Sunday, April 18, 2010

7 ways to beat traffic blues!

All  cities are on a daily basis clogged with long traffic jams.

Cities became synonymous with traffic jams,  it's as if no one can do anything about it. Perhaps no one can do much really. For politicians, politics is full time profession, have nothing else in their mind. And without political will, nothing happens in this country, as of now.

I wish MNC infrastrcture & planning companies with big pockets, with a lot of spare money to influence politicians, find a great business potential in executing innovative solutions for this, and wish they go for the same.

We don't know when these things actually happen. Till then we have to protect ourselves & our businesses, to the possible extent, from being stuck in traffic jams. 

A few tips, are as below, can save the day for anyone:
  1. If your office starts at 8:30am, be there by 7:30. Advantages : 1) you will develop a descipline that increases your self esteem, and that might help you throughout the day 2) You will have more time to do, hence you can do more. You will have a chance to be too good at work that your boss can't ignore you any more. 3)You will have chance to start you day in a positive mood, as you have avoided traffic, which is real negative.
  2. Commute in odd hours: don't go on to the road, when everyone else will go. It requires some planning, but you will feel good wherever you might be headed.
  3. shop in odd hours: 1) You will feel more at ease. 2) you can have sales guys' time as needed on shop floor 3)generally in odd hours there are a lot of offers that you may avail of. 4) parking convenience 5)You can bargain better, as you are not in a rush
  4. Traffic updates from FM radios are helpful sometimes - to avoid being stuck.  
  5. Whenever you have time, try to find/explore a short cut to any place you go quite often. Manytimes  we find main roads are jammed, while the adjoining small roads/streets are amost empty. 
  6. Try to finish off as many as tasks as possible, whenever you go out. eg., after you deposit a cheque in a bank, on your way back, you may send a courier, and after that you may want to  take your car to near by mechanic to get something fixed, and on the way back you may stop at near by shopping complex to buy groceries. etc We all do this more or less, but with a little planning you can  do much more - you save time & fuel, avoid being in traffic multiple times. 
  7. Our commute must have an objective : a purpose or fun. If purpose can n't be met by chat, email or phone call, go for it. If you just want to go for a ride just for fun, go for it. Without these no go.
More time with family is the best & a lots of fun. More time at work helps you prosper. Un-necessarily why to spend more time on jammed roads ?

I  think these are helpful, I personally follow these. Wold love to know how you beat traffic blues? On top of expecting governments to do something, what you yourself are doing? Eager to hear from you... 

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Nice tips.

I like this word.

"We all do this more or less, but with a little planning you can do much more"
rity
But I don't agree with u r word saying "Perhaps no one can do much really". If Gandhiji had thought the same, then we don't even had freedom till now.

I believe, the solution will be very easy, if peoples mind set will change. I saw most of the reasons for traffic jams other than signal areas, are just bcz of some people who drive with out discipline. Just bcz of one one or the other guy, people for a kilometer are just got blocked. I observed this kind of scenario many times, especially in road side streets or lanes, where traffic police will not be there always.

If every body is disciplined to the required extent, and follow the minimum traffic rules like lane driving, stop singal jumps, following one ways roads then atleast problem will get reduced by 30%. and rest of the solution should any how given by Politician anyhow.

I suggest, everybody should change their mind set and try to change the peoples mind set around us to be more disciplined. We can learn a lot from already developed countries like US.

Ravi Janardhan said...

Thanks San for you point of view.

You are absolutely right, it's everything to do with people's mindset, if that changes for good, nothing can stop us.