By Our Staff Reporter ISLAMABAD, Sept 14: If one were to describe Islamabad by its driving attitude they would easily rate it as “aggressive, frustrating and intolerant”.

"We are behaving like drivers in Lahore and Rawalpindi - reckless," said Mr Salahuddin, a retired city planner.

Driving has literally become a nightmare for the capital’s residents on its once peaceful roads. Drivers speed, weave in and out of traffic, tailgate within inches, often jump red lights, squeeze a fifth and a sixth lane on a two or a three- lane tarmac, cut in on traffic lanes without indicating and so on.

"It never used to be like this. The capital’s traffic was better than anywhere else," said Asif Khan a banker who has seen streets become chaotic in the past few years.

City planners attribute deteriorating driving behaviour to the ongoing road projects – extended detours, diversions and temporary crossings - worsened by the numerous police pickets blocking every point in Islamabad, trapping commuters in horrendous jams.

"First it was the widening of main Jinnah Avenue (Blue Area), then the Faisal Chowk flyover and underpass and now the Zero Point Interchange. Since past four years well planned old streets and roads have disappeared or blocked and new ones created that have only been seen causing a traffic mess," said an official with Capital Development Authority.

One of the worst scenes of chaos is right in the centre of the city stretching from Zero Point Interchange and just short of the Faisal Chowk.

Drivers describe this less than half a kilometer stretch hardest to get around. The four-lane Islamabad Highway bottlenecks into a single lane at the police picket right across Zarai Taraqiati Bank. If police estimates are correct this means more than 100,000 cars are made to form a single line to enter Islamabad everyday.

Just when the police have roughly scanned and gestured the traffic to move on and drivers have picked up speed on the new wider road, their momentum is again broken immediately when traffic cuts in from the left crossing over to head back towards Zero Point.

"This is the most dangerous approach. Drivers crossing the four to five lanes road from G-8 try to get to the other side quickly without indicating and realising that cars approaching from behind are coming fast.

There’s no police to control traffic," said Shahid Malik who takes this route to reach his office in Blue Area.

If these two ill-planned junctions do not vex drivers, a third U-turn roughly 20 meters ahead throws the traffic out of gear again sending angry and frustrated drivers yelling in their own cars at wagon walas and, in some cases, gesturing at a taxi driver who does not seem to like a blessing.

"Nobody is willing to give the other the right of way. Everyone wants to pass through first whether it’s a police picket, a diversion or pretty much anywhere else. Constables often remove barriers to create another lane but that’s when traffic has snarled up a few hundred metres. There is absolutely no planning and drivers are left on their own to negotiate turns and zig zag to their destinations," said Malik Humayun, another frustrated commuter, complaining how the worst traffic movement could be found at the new diversions and crossroads starting from Zero Point onwards.

CDA officials seemed helpless. "It’s a mega project. Hindrances and inconveniences can be unavoidable. But we are doing what we can to keep the traffic flow smooth," said an official.

Not sharing the responsibility, traffic police, were waiting for CDA to complete its project.

"There is no traffic police deployment because it’s a temporary arrangement. We have written to CDA’s road engineers three to four times especially asking them to block the G-8 entrance because it’s the most dangerous.

SSP traffic has visited the site personally to assist road engineers on temporary diversions. CDA still has to oblige," said an official with Islamabad Traffic Police.