There are so many problems in the city among them traffic jam is one of the major problems in the Kathmandu valley. Every day when I travel downtown I always have to travel half an hour before to reach on time to the place where I have to go. It’s because of the traffic jam in the Kathmandu valley. Such a case is not only for me there are thousands of people who are suffering from road transport in Kathmandu. During rush hour in a short distance, walking is faster than taking public a vehicle.
In my view, there are many reasons for traffic congestion in Kathmandu. Which I experience from each day’s travel on Kathmandu’s road. So that I am going to mention hereby.
1: Not following traffic rules by everyone
People who drive on Kathmandu’s roads most them not follow traffic rules properly. Everyone wants to go faster and wants to reach sooner because that creates a huge traffic jam everywhere inside the city. Especially during rush hour bikers, ride the bikes from the pedestrian trails as well. So that not following traffic rules by everyone is one of the first reasons for traffic problems in Kathmandu.
2: The condition of roads
Well, the condition of the road is another major reason to cause the traffic jam in the Kathmandu valley. The biggest problem in the roads is not properly planned roads and construction work done every time by different organizations for different propose. Road size is also the biggest matter because in most of the places inside the city the road remains the same and increasing number of vehicles every day. Also, the contractor who has the contract to reconstruct the road on time; they don’t do it on time and the road condition is worse, and very difficult to move vehicles. On the road there are not properly managing the Zebra cross; that is why pedestrians are walking everywhere and that cause issue with easy-flowing traffics.
3: Not effective punishment
Punishment is the best tool to keep people in the discipline. However in the meantime punishment for not following traffic rules in Nepal is not an effective way. That is why people easily avoid traffic rules. In other countries when a driver violent traffic rules there is a big punishment, specifically the need to pay a big amount of fines. Here in Nepal is not such a numerous amount of fines needed to pay. Which makes people easy to break traffic rules and drive in Kathmandu.
4: No proper parking areas in the city.
Parking is another reason to create traffic jams in Kathmandu. We can see vehicles are parking everywhere on the roadside of Kathmandu. In some places of Kathmandu, parking places are managed by the Kathmandu municipality but; that is not adequate and also, not managing well to manage traffic jams in that areas.
5: lack of traffic infrastructure on the road.
Lack of traffic infrastructure on the road is also another reason have an unsolvable traffic problem in the Kathmandu valley. Infrastructure such as Zebra crossing, Traffic lights, Sky bridges, and Traffic signals is very important to keep traffic moving smoothly. In the contest of the valley, those things are missing, and rarely can find those things operating properly in some places.
Up listed are the seen reasons for the traffic jam in Kathmandu. However, there are other many reasons for the traffic congestion of Kathmandu. To solve this problem, if everyone follows the traffic rules there will be less traffic on the road because there will be easy flow. And if the government work-on to build a good road and enough parking space in a one-time investment that also help to solve the problem. More importantly, if the fine is huge everyone will think 100 times to break traffic rules.