Traffic has become a part and parcel of our life. Every day we wake up to endure the same pain on the road. The kind of trouble we face every day will be more understandable from the following narrative.

It is raining heavily in the morning. The very beginning of the day seems to be so soothing as petrichor emanating from the soil and the dulcet sound of the raindrops are placating your mind. On your way to the office, you are trying hard to enjoy monsoon rain sitting inside a car. From the other part of the tinted glass of the car, you feel like drenching yourself. But, you are not stepping out to live out any of these fantasies owing to the fact that you are feeling disoriented and extremely vexed after remaining stuck in the long tailbacks caused by abrupt raining for almost 2 hours. On the other side of the road, someone is getting wet as he is trying to travel by holding on to the handholds outside the bus. For him, getting wet in the rain is no romantic thing. Now, look at the contrasting realities – the first person wants to get drenched in the rain, but his enthusiasm petered out. And the second person cannot even give it a thought because the only thing making rounds in his head right now is – he is already one hour late for his office. This narrative is so common when it rains in our capital as any monsoon shower aggravates traffic situation in the city so badly that the suffering of the commuters knows no bounds.

The narrative points to a fact – traffic in our capital knows no class. It makes someone belonging to the high echelon of the society as well as someone from the lowest rung of the social ladder suffer equally. Traffic is an everyday affair in our capital. Denizens and commuters living in the capital know it for sure that traffic congestion, no matter what the concerned authorities do, is here to stay and in fact, city dwellers are now habituated to the traffic trends. Even if you are accustomed to such practice now, it does not change the fact that traffic congestion is affecting our lives in many ways, including the economic loss associated with it.

Traffic is actually hamstringing our work efficiency. According to the same study, commuters squander around 19 million working hours per day. It does not mean that a good portion of their working hours just gets wasted, rather it is also true the time we spend being stuck in the gridlocks actually takes a heavy toll on our mental health, which consequently affects the level of our efficiency. Let me put it in plain words – when we get stuck in the traffic in the very morning, it actually breaks our concentration and some of us even lose the interest of attending the office after long hours of congestion. Even when office-goers make it to the office, they cannot give it their best as they feel disoriented and some of them even get headaches even before commencing office works.

Third, long hours of traffic congestion hamper our mental peace. The very first thing we consider while going out in the capital is the traffic condition. This has been so terrifying that many families have even stopped going out on weekends to pass quality time. City dwellers now feel that the less you go out, the more you feel mentally sound. Traffic congestion is killing us silently in this way. Even when commuters remain stuck in the traffic for long hours, they feel displeased after making their way back home, which often robs them of the mental stability necessary to behave well with the family members and kids. Moreover, the very thought of the same struggle and the repetition of the same maddening experience the next day makes us a bit offhand.

(The writer is a columnist.)