chennai+traffic=chaos

One thing I found irritating and comical while watching movies in my younger days was the rape scene. Remember, the villain chasing the heroine, tearing her blouse, pulling on her saree, and…………trying to kiss her on her lips!!!!!! Kiss her lips….! The girl turning her face away, villain trying, girl turning her face, villain trying and losing grip in that excitement, girl running away, villain catching her again, trying to kiss her lips…….! Though I was young I knew that the thing is a waste of time. Even our hero of those days is not allowed to kiss the heroine unless there is a convenient bush around! Then what chance a villain has that too with an unwilling girl. Total waste of time which allows the hero to enter the scene and thrash the villain and get on with the group photo like climax.

Nearly everyday I am reminded of that scene when I pass through Duraisamy subway. Experienced and wise drivers know that it is best to have more left turns in their route and if not plan that way. Left turns normally do not affect the flow of traffic. Right turns cut through the traffic as we follow ‘Keep Left’ policy. Though I have seen U-turns(grrr..) in the subway the right turns from and into the subway immediately at the entrance which holds up the traffic, heats up the atmosphere and generally sets up the bad mood we need to be in while entering office!

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It is not new. It is not a brain wave. It is once in a while announcement by the traffic police. Three deaths of elderly people aged 60 & 73 on the same day made them announce once again that foot bridge is being contemplated to help pedestrians cross over and thus hope to reduce the accidents. But did they consider the following:

1. Can the elderly climb the stairs?

2. Are the existing foot bridges being used and if not why so?

3. Are there enough space on both sides of the road to build a foot bridge?

4. Will the foot bridge solve the problems of no foot path or unusable foot path, if they exist?

5. What is there to stop our tankers, buses and lorries crashing against the foot bridges?

6. Will the foot bridges facilitate the flow of non-crossing pedestrians by having spaces to walk around them?

7. If the answer is negative to 6 then will not the pedestrians walk on the road which is the perennial problem?

As it has been already mentioned in some other post the problem to be tackled is haphazard parking which not only reduces the width of already narrow roads but also force the pedestrians to walk in the middle of the road.

Then where will they park? They should have enough parking lots. The parking fee should be small and the fine for parking in no parking zone heavy. The roads are public property. That does not mean we can use them for our private use, be it parking or urinating. Maybe the people who park their vehicles on roads, whether it is in front of their homes/flats or elsewhere should be treated as encroachers of public land.

This is how our people combat parking problems! What if it eats up the space for others to ride/drive. But they will have ‘No Parking’ sign in front of their gates!

The following is a letter I wrote to the news papers about this.

It is nothing new for our people to jump over poodles, evade pestering vendors, avoid being electrocuted by exposed wirings, etc. Added to the list is haphazard parking because of too many vehicles, carrying too few people, looking for space which is scarce! It is so easy to get the cars with ever willing banks lending a hand, literally. This parking menace is not only affecting people in shopping areas but also in residential areas. Already people are forced to walk on road because of lack of pavements, which, if they exist are taken over by casual labourers or cars, once again. The parked cars on roads, not only reduce the width of the roads but also force the people to walk in the middle of the road which is already treated as disputed area by motorists. Now with the introduction of nano cars it is possible that the problem will be further compounded. So everyone may finally end up walking as there will be no space to drive! It is high time that the authorities demand for the ‘availability of parking space within the premises’ certificate. Or the government can charge a hefty sum as parking fee from those people who use the public space as parking area. At least this will force people to realise that the ‘roads are not their ancestors’ property’ as the old adage goes!

I hope I made myself clear!