These pictures taken on T.T.K road (early on Sunday morning to avoid the traffic) are just an example of the state of our pavements. I'm sure you have encountered far worse elsewhere.
Not surprisingly, most people choose to walk on the road rather than navigate the pavements. Can you imagine walking down this road in peak traffic? I hate to say this, but the truth is I would prefer to use my car - even for a short distance. And I'm sure I'm not the only one. As for the people who have no choice but to walk - my heart goes out to them. Surely they deserve better. Surely we all deserve better. With better pavements and roads I'm sure more people would take to walking and cycling - at least for short distances.
I feel that having good pavements is non negotiable. They are meant to make pedestrians lives easier, keeping them out of harm's way and also giving the traffic a clear road to drive on. But the government doesn't seem to care. There's a new flyover planned almost everyday but not one thought is given to improving the condition of the pavements. And meanwhile, the papers are filled with stories of pedestrians being hit and killed by buses or lorries. I'm sure if they had to cover those who were simply hit by cars or bikes and had 'only' broken bones, it would fill many, many pages.
And yet, there does seem to be hope. Not a hundred yards away from T.T.K road, in C.I.T colony, it appears that someone has taken the initiative to do something about the situation. Neatly laid pavements with sloped ends that make getting on and off easier. They are probably a bit narrow and so end up being blocked by trees or junction boxes, but hey, at least its a start. Hats off to them. If it can be done here, then why not elsewhere?
Does anyone know how they achieved this? Do you have any ideas on how to make this happen in other parts of the city? Can we come up with a set of standards for pavement design? Please leave your comments or email me at childofchennai@gmail.com
Good pavements are very important to any city. And for a city with so many pedestrians, even more so. Chennai, or for that matter any Indian city cares zilch about its pedestrians. Not just the authorities concerned but even the motorists. No one stops for a pedestrian at zebra crossings or road corners, as they are expected to do. They are expected to do but they do not know that they are expected to do. So this message has to be publicised so that every motorist from the fancy BMW driving yuppies to the arrogant autorickshaw wallah is made aware of it. If decent pavements existed, you could find more people walking instead of taking their cars out. The first task is making good pavements. The next is to see that they are left for the pedestrians and not taken over by hawkers and shops. This has to come from the politicians. They have to ensure that pavements are kept free for the pedestrians. We cannot accept what Stalin once said, "why do we have to provide pavements when the pedestrians are anyway walking on the road?" He should have asked himself why they were walking on the road in the first place. Because the pavements are non existent or they are unusable.
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