We drive regularly on roads but only a few people know the importance of lane discipline in India. Lanes on roads are meant to keep the traffic safe and organised. Drivers often change abruptly or without proper indicator causing a serious threat to lives on Indian roads.
Lane discipline is as basic as wearing a helmet or seat belt. Here is why you should follow it religiously:
1. Keeps You Within The Speed Limit
When you drive on a highway, you can see those different lanes are designated for different speeds. For instance, the left-most lane of the road is designated only for overtaking vehicles to avoid any confusion for other commuters. This also helps drivers in anticipating the overtaking vehicle from the right side of the road only.
Left-most lanes are designated for slow-moving or heavy vehicles. This is the reason we see truckers sticking to the left-most lanes, car plying in the middle lane and overtaking vehicles crossing from the right-most lane on a six-lane highway.
The organisation of speed limits on the road makes the flow of traffic smoother and safer for everyone.
2. Reduces the Possibility of Accident
Lane discipline serves as a great deterrent to accidents. Vehicles running in proper lanes have a much lesser chance of meeting an accident due to multiple reasons.
- Vehicles following lane discipline also follow the speed limit of that particular lane.
- Vehicles plying in different lanes maintain a safe parallel distance which acts as a great buffer in case a vehicle swerves abruptly due to an object or a pothole in front of it.
- Lane discipline discourages rash driving and keeps the traffic more organized and predictable.
3. Reduces Congestion
Disorganised traffic is one of the biggest reasons for congestion on roads. Lanes help in organising the traffic and preventing bottlenecks at various critical points. For instance, if suddenly a lot of cars start taking an exit from the rightmost lane, it causes slowing down of other vehicles going in the right and middle lane who are intended to go straight. It creates an unnecessary bottleneck of traffic which can be avoided by following the lane discipline from the start.
4. Eases Emergency Movement
You must have noticed that there is always a gap of one more vehicle to pass between two vehicles in different lanes. Apart from safety reasons, this gap is meant to facilitate the movement of emergency vehicles including ambulance, police car and VVIP cavalcade in case of an emergency of traffic congestion.
Lack of lane discipline causes spiralling of traffic on roads making the situation worse. Spiralled traffic caused more congestion and bottleneck and makes it impossible for emergency vehicles to move during rush hours.
