effective method to put a stop to this is the presence of police at each intersection. A team of police at most larger sized intersections. Just the presence of a red light is not enough. The presence of a policeman is necessary. And an alert one at that.
There are many problems with this approach as are quite evident. The likelyhood of someone breaking laws at such an intersection in the presence of police is quite low. So, for all their effort, the money they collect in fines or otherwise, is quite inadequate. Plus, there is the now increased demands of a larger police force. Which links to larger budgets, for salary and everything that comes with increased number of employees. Where to get this money? The humble law-abiding tax-payers.
There may even be suggestions of positive incentivization. For each time you dont break a traffic law, you get some points. So, you are standing at a red signal, there is no traffic, no danger of collision or accident if you do break the signal and go ahead. Still, you choose to wait for the green, and you get bonus points. These points may be redeemed later in the form of lower tax, waiver or discount in processing fees at govt institutions or processes, maybe free accessories for your vehicles etc. The possibilities are endless.
Again, the problems are all too evident. Agreed, this method will definitely incite a sharp drop in the number of traffic violations. However, it also requires significant monetary might. For one, the entire city will need to have monitoring mechanisms installed, CCTV and the like. Then, all the infrastructure to support it, such as people monitoring the screens, harddrives backing up all the hours and hours of video. Sure, this can be automated to a degree, but even this requires maintenance and upkeep, upgrades. The positive incentivization should also be worth the perceived "additional effort" to follow the traffic laws. If the prize is not worth the effort, who is going to bother about it? And there comes the problem. There may be people who are not interested in the incentives being offered, there are those for whom such incentives are trivial, and there are those for whom these incentives are just too good to be true. And then comes the red tape, the bureaucracy, and the pyramid law of inversely proportional percentage of gains and position of power.
Both approaches are bound to fail as both of them operate on a single assumption and a single point of failure. They assume that someone is monitoring 24x7, for both positive incentives and negative incentives. What if there is a breakdown in that mechanism, some lapse? Rules will be followed, if there is threat of paying a fine. In the absence of a police presence to stop and collect fines, rules are bound to be broken.
The solution in my mind is clear. Each and every citizen must be an ideal citizen. You have the brains to think. You have the capacity to foresee the risk of an accident. Afterall, no one willing crashes into someone or something else. It is an unforeseen event. It is clear to the rational thinking, logical mind that following the rules will reduce the risk.
I am not concerned with either positive or negative re-inforcement. I dont care if there is a cop to take a fine or not. I dont care if there is a CCTV capturing my license plate. I dont care for any bonuses or incentives that may be offered for following rules. I know it is right and I will do it. I dont expect everyone to follow this. I dont really care if someone wooshes right past me and into a red light. I know I will stop for the red, no matter what. There are always people who will honk at me to get out of their way, to let them pass, let them go ahead and break the signal. I wont. I choose to ignore. Let them honk and curse. I might point at the red light in defiance. But I will hold my ground. There are many people who look at me like a mad man to follow signals even late at night with little or no traffic. I dont care. There are those who would have gone and jumped the signal, but they see me, and stop. I still dont care. Good for you, maybe you saved your own life today. I see someone talking on the phone while driving, I make it a point to get ahead of them and slow down. Make them slow down. Dont let them pass. Slow down so much, that they have no choice but to stop. Then I can speed away, happy in the knowledge that I saved someone a lot of money in medical bills. People argue that they jump the signal because they are late. I say that is fine. You are late, you should face the consequences. Would you prefer that someone is injured, or dies, just because you failed to plan ahead and were in a hurry? I follow traffic rules, not to avoid penal action, not to avail benefits, but because that is the right thing to do. That is integrity.
