Recently, traffic police captains held a meeting to streamline Agra city's traffic system. The same old suggestions were made, avoiding tough decisions.

Agra's extremely poor traffic management is due to the lack of planning for the mobility needs of ordinary people and focusing only on vehicle movement. The city has no mobility plan. There is no answer as to why vehicles are forcibly allowed to enter the busiest areas.

Read in Hindi: ट्रैफिक पुलिस को व्यवस्था में करने चाहिए बुनियादी बदलाव

Instead of encouraging pedestrians, they are neglected, promoting hit-and-run incidents. The police do not collaborate with stakeholders to increase awareness and civic sense. The importance of zebra crossings is not communicated to people. No one has ever seen the traffic signals at the Belanganj intersection and Jiwani Mandi crossing working. Crores have been spent on showpieces.

First, the police should ensure that traffic flow is not obstructed anywhere. What is the difficulty in implementing one-way traffic? If you need to go by car, take a longer route. What's the harm?

Second, do not allow any vehicle to take a U-turn anywhere. Third, never allow lane jumping. In our own country, in Kerala, Goa, Karnataka, and other cities, one-way traffic runs smoothly on narrow roads, maintaining the flow. Then why doesn't the police implement one-way traffic in Agra? Why do they succumb to the pressure of shopkeepers?

In the inner parts of Paris and Tokyo, roads are narrower than in Agra, but due to one-way traffic, the flow remains continuous. The mentality of people in Agra is such that if they could, they would drive their car inside their flat or house.

In New York, parking can be found several kilometres away, and in Europe, people walk miles. But in Agra, cyclists or pedestrians are not respected. Heavy vehicles and trucks move 24 hours on the Yamuna Kinara Road. It's good that the number of people going for a dip or worship in the Yamuna is negligible, otherwise, a few would be victims of traffic mismanagement every day!

But the time has come to change this thinking.

To solve Agra's road jams and traffic problems, take strict action against illegal encroachments, especially in busy areas, increase road space, create a clear parking plan with separate spaces for bikes and cars, implement multi-level parking in several places, update traffic signals with smart traffic sensors for automated and real-time traffic control, increase the number of traffic police and train them regularly to enforce rules strictly, run campaigns to make people aware of traffic rules, encouraging better driving habits, widen and repair major roads to increase traffic speed, strengthen public transport like bus networks and metro to reduce dependence on personal vehicles, construct rotaries and multiple lanes at necessary places to improve vehicle speed and direction, collect and analyze data for efficient traffic flow to identify problem areas, and create special lanes for emergency services to ensure they can reach without obstruction.

Implementing these measures is expected to improve traffic problems not only in Agra but in all over Indian cities too.