Sir: It is past 8: 00 AM and the entire city is out to commute to reach their workplaces, schools or other destinations! Well, this is how Rawalpindi wakes up. The morning traffic buzz with the trash trucks standing out to collect the city dump, the yellow vans waiting to pick up school kids, buses all over the roads and the noise created by the private vehicles. What is the outcome of this multitude of activities? What is the reason behind such a scenario? According to Charles Correa, a renowned architect, and planner, “When a city has too many vehicles on its roads and does not know how to manage them, it has already lost a part of itself to chaotic, mindless growth.” Relating this to Rawalpindi, the metropolitan growth has resulted in congestion and traffic which is the major threat to the city.! What has caused this? Can the city’s growth alone be blamed? Generalising the travel time of Rawalpindi, the peak hours which is 8:00-10:00 AM is worst hit by traffic, creating congestion and traffic jams. The roads basically carry three types of traffic: The public vehicles which include buses, school vans, and cabs, private vehicles include bikes, cars, taxis and construction vehicles, and the service vehicles which include trucks and carts. The coalition of all the three during peak hours has led to chaos. As a solution to this issue, can we define and distinctly maintain travel times for various types of vehicles so that the traffic is distributed? Can the city’s services function earlier than 8:00 AM so that the rest of the day is utilised to maximize public transportation? RAHEEL GHUMMAN Islamabad