It all came down to a woman in a hatchback who wouldn’t budge from the wrong side of the road. Bystanders were having none of it, accusing her of holding up a whole line of oncoming cars. When they put some pressure on her to move, she is said to have put them off with a simple, ‘I’m a lady.’
What happened on the road
According to those who saw it, the car made its way in from the wrong side of a well-travelled part of town in broad daylight and put in a stop right in front of a truck. You can see how that would shut down the other lane and leave drivers with no option but to wait in line.
As the scene drew in more onlookers, both in and out of their cars, the tempers flared. They wanted her to put it in reverse and open up the road. But she wouldn’t have any of it, and you could hear the frustration in the air as words were exchanged, say the people who were there.
Lakshay Mehta put up a clip of the run-in and it didn’t take long for it to be everywhere. In it, you can make out the woman not wanting to go back, while the man with the camera lets her know she’s the one at fault for the hold-up. It was clearly a busy time of day, which only made the wait worse for everyone else.
The video makes a few things plain to see:
– A hatchback put in front of a truck, with the opposite lane for it
– No end to the asking for her to reverse, and no end to the no’s
– And then there’s the ‘I’m a lady’ line
Why the clip is sparking debate
Then there’s the talk beyond the gridlock. Did the driver use her gender as a get-out-of-jail-free card? Some will have it that pointing the finger at a woman is a surefire way to ruffle feathers; others are of the mind that if you’re on the wrong side of the road, you’re on the wrong side of the road, no matter who you are.
You’ll find plenty of comments calling for her licence to be pulled and a fine to be levied, and wondering where the traffic chaps were when it counted. The fact that the video has spread so fast has kept the focus on what kind of discipline we have on our roads.
Traffic enforcement questions
We can’t put a pin on the where or when of this, for that matter. Nor do we know if the police or anyone in authority ever made a move to deal with the driver after the fact.
But you can read in the comments why people are miffed at the lack of a uniform in the vicinity. The general feeling is that when one car puts a block on a carriageway, you need to see some policing and a quick fix, not just let it drag on.
The larger performance issue: gridlock and accountability
This is a problem in city driving: one person going the wrong way and you’ve got a lane that’s done for. On a Delhi thoroughfare, particularly when it’s at its peak, a little tiff like this is enough to send ripples of delay out to every commuter in sight.
If you watch the footage, the oncoming traffic has to come to a full stop while people try to reason with the driver. One man even chimes in, ‘Do you have any idea how much of a jam you’ve made? It’s on you, ma’am. Put it in reverse.’
What comes next
The video is still being passed around, and with it, the call for some even-handedness and a bit of respect on the street. The consensus online is that rules are for everyone and we can’t just let wrong-side driving be the norm.
For the rest of us, the lesson is straightforward: stick to your lane and if you make a misstep, own up to it and put it right. A little care in reversing and knowing when to yield is the best way to keep from turning a small blunder into a logjam for the whole city.
