it has been a strange sort of a weekend. raining almost non stop since the day of the blasts.

The roads are tattered. Parts of the highway look as though they have been gouged out. I was in Bandra – yesterday and the day before – in one of the most well to do enclaves – and there were no roads.

The interlocking tiles are a mess – they have come lose creating traffic snarls.

Driving is a gamble – by the time i get home my entire body hurts with the effort of keeping the car stable and not hitting anyone with it.

And, citizens are breaking traffic laws. On Friday – I traversed the distance between my office and home – approx 9 kms – in 2.5 hours. And, the bulk of the snarls were caused by illegal parking on SV Road, by people trying to get into a one way street from the other way …

We can’t expect the cops to be everywhere – we can’t follow the rules just because there is a cop watching.

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In the book “Tipping Point” Malcolm Gladwell talks about how the New York City administration dealt with murders and robberies on the New York metro system in the 1980’s. The metro system was likened to Dante’s inferno – a ride through hell.

The response of the administration was based on the “Broken Windows Theory“. The theory originally proposed by  Dr. James Q. Wilson and George Kelling

takes its name from the observation that a few broken windows in an empty building quickly lead to more smashed panes, more vandalism and eventually to break-ins. The tendency for people to behave in a particular way can be strengthened or weakened depending on what they observe others to be doing. This does not necessarily mean that people will copy bad behaviour exactly, reaching for a spray can when they see graffiti. Rather,… it can foster the “violation” of other norms of behaviour.

The New York metro system tackled the problem of crime not by attacking crime directly, rather by clamping down on ‘minor violations’ such as ticketless travelling and illegal graffiti.

I don’t know about the rest of India, but Mumbai definitely needs its own variant of the Broken Windows theory being implemented. And, i can think of nothing better than going after drivers who break signals. The two most visible signs of law breaking in Mumbai – are

• people breaking traffic laws
• encroachment on pavements & roads

Let us start with the first – Mumbai still has an archaic driving license system -mine is a little booklet (that currently is residing at the Worli Naka police station – because the cop who confiscated it doesn’t have the authority to take a fine).

• Computerise and bar code every single driving license
• give the cops a bar code reader to book fines and collect them. If you don’t want cops collecting the fines –  Let the Mumbaikar deposit the fine at their nearest bank branch. Surely the Mumbai police has a bank account.
• Take people – especially the middle class which doesn’t have too much to do with the police – except to slip them a bribe and then crib about it – to the nearest police station to book them.
• Let people start losing their license or having their license suspended
• Arrest jaywalkers

My gut feel is that if you start hitting the ‘middle class’ in this manner – they will clamour for governance. At this point of time – they turn a blind eye to maladministration, and in turn they go scot free for breaking the law.

At the second level – look at encroachment. The entire area outside my building has been taken over by a used car company… walk down any ‘middle class’ area of Mumbai and you are less likely to find hawkers, and more likely to find ‘established’ businesses breaking the law. I know all the arguments – bribes to corporators, bribes to cops, intimidation etal …but if you start penalising the middle class for breaking traffic laws – they are hopefully going to clamour for other law breakers to be penalised.

You really cannot go after street hawkers – until such time you prevent the big guys from publicly breaking the law.

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Finally go after the road contractors. The road – that my tax money and yours (if you live in mumbai) have paid for – over and over again are a mess. But, there is no point going after the smallest link.

• What is the penalty for the ADAG group for having missed every deadline as far as the metro is concerned.
• In fact why did that company get the metro project – what have they built in the past ?
• Who pays for the roads they have damaged ?
• Who pays for hours of my life and yours – down the drain. stuck in traffic – because they can’t delive

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And yes, let the beat cop be able to collect fines. I am trudging all the way to worli (from Andheri) – a 22 km distance to pay a Rs.100 fine to redeem my license. Most would have paid the Rs.50 bribe – the system is making it difficult to follow the law.