Crime Observations - Red Traffic Signal - Essay Example

In my homeland, I have never passed a traffic interchange at a Red signal. I attribute this to my awareness that if I do pass the road when the traffic signal is Red, I would immediately be followed by a traffic police agent and it would not be long before I would be fined. I have observed this happening with other people, and this has induced a consciousness in me to try to avoid this mistake always in my conscious mind.

Once, I was in India on a holiday. There I observed that while traffic rules were the same as they were in my homeland, people were not very serious about abiding by the rules. I often saw people crossing the interchange while the traffic signal was still Red. This behavior was particularly executed by motorcyclists in India. Occasionally, I would see a traffic police officer taking a car to a side and investigating why the driver broke the rule, but the number of offenders in my observation far outweighed the number of traffic police encounters.

Having observed this trend, I also crossed a traffic signal at the Red light once in India. While at that time, it felt like an adventure having dodged the traffic police, yet now when I reflect on that experience, it does not leave me with a good feeling in my heart. I feel that although I was not traced by any traffic police, yet it was very irresponsible and careless of me to have broken that traffic rule despite knowing it. Although that did save me a few minutes that I would have otherwise wasted waiting for the signal to turn Green at the interchange, yet by breaking that rule, I did dishonesty to the nation and the state. In addition, I could have been caught had a policeman chased me and I could have been fined in addition to facing the embarrassment.

My observation of the behavior of the traffic in India and my homeland has led me to the conclusion that people in my homeland respect laws because law enforcement agencies are quite strict at holding the offenders accountable for their actions. Even I hardly ever see an Indian breaking a traffic law in my homeland. So the process of correction commences from the top. 

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