Delhiwale: Driving 101

What we need to use more often: A park for practice with road signs, signals, even a bus stand

Perhaps we’ve hit the nail on the head: Delhi despises traffic rules because hardly any Delhiwalla visits the Traffic Training Park. (Have you ever heard any of your friends proposing a picnic there?)

The Delhi Traffic Police recommend that law-abiding citizens “visit these parks to learn about traffic rules and road safety norms in a practical and theoretical manner.” (Mayank Austen Soofi / HT Photo)

Situated on central Delhi’s Baba Kharak Singh Marg, it is an unusual garden. Instead of flowers and ponds, you’ll be strolling among roads, pavements, traffic lights, zebra crossings, and even a yellow bus stand.

The park also has a foot overbridge. There are five of these traffic parks in the capital. The others are in Roshanara Bagh, Punjabi Bagh, Pragati Maidan and at Bal Bhawan on Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg.

The Delhi Traffic Police recommend that law-abiding citizens “visit these parks to learn about traffic rules and road safety norms in a practical and theoretical manner.”

We had fun doing it.

One placard in the park says, “Do not ride Zig Zag.”

Another suggests, “Stay Alive – Think & Drive’.

A safety tip for cycle riders is written in antiquated English: “You should never lead an animal whilst cycling.”

A poster shows two children sitting blissfully on their car’s backseat. Both are wearing seatbelts — a rare backseat sight in Delhi.

A display board decods dozens of road signs. The one for ‘Bullock cart prohibited’ is a blast from the past.

Though dedicated to the city’s noisy traffic, the park remains serenely quiet. We spent more than an hour sitting on a solitary green bench with our novel of the day. After exiting, we crossed the busy road at the risk of our own life and bitterly noticed that nothing has changed in the world outside the park.