Top Traffic Offences: What We See — And What We Don't

Time of India

4 hours ago

New Delhi: In popular imagination, Delhi's traffic violations play out like a well-worn reel — bikers zipping past without helmets, cars casually parked across footpaths, autos cutting through traffic, and intersections gridlocked by design and defiance.
These are everyday images we associate with road indiscipline. But zoom in on the city's prosecution data until May 31, 2025, and the frame shifts. The real story of Delhi's most common offences is not just about what's obvious — it's also about what's often invisible.
Improper or obstructive parking, no surprise, leads the charge. The western range has logged over 1.03 lakh violations, followed closely by the New Delhi range with 89,000-plus and 70,498 in the Central Range.
From narrow residential lanes in Malviya Nagar to the buzzing commercial stretches of Punjabi Bagh, the script is familiar: too many vehicles, not enough space, and little regard for where they're left behind. It's a citywide obstacle course where cars routinely spill onto pavements, entrances, and exits — anything but a marked slot.
Riding without a helmet, too, continues to dominate with around 2,45,727 violations across five ranges.
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In the New Delhi range, it's not among the top five. The western range leads the chart, with 57,064 prosecutions, while the central, eastern and northern ranges have all seen above 50,000 prosecutions. Yet, despite repeated campaigns and crackdowns, the helmet remains more of an afterthought than a necessity for many riders and even more so for pillion passengers.
But where things get interesting — and alarming — is just beneath this layer of visible violations.
Two seemingly quiet offences are emerging just as prominently: driving without a Pollution Under Control Certificate (PUCC) and valid insurance. These aren't the headline-making, in-your-face kinds of infractions. You don't see smoke trails or flashing "No Insurance" signs on a car. But the numbers tell a sharp story.
In the western and eastern ranges, over 69,000 vehicles were prosecuted without a PUCC, with this being the top offence in the eastern range.
Similarly, in the southern range, with 62,379 prosecutions, PUCC violations surpassed cases of illegal parking and held the first position in the top five. This is in a city where air pollution is a seasonal crisis and vehicle emissions are a major contributor.
Likewise, driving without valid insurance, often dismissed as an oversight, is widespread. In the Central Range, 38,606 prosecutions were recorded, a figure that surpasses even helmet violations in some other ranges.
Driving without a licence is also growing. In all six ranges, it's one of the top five offences. 47,427 prosecutions were recorded in the western range, followed by 41,848 in the northern range.
What makes the violations concerning is that they go largely unnoticed, until a traffic stop, or worse, an accident. A missing PUCC means a potentially polluting vehicle left unchecked. No insurance means no financial or legal cover in the case of a mishap.
Yet, because they don't obstruct traffic or draw attention, they rarely spark the same reaction as a badly parked car.
Interestingly, across all seven traffic ranges in Delhi, the top five offences remain the same: improper parking, missing PUCC, helmetless riding, lack of a driving licence, and missing insurance. The uniformity speaks volumes. It suggests not just a pattern in enforcement, but a pattern in behaviour cutting across class, region and vehicle type.
From Lutyens' Delhi to neighbourhoods of the east and north, the rules people flout remain consistent.
The data also challenges how we perceive road safety. Helmet drives, parking fines, and tow-away zones dominate the public narrative — and rightly so. But the real danger may lie in the quieter breaches. They may not be visible, but their impact — legal, financial, environmental — runs deep. It's about what slips past unchecked.