Exploring Aizawl, India's only Silent City
TIMESOFINDIA.COM | Nov 27, 2023, 03.00 AM IST
Aizawl is as unique as they come. This busy city gets its sobriquet the Silent City because of its impeccable traffic etiquette. It’s not your everyday ‘wear your helmet’, ‘wear your seatbelt’, ‘don’t overspeed’ and so on. This city and its people have managed to impress everyone by how smooth the everyday traffic is, even in rush hours.
While folks from Bengaluru, Mumbai and Delhi have people feeling like they are spending half of their lives tackling the city traffic, and the other half complaining about it, folks in Aizawl are taking their left lanes pretty seriously, and it’s beautiful.
When you are out and about in Aizawl, it is normal to see people out on the roads with their vehicles, maintaining their lane, not overtaking one another, no honking of horns, no road rage, and best of all–everyone is courteous to one another. All these, even during peak hours!
The left lane in Aizawl also has separate lines for four-wheelers and two-wheelers. It is important to note that most of the city roads in Aizawl are pretty narrow to begin with. There are no big dividers to separate the left and right lanes. More often than not, it’s just a white strip of marker. Even then, people on the left lane keep the right lane free for any vehicles approaching from the opposite side. Now that is some serious commitment towards road etiquette and road safety.
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Wait, there’s more. It is not common to find traffic lights in Aizawl.
It is generally felt that honking incessantly and speedily overtaking other vehicles is an embarrassing act and one wouldn’t want to come off as uncivilised. Yes, that’s what the locals feel about openly disregarding traffic rules. The silence in Aizawl is not merely the absence of noise; it is a reflection of the city's distinctive cultural and societal ethos.
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This is definitely a unique experience that one should visit Aizawl for.