WHEN PEDESTRIANS BECOME KINGS
I happened to read a news item, recently , that the pedestrian would be
king of roads in Cochin with the roads getting a facelift .That put me
to think. Among the road users, the pedestrians are supposed to be at the
lowest rung vis-à-vis size, importance ,value etc. The Container carriers,
trucks, tanker lorries, buses ,cars
,three wheelers and the two wheelers precede them in rank and grade, based not
only on their size and power but their
methods of using the roads !
The Container carriers cannot
boast of high speed and may be
because of this their involvement in accidents are lesser. The other trucks , have their might and
are cause of accidents not only because of high speed but their reckless driving without ever dimming
the Head lights and the careless
parking at night. The drivers are often drunk and the tiresome drive coupled with odd hours of
sleep also are the causes of accidents. The buses are of course the killers in haste, mostly in cities. They have
scant regard for human lives and race
through the roads like its nobody’s business. The cars (and what a variety we
have now, from the tiny Nano to the Merc
and limousines !) of course speed on our
roads and the danger they pose is mostly
inversely proportionate to the age of the drivers. The younger they are, the riskier to everyone around. The three
wheelers called Autorikshaws, which meander
through the crowds and the narrowest spaces, are seen mostly in towns and cities
and once the front wheel goes through , the
drivers are confident that the rear two will follow suit whatever be the
impediments on the sides in the guise of pedestrians or other vehicles !! The
two wheelers are a category of their own. How they squeeze through traffic,
between buses and cars, between vehicles and the pavement, sometimes over the
pavement is a wonder to watch. Their balancing tricks could defeat the display
of circus artists on a unicylce. They rarely
do hit others, mostly get hit and hurt themselves. And finally the last in the grade…..Ah! Our most honoured
pedestrians ! And I am not talking about the pedestrians you find on the highways
or mofussil roads ;I
mean the pedestrians in the cities, especially a city like Cochin where they are now going to be
kings !! They are a class apart . They
are already kings .They can walk all over the
roads with the mobile phone stuck to their
ears, even if it was perilous ,without fear of being fined by any cop.
They can ignore the traffic lights and walk over and make their
way through the streaming traffic ignoring the risk it poses for
themselves and the motor vehicles, whose drivers can only
honk on helplessly or curse under their breath. The traffic police of course
would look the other way.. They can stop or slow down speeding vehicles on the busy roads at their
convenience, by a gesture of the hand , to cross over at any place
of their choice. They can stand and gossip with their friends at any parking
space , ignoring the honk of the vehicles which come to park .The driver
has to come out and literally plead with them to allow the vehicle to be parked.
A pedestrian would have been hit by a vehicle because of his own
negligence and the whole crowd around would be witness to this, but
the attack of the mob would be on the driver of the vehicle which hit him,
whatever be fact, for after all the PEDESTRIAN IS KING !The truth is, that at
least in Cochin, the pedestrian is not so much stressed as is made out to be .It is the
mostly the car drivers who bear the
brunt of the indiscipline of most pedestrians ! So now ,may be the
poor-rich car owners/drivers can become Kings, with the implementation of
the Pedestrian Master plan !
