Traffic signal economy

Driving in any major city is painful these days, what with the never-ending lines of vehicles moving at a snail’s pace, thanks to the burgeoning number of vehicles coupled with the shrinking or fast-depleting roads. Shrinking? Yes because of construction activities everywhere be it flyovers, under-passes or Metro lines/stations. What is supposed to regulate traffic movement, viz. traffic signals also become nightmares with some of them showing Red for over 3 minutes, turning green for a brief period and again going back to Red and some of them failing during peak hours necessitating manual interventions from the Traffic Police.When going for an urgent meeting or returning home after a hectic day, long stoppages at traffic signals can be nerve-wracking and energy-sapping.

One of my former colleagues advised me that however frustrated you get at a traffic signal, you can move only when you are destined to, so ….. just chill, listen to the music on your car’s music system with eye half-closed. I took his advice partially about not getting irritated or frustrated, but not the second part about keeping eyes half-closed and listening to music.I keep my eyes wide open even when stuck at traffic signals and when I started looking around a little, a whole new world dawned upon me and gave me important lessons for life.

Every major traffic signal & the adjoining footpath in Mumbai is an economy or a market-place. You can see many vendors weaving in and out between the stationary cars displaying their wares. Watch them closely and you will learn great selling skills for there is always a method in their approach. They do not go and display their stuff to every car driver/occupants. They choose their targets. Take for example the guys selling removable car inner-window shades.They rush toward cars which do not have dark glass for windows and the ones which do not have these shades. You may say this is a ‘no-brainer’. Look at the vendors hawking flowers or small toys/balloons. The flower vendor approaches cars where there is a couple seated and the one selling toys goes for cars with small children in them. Solo men drivers are bad for business as are well-heeled executives seated in the rear seat working away on their laptops/mobiles.

Another segment of this traffic signal economy comprises beggars – males, females and eunuchs. Here again, their targets are primarily cars with families including women and children. Some of them target couples in the hope that the couple in their bid for some ‘privacy time’ could hand over alms. Some of the beggar women, especially the younger ones target men drivers for alms. Lesson learnt — Segment your market and target the ones who you feel can be converted into clients.

Come  Diwali and a few days before at signals you find vendors selling diyas, come X’mas and we have them selling Santa Claus caps with twinkling lights and bells. If Independence Day or Republic Day are at hand, you have vendors selling Indian flags of different sizes and made of different material. Come winter and you have vendors approaching you at signals with boxes of strawberries. Lesson learnt – Change your products to meet customer needs at various points in time.

You learn a lot on pricing  from the vendors selling small packets of peanuts at signals. When they see a huge jam ahead and a more-than-usual waiting time at the signal, they foresee a rise in demand, in fact they even fan demand by telling motorists about the traffic jam. The price of the small peanut packet rises from the usual Rs.5 to Rs.10 & the bigger one from Rs.10 to Rs. 15-20. Lesson learnt – Play the game according to Demand & Supply.

Let me cite two  examples of good & bad business practices at traffic signals which I had come across. I was driving along the Mahim Causeway and before approaching the signal, a person standing on the footpath pointed to my car and waved his arms furiously. As I rolled down my window, he shouted that smoke and fire was coming out of the exhaust. I merely smiled. When I stopped at the signal, another person rushed from the pavement, tapped on my car window and said fire was coming out of the exhaust. I rolled down the window a bit and told him ‘ Come inside, let’s go to the Police Station”. He instantly vanished between the line of cars and somewhere on to the pavement. I had read that this was a gang which operated  creating doubts in the minds of motorists, offering to help at a nearby garage and then fleecing them with an exorbitant amount for some illusory labour done, when there was nothing wrong in the car. One person would inform the driver about the fire and call up his accomplice at the next signal with the car number and he too would say the same thing. Lesson learnt– Unethical practices of this nature too happen at traffic signals.

The other incident, a good practice really touched my heart. This was the day before Independence Day. I stopped at a signal near Link Road and in front of me was an auto-rickshaw. A tiny malnourished girl with unkempt hair and in tattered rags was clutching at two small Indian flags and desperately trying to sell them to the passenger in the auto-rickshaw. I could not hear her sales-pitch but I could see the passenger waving his hand saying he did not want to buy. A minute later, he pulled out a small packet of biscuit and gave it to the little girl. Possibly she had told him she was hungry.  The girl’s eyes lit up as she took the packet of biscuits but what she did next surprised me. She did not start eating or walk away but continued to thrust the flags in the passenger’s hand and he said he did not want it. Finally the little girl  gently threw the flags on to his lap and ran away to the pavement clutching the biscuit packet. She was too proud to beg. Her lessons were possibly — barter is acceptable but not begging. No ‘free lunches’.

An important learning on the need to look presentable and also manage Time better came to me recently. Again a traffic signal (the main protagonist in this post) and there I was in my stationary car, tapping my fingers to the music which was playing and casually looked to my right. What did I see? The adjoining car had a lady driver and she was furiously using a brush on her face to dab on liquid foundation. She quickly changed the brush, had a look at her compact mirror and started applying blush. There was a beggar on the other side of her car and he too was watching in amazement having forgotten to seek alms.  Next, the lady used another brush to quickly apply some eye-shadow, then a quick dab of lipstick… the signal had changed, she shifted gears and raced off. The beggar and I were looking at each other……. the car in between had vanished. 

Traffic signals are interesting places. If frustrated it only affects you negatively, look around and learn……. be happy.