Written By Vasanth - 22 January, 2008

Traffic Bangalore speed governors public transport

Speed Governor issue has resulted in strike of trucks and private buses - Are they are the only accident causing vehicles. What about high speed cars, bikes and SUVs? Are they not resulting in any accidents? Joy ride of these vehicles had made our roads deadly dangerous. Problem is day by day the BHPs and CCs of vehicles that are introduced in India are increasing like anything. Bikes are moving from 100cc to 150cc and now 200+ CCs producing more than 13-14 bhps and cars are moving from 800cc to 1,300+ CCs producing in excess of 100bhp. In olden days, there was a strict control in India for the CCs and BHPs of the vehicles launched. M800 producing 35bhp itself was felt very powerful at that time, now it is the least. Yamaha RX100 producing 11bhp was considered very powerful, now most of the bikes in the markets produce that. People in India do not have the discipline to handle these high powered vehicles. They drive recklessly resulting in increased number of accidents mostly which will turn fatal. There should be a restriction to CCs and BHPs for the vehicles that are launched in India rather than enforcing a speed governor later. 800-1300 cc for cars and less than 150cc is enough for the conditions of Indian roads. What's the fun in having a car which reaches 200kmph with no road suitable to reach that speed. SwiftsSafety features of powerful cars should come in non powerful cars also. Nano is thankfully 35bhp and 650cc. Pulsars,Unicorns,Apaches as well as Safaris, Scorpios, Octavias,Optras etc have made our roads deadly dangerous. In earlier days, we didn't had so many powerful vehicles on our road and most of the vehicles were like utility vehicles to reach point B from point A. At that time we had less number of accidents and traffic jams. People could comfortably commute in Luna and TVS XL. Introduction of speed Governors to Buses especially to Volvo buses will lead to increased number of cars on our highways. People will stop using the public vehicle and start driving their own car on highways since the journey time is longer. Volvo buses normally travels at 100kmph which will be governed whereas powerful Cars and SUVs which can zip at 150+ kmph will not have any restrictions. Our Indian trucks, which are less torquey already struggle on our highways to carry the load. Speed governor will make it even more difficult. It is the empty trucks which are driven rashly. Speed checking at regular points with hidden speed cameras is the best way to deal with speed rather than speed Governors. Enforcing strict discipline will govern the speed. There is no speed checking as well as drunken driving testing in any of our highways. How much time it takes to get the speed Governor removed for a truck/bus driver?

Enforcement is the key

christopher - 24 January, 2008 - 06:22

The idea about fitting speed governors has rightfully faced the flak. Even if they succeed in fixing the speed governors, it is quite easy to tamper with them. The key to controlling fast and rash driving is enforcement. To start with, road types should be identified and categorised as School area, Residential area, Business district, Expressway, State highway, Interstate highway etc. Speed limit should be specified for each area and displayed prominently in each and every road. After this only speed enforcement should be started. While it is another story that BDA is proposing mixed use of land...which means residential areas will be business/commercial places too.

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Not an issue of speed

balnu147 - 24 January, 2008 - 14:43

According to me the problem of reckless driving is more to do with the driver than the vehicle.. drivers needs to be punished with fine not the vehicle! There is nothing called a reckless truck but a reckless driver driving a truck.. curb them.. use nook or crook and don't let them off the hook.. things will be peaceful then!

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speed governors...

tsubba - 24 January, 2008 - 15:14

so what was this issue about speed governors any one with a short summary.

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re: speed governors

balnu147 - 24 January, 2008 - 15:40

Too many people getting killed speeding HTVs.. so govt announced that they have to install speed governors which will restrict speed of HTVs to 50 automatically.. truckers, bus and taxi union dint like the idea and so went on strike..

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re: speed governors

tsubba - 24 January, 2008 - 15:45

thanks. so how did the strike end?

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