Installing Traffic Cones Again is Sheer Waste of Money

Installing Traffic Cones Again is Sheer Waste of Money

Mangaluru: There is a saying, “Well, we all make mistakes, dear, so just put it behind you. We should regret our mistakes and learn from them, but never carry them forward into the future with us.” – But this quote doesn’t suit well with our Traffic Police Department and the authorities because they keep committing the same mistakes again. The mistake what they are doing again is installing new reflective traffic cones, in spite of many of them being totally damaged by buses, when these cones were installed last year. The pictures in this report will speak the truth?

In a bid to reduce traffic congestion in the City through better traffic management, the traffic police in the City have again started installing orange colored tubular cones. These cones have been replaced/installed at Bunts Hostel Circle, Ambedkar Circle (Jyothi Circle), Kadri Road, Near Kankanady Market, Lady Hill junction, and many other places in the City. But many of these cones mostly installed in the parking areas across the city are falling like ninepins. Most of these tubular cones have been laid at bus bays, so that the buses will move in the lane discipline and will help to ease traffic congestion when buses stop to allow the passengers to board the buses. It will also help in checking the parking of vehicles haphazardly as per a traffic police inspector. But many of these reflective cones get flattened by these reckless bus drivers who run their vehicles over these cones deliberately, without any fear of the traffic cops.

It is noted that each police units in the state get these ‘furniture’ on an annual allocation basis. But what’s the use in installing these cones when they don’t last for long, when we have ruthless and reckless motorists in the City intentionally damaging or completely destroying them. Even though the police may say that they fine those motorists who damage these cones, but that hardly happens. The traffic police have installed these cones at several places in the city to deter bus-drivers from going berserk in traffic and break lane discipline. Rows of the red cones have been embedded on the road near bus stops to form bus bays. The buses will be expected to stay to the left of the cones as they make their stops. But how many of these bus drivers will follow the rules will always be a question, but never answered?

A traffic cop stationed at Jyothi Circle, when asked about cases being filed against bus drivers for damaging the cones, replying to Team Mangalorean said, ” It’s very hard to deal with these arrogant bus drivers and conductors when we question them about the damage done to the cones. They argue and abuse us in the presence of the bus travelers and general public. Only when our senior police inspectors are with us they agree of their faults, if not most of the time they give excuses that they didn’t do it intentionally, it was a mistake/accident or simply they put the blame on other vehicles.

Traffic police inspector speaking to Team Mangalorean said that the problem of these reflective cones getting damaged is more so near shopping complexes. One cannot fully blame the vehicle owners for the damage given there is paucity of parking space across the city. However, in many cases in the past we have levied fines of up to Rs 2,000 in cases where motorists have intentionally damaged the cones, he said. But what if these cones are damaged during late night or wee hours or during rush hours-guess they will go unnoticed?

Giving more details of the traffic cones, the inspector said that each cone costs around Rs 1300, including installing charges. These cones are made of silicon mixed fibre material with reflecting stickers attached on them. Since these cones are flexible, they won’t get damaged even when vehicles go over them, he added. But when we look at all these damaged cones, what the heck this police inspector is talking about. Funny part is that, when they had installed these new cones, they didn’t even bother to remove the broken/flattened cones, instead fixed the new cones next to the damaged ones. Quite ignorant and careless work-period!

Even though there is a law, that anyone who damages a public property is considered as vandalism, and could face punishment. But it doesn’t look like any action is being taken here in the City- the motorists keep on damaging these cones without facing any consequences. Other safety hazard, especially for two-wheeler riders is that these flattened cones when run over by their bike/scooter may result in accident and injuries- and incidents of such have already taken place.

In conclusion, was there a need for the cops to install these new traffic cones, when they know that these cones don’t last long due to motorists damaging them. Couldn’t the traffic police department come out with a better solution to ease out traffic congestion, rather than waste tax-payers money on these tubular cones, which I bet a few off them will be flattened a couple of weeks from now, by our reckless bus drivers or late night drunk ‘SUV’ drivers who do it for fun after having a few cocktails?