Know Your Traffic Signs

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Know Your Traffic Signs!

Tarun Nongthombam *

We are all proud of our driving skills but come traffic rules and signs, we have careless attitude. Traffic signs are of three types-Regulatory, Warning and Informatory.

Few signs, we are familiar in Manipur and few are not, there are signs we like and signs we hate. Let us explore these signs and have some fun,so come along!!

Regulatory signs-These signs inform the road users of the laws and regulation they have to abide by. Violation of these signs is legal offence.They are mostly circular. Let us see few of these.

	Stop sign is octagonal with STOP written in the middle. In Manipur we can still see circular STOP signs. Whole world uses this octagonal sign including India, we need to catch up with the world!
	This is used to give priority to oncoming traffic, generally used in roundabouts. This is rarely used in Manipur. The place where it should be is on all the roads entering "Nityai_pa_chuthek" traffic circle to give way to the circling traffic on your right when you approach the traffic circle.
	This no entry is used generally in vehicle prohibited area. We can find this used in market place like ima_keithel or during religious occasion where people gather and vehicles are not allowed beyond a point.
	We can find this on roads inside paona and thangal bazaar where you have shops on both sides of the road. It increases the efficiency in road carrying traffic by having one way. If you don't obey the rule, poor old traffic police will chase behind you whistling and shouting "One way ni_ hei'raga!"
	This no turn sign, we see on road junction. This makes junction work properly and efficiently by banning certain turn so that we don't start "'I go first".
	This No U-turn is violated mainly by whom? Bikers�because they do it quick & fast.
	This truck prohibited is loved by traffic police. You know why? If you make one or two trucks pass through, it is "money..money"
	This horn prohibited we see mainly near hospitals and schools. Do you like to blow your horn whenever you see this to pump up your adrenalin?
	This no parking sign is the one which we hate most. They seem to pop up selectively in those juicy areas where we want to park our vehicle. You can see this in front of Manipur's secretariat.
	This no standing or stopping is designed for we manipuris to do away with our attitude "Minute_ama_khak'ta_kham'ba'nae"
	This sign shows you cant exceed speed of 40kmph. Speed limits are fixed generally by seeing the road surrounding, traffic condtion or by design standard.
	This height limit sign, we should see in the Bir Tikendrajit flyover warning vehicle passing beneath the flyover of the height restriction. Is it there?
	We want few of this load restriction sign to come up on those old bailey bridges in NH-53. Do you like to drive your 20 tones truck and find out in the middle of the bridge that the bridge can take only 10 tones!
	This is compulsory straight ahead, no turning back.
	This is compulsory turn sign.
Warning signs-These signs warn road users of certain hazardous conditions. They are mostly triangular in shape
	This is right hand curve warning sign,another one is there for left hand curve. One will appreciate the importance of this sign if you do night driving on hill roads.
	This warns drivers of roundabout ahead so that he is prepared of the traffic moving in circles. "Nityai_pa_chuthek" traffic circle is the location to be put up.
	This simple sign of risk of rock falling ahead could have prevented the recent rock falling accident in NH-53.
	This sign shows steep climb ahead. It allows you to prepare for the climb.
	We all would love to see some of this road hump sign because our leikai roads keeps popping up with speed breakers without adequate warning signs. This will prevent us from being thrown out of our vehicle.
	This sign shows man at work, like a pit is being dug up in the middle of the road. This sign would prevent us from landing inside the pit with our vehicle!
	This tells that the road which we are traveling narrows ahead. This sign will make us reduce our speed so that we can negotiate the narrow road.
	This shows gap in the divider.It is an important sign when you drive on Indian highways. There is high chance of vehicle turning right or making U turn right in front of you from this gap when you are driving at 100 kmph.
	This danger ahead sign conveys no specific message on its own but it is accompained by supplementary plates saying "Accident", "fallen tree" etc. One can also find this used in tankers carrying hazardous chemicals
	This school ahead sign warns of school and children. Children can dart out on the road very quickly and do not have the road sense of adults.
	This shows slippery road. Don't you want to see few of this on our tar road with lei_nga_ng(red soil) on top during rainy days
	This warn us of traffic signal ahead. In Traffic signal, we all know RED means STOP, GREEN means GO but what about YELLOW? Yellow last generally for about 4 sec. It is meant for vehicles that have entered the junction to get cleared off it. If you see the yellow light 'on' before entering the junction I:e if you haven't crossed the stop line, you have to halt. Don't take yellow as the extension of green.
Informatory signs - These signs provide information and guidance to road users. They are mostly rectangular. Few examples are given below.
	This is one of the directional sign used in UK. It tells the place location, direction and makes the town look smart. What is preventing Imphal from having few of these?
	This is one of the directional sign used in UK. It tells the place location, direction and makes the town look smart. What is preventing Imphal from having few of these?
	This shows parking allowed on one side or on both sides.
	This sign shows various services provided in puddleworth.

We should remember that these innocent looking signs help avoiding road accident. We all need to start obeying and respecting these signs.Adopting simple habits like not overspeeding, wearing helmets when riding two wheelers will protect us from serious injury and fatality.

Do you know most of the road accident related serious injuries and fatalities at RIMS are because of head injury?

* Tarun Nongthombam contributes regularly to e-pao.net. The writer can be contacted at nong_tarun(at)rediffmail(dot)com
This article was posted on October 01, 2011.

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