Kolkata Tops the Ford Road Safety Survey

In the Ford Cartesy Survey 2020, Kolkata secured the leading spot beating other metro cities such as Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Mumbai and Delhi

A few months ago, Ford India conducted a road safety survey in the top six metro cities of India. In an association with Astrum Management Advisory, Ford named the road safety survey as the ‘Ford Cartesy Survey 2020’ and assessed the behaviour of riders and drivers in cities such as Kolkata, Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad. After interviewing 1,561 individuals from the age group of 22 to 50 with valid driving licenses, Ford awarded Kolkata the best metropolitan city in road safety.

To assess the behaviour of the drivers and riders, Ford ordered them to rate several sentences linked to driving and riding on a scale of 10. The list of sentences included:

• Caution exercised while riding or driving
• Talking on the phone
• Over speeding in overcrowded areas
• Over speeding in speed restricted zones
• Blowing horn in hospital and school zones
• Not keeping a safe distance from other vehicles
• Not helping accident victims
• Tailgating other vehicles
• Not using indicators and mirrors
• Using a high beam in two-way streets
• Intentionally breaking signals

Driver and rider categories

To understand the mindset of the users, Ford India categorized the drivers and riders into four divisions- Oblivious, assured, pretentious and idealist.

• Oblivious- Oblivious are those drivers and riders who do not possess knowledge about the traffic rules and regularly break them unintentionally.
• Assured- The drivers and riders under this category often display hostile behaviour on the route and firmly believe that they know their way around the authorities.
• Pretentious- The participants under this group claimed they are familiar with the laws and rules but choose to violate them.
• Idealist- The sole group that tries their best to follow the traffic rules and regulations as much as possible.

City scores

After the survey, Ford discovered that 40 per cent of the vehicle users in India are oblivious, whereas 27 per cent accounted for the assured category. A worrying 25 per cent found a place in the pretentious category, while merely eight per cent gained a position in the idealist genre.

On the safety scale, Kolkata secured the first position with 638 points, followed by Chennai with 634 points. Mumbai and Hyderabad secured the third and fourth positions, respectively. With 333 points, Bengaluru grabbed the fifth spot. Delhi performed poorly and earned only 309 points. Therefore, the capital of India came last. Shockingly, out of 1,561 individuals; not a single entity from Delhi turned out to be an idealist.