Traffic and It's Impact on Mental Health

Road traffic has always been a distraught start of the day for everyone. Although traffic has always been an unpleasant interaction on road since the invention of roads and cars but due to increasing population and use of vehicles has made traffic much more stressful. Production and consumption of vehicles worldwide has gone to approximately 92 million per year. Although infrastructure, road size, traffic rules and regulations have been improved according to the increased used of automobiles but still everyone face traffic issue.
Have you ever thought that how a traffic on road can effect your mental health immensely?
It is a human psyche that he can't wait for too long and when someone has to reach somewhere on time, road traffic becomes even more irritating.

But waiting in a long cue is not the only part of traffic but the pressure and stress of reaching on time, the horns around you creating noise pollution, the stress of getting out of that mess, the stress that someone behind you is waiting for you to get aside, and when the weather is not pleasant for you it also becomes a stress. And when you start your day with such kind of stress your day as a whole becomes a stress. Naturally you become irritated to everything around you, your mind be still in that traffic and getting confused, you can't work properly and there's no productivity left in your day.

Traumas on accidents leading to stress
A recent research mentioned in "International Journal on Environmental Research and Public Health" stated that road traffic indicates around 2 - 3% increase in depression risk.
Traffic noise and stress results in different behaviors and reactions of individual from different sources of traffic noise. Research has found that different kind of source of traffic noise has different effects on individual's mind for example some horns are more irritating than others causing more abrupt reactions of individuals. These reactions may lead to more stressful environment and becomes a reason for depression and anxiety and even road accidents are caused by such kind of chaos made in road traffic. Approximately 1.3 million people are met with accidents in road traffic.

Accidents due to road traffic is another issue to discuss but the after affects due to road accidents are severe as it usually gives a lifetime trauma or depression to survivor or usually to the family of that individual. Also the road traffic accidents around 3 percent of GDP is lost due to Deaths and injuries. Nonfatal Road traffic accidents have different outcomes i.e., psychological suffering, Cognitive dysfunction, adjustment disorder, functional impairment, loss of quality of life. Most common disorders of accident survivors are Acute Stress Disorder (ASD), Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), anxiety, depression, etc. These factors are usually ignored while taking care of physical injuries but they have to be looked upon as they can disrupt an individual's whole life quality.
These above are all the consequences of traffic and the chaos made due to traffic which can be minimized in various ways.

Government and traffic Rules, policies, projects on development (like providing quality and safe road infrastructure, strict punishments on violations on rules, training traffic police more, spreading awareness, using advance systems to over look and regulate traffic, providing quick services on any emergency on road causing traffic to reduce it) play an important role in controlling not only the irregularity in roads but might also help in controlling the consequences of this traffic in shape of depression and anxiety.
Besides the traffic police and government it is our duty as a good citizen to take care of the policies, behave patiently and spread awareness to others to follow the rules to reduce the factors creating traffic like over speeding, distracted driving etc.
Another initiative we can take is that we should minimize the access use of automobiles on road. If it is not necessary don't use a four seater car for one person you can use a public transport or can ask for friends to give you a ride if they are going the same place.
Also as a student or worker when you have a day to day routine of going somewhere instead of going alone per vehicle you should avail for a company, University or School bus to reduce traffic or at least you should be getting out of your home at least 20 to 30 minutes prior to your required time as it will reduce the stress of being late.
We should spread awareness on this and motivate others to do the same. It will reduce the traffic on the road, lesser will be the chaos and noise pollution and lesser will be the risk of depression.