Sir,
Mysuru was traditionally known as a retiree’s paradise because of its relaxed lifestyle, evergreen parks, lakes and broad empty roads. However, nowadays, all these seem to be changing very rapidly.
The daily commute time within the city has almost doubled. The traffic woes seem to be going the Bengaluru way.
Almost every street has some never-ending construction work, nearly permanent street vendors occupying half of the street and loitering semi-domestic cattle herds that create frequent bottlenecks. And, the solution our city traffic Police have come up with is, increasing the number of traffic signals. Just put traffic signals in every junction, lights-on even when there are negligible vehicles around, even on peripheral ring roads made for faster commute.
People are getting frustrated with this pathetic system. Instead of complaining, let me suggest some possible solutions:
1. A proper coordination between various municipal authorities to ensure time-bound and stage-wise completion of sanitary, drainage and road works.
2. Identify frequent bottle necks and clear the potential offenders like street vendors, unauthorised bus stops, illegal parking and loitering cattle.
3. Station at least one traffic person in potential jam areas to anticipate and clear the jams before it becomes a massive one.
4. Instead of chasing helmet offenders, who by the way are risking their lives, the traffic Police should start punishing signal and lane offenders who are risking other’s lives as well?
If we can just follow simple traffic nuances like following lane discipline, allowing the vehicle from the right-hand side or the first arriver to pass through at junctions and circles, park responsibly, take long right and short left while turning, and just show a little respect towards our fellow drivers, we can at least ease this traffic a little bit.
—Dr. S.N. Chandan
Mysuru
9.8.2026
