Driving is perhaps the most frustrating act anybody can indulge in Mumbai. Although, it is worse in some other cities including Delhi & Pune, it needs to get better in Mumbai. The biggest problem I see is that people don’t respect the yellow line.

Wherever I have been abroad, and that includes Nepal, every queue abides by the yellow line: Be it at the Visa counter, traffic signal or a place of worship. People understand its meaning and never ever step-over, no matter how long they’ve waited or how long the person ahead of them is taking.

In India, the biggest problem is that the yellow line does not exist. The one place where it impacts the most is Mumbai traffic. People take their cars far ahead of the signal pole, as a norm. This hampers traffic because these road-runners block a part of the lane thereby slowing traffic at the crossing and sometimes causing a bottle-neck (ref. illustration).

Only if this line is present (at least at all important junctions to start with), it will greatly aid smooth flow of traffic and indirectly save fuel & reduce pollution (by avoiding the stop-start & slow-down due to obstructing cars)