From sskiyer AT iitk DOT ac DOT in Wed Feb 2 00:20:37 2005 Date: Tue, 1 Feb 2005 23:44:53 +0530 (IST) From: S. Sundar Kumar Iyer To: all AT lists.iitk DOT ac DOT in Subject: [All] Traffic Week from 3rd to 9th Feb. 2005 SUMMARY: - Traffic Week on IIT K Campus from 3rd to 9th Feb. 2005 (Thu. to Wed.) - Please follow traffic rules and basic courtesy to other road users - Please volunteer to make this event a success. We need volunteers who can spend an hour at a time to help create traffic awareness on campus. - Contacts: Email: iitk-traffic-owner AT yahoogroups.com Phone numbers: 7820/7904/7588/8801 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Dear Friends, The IIT Kanpur Traffic Etiquette Group is organising a Traffic Week the week after the first mid-sem exams of this semester. THE MOTIVATION ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Consider these two scenarios. Situation I: It is almost dark. An old man, after a hard day at work, carrying a bundle on his head, is trying to cross the road near a road intersection. A Tata Sumo vehicle suddenly appears at high speed. It blares it horn, flashes its light from high-beam to low beam. The old man who is almost half way across the road, hastily scrambles back, barely escaping being run over. The Tata Sumo rushes past. The old man regains his composure and makes another attempt to cross the road. Situation II: A big truck is coming down the road. Some children are in the process of crossing the road at an intersection. The truck slows down and stops at a safe distance from the junction allowing the children to cross. Vehicles behind the truck stop, queuing up patiently (without honking). After the children cross and the road is clear, the truck moves forward past the junction. The other vehicles too follow one behind the other. It is a fact, although unpleasant, that situations like the first one abounds in our neighbourhood as we step out of our houses. Many of us in the IITK Traffic Etiquette Group - and many of you reading this email, would like to see behaviours similar to situation II above. We do believe that it is possible to make that type of situation the default situation on campus. Towards this end, we are organising a "Traffic Week" on campus. The main purpose of the Traffic Week is to raise awareness of issues related to traffic etiquette. THE EVENT AND WHAT HAPPENS DURING IT ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Traffic Week will be held from 3rd to 9th of February. This is the week after the mid-semester exams when the students and teachers are likely to be more relaxed. We could also expect more volunteers to participate in the activities of the traffic week. During the traffic week, we would request everyone - whether they are pedestrians, cyclists, scooterists, motorcyclists, car drivers, bus drivers, truck drivers, ... - to please remember to be considerate to others when they are using public spaces. They would be requested to follow the rules of the road and extend basic courtesy to other road users. For the current traffic week, the IIT K Traffic Etiquette Group will focus on publicising the courteous and safe traffic behaviour as regards to: * Following Speed Limits while driving * Using low and high beam in your vehicles at night * Making the correct right turn on the roads * Usage of horn * Not riding vehicles/cycles in pedestrian areas on campus We also hope to organise a mini-workshops for campus drivers, taxi drivers and the security. Attempts will also be made to reach out to the children in the schools on campus. Our humble hope is that at the end of the week, awareness to these issues will be increased. The majority of the campus residents and visitors will start following them. This will help form a critical mass of people who follow the rules and make it the default behaviour on campus. HOW YOU CAN PARTICIPATE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Each of you could participate in the Traffic Week in the following way: (i) Please give your moral support. (ii) Please try to follow the traffic rules - whichever be your mode of transportation/locomotion. (iii) Please volunteer to distribute pamphlets at the junctions and help educate people on correct traffic behaviour. We have one hour slots spread out over the week when you could volunteer. (iv) Please join the iitk-traffic yahoogroups and help organise publicity and educational events. For more information or to volunteer, please contact: Email: iitk-traffic-owner AT yahoogroups.com Phone numbers: 7820/7904/7588/8801 We will need all the help we can get. Meanwhile, please drive safe and be safe! Wish you a safe and pleasant road experience at IIT Kanpur. With regards S.K.I. _______________________________________________ All mailing list All AT lists.iitk DOT ac DOT in http://lists.iitk.ac.in/mailman/listinfo/all