Speed Limits!

I know, ‘cause I make the trip every week. For those of you who don’t really know what the Expressway is like here’s a brief description. It’s a wide six-lane dual concrete carriageway cutting through hillocks and climbing the ghats at Lonavla in an approximately 100km stretch. It’s arguably smooth, well maintained and extremely boring. Yes, you read that right – it’s extremely boring. Why? Because it has an 80 km/h speed limit on it throughout except for the tighter sections where speed is limited to 50 km/h.

Now India is an automotive enthusiast’s heaven on most days with no sign of coppers with speed guns – which usually means I’m gunning down the Expressway in really fast cars at the upper limits of their speedometers. Well, that’s on most days. On others, there are a bunch of suicidal greats from the Mumbai police force waiting for you turn that blind corner at time warp speed, pick your speed on the speed gun and then jump right in front of your path to haul you down and issue a speeding ticket. Yes, they actually jump right in front of your speeding car in the middle of a three lane highway so they can collect that Rs 200 fine for their kitty.

Now while all that may be totally legal, but how practical is it really for cops to be jumping on to a highway with cars gunning down (even if they are at the legal 80km/h speed limit)? From a driver’s perspective it sure is scary. After all, you don’t want to be the one to mow down a cop who just jumped in front of you! But that really brings me to the real issue at hand. Our roads are getting better. Our cars are getting better and safer. Then why stick to the 80 km/h limit? The government has to increase the speed limit on roads like the Mumbai-Pune Expressway and other parts of the Golden Quadrilateral at least. Most cars are comfortably capable of holding 100 km/h speeds and even more. Then why not!

There’s another reason besides just higher speeds and faster travel for the authorities to think about increasing speed limits. Quite plainly put, 80km/h on a wide open road is boring – and extremely sleep inducing! That said, we still lack proper driver training and etiquette in our country. That’s something we as Indian citizens must take upon ourselves to do. But really, let’s have some higher speed limits. And if you’re going to fine us for speeding Mr. Cop, at least issue a legible ticket!