don't walk, drive and shop
this evening as i crossed the signal at sterling road, nungambakkam high road junction heading towards the chetpet bridge saw an elderly gentleman scoot across the road from the college road side to the other... with the policemen not always present and people waiting to zoom in 4 corners of the road it seemed suicidal! then it struck me that there was no zebra crossing anywhere in this junction.
chennai has long since stopped bothering about those who cycle or walk in the roads now that it is fully concentrated to making the roads as good 'driving experience' for car drivers, it is really unfortunate that there is hardly any walk way worth talking about, except the beach road there probably is none.
worse is the nungambakkam high road, the platform is almost a feet and half high from the ground and one has to a few dozen such hurdles in which one is supposed to walk if one dares to walk in the footpath, the alternative is to walk in the road (as most people do) with the zooming vehicles going past you at crazy speeds and angles.
it is a crazy city that does not bother to cater to the walking citizens.
the other day driving through the usman road, i realized the macabre humour of the flyover construction. the flyover is necessary for traffic to move in that wretched road, but, the construction cannot stop people coming to do their shopping, so, absolute chaos reigns...all vehicles seem to be allowed from almost all directions to compete with determined pedestrians to occupy this road, the entire scene looked like it was from some old motor car movie with just about everyone moving their bodies in some act of going forward and staying where they were all the time...horrible, wonder what is it that people want to shop so bad that they can do it at the cost of being humans!?
chennai has long since stopped bothering about those who cycle or walk in the roads now that it is fully concentrated to making the roads as good 'driving experience' for car drivers, it is really unfortunate that there is hardly any walk way worth talking about, except the beach road there probably is none.
worse is the nungambakkam high road, the platform is almost a feet and half high from the ground and one has to a few dozen such hurdles in which one is supposed to walk if one dares to walk in the footpath, the alternative is to walk in the road (as most people do) with the zooming vehicles going past you at crazy speeds and angles.
it is a crazy city that does not bother to cater to the walking citizens.
the other day driving through the usman road, i realized the macabre humour of the flyover construction. the flyover is necessary for traffic to move in that wretched road, but, the construction cannot stop people coming to do their shopping, so, absolute chaos reigns...all vehicles seem to be allowed from almost all directions to compete with determined pedestrians to occupy this road, the entire scene looked like it was from some old motor car movie with just about everyone moving their bodies in some act of going forward and staying where they were all the time...horrible, wonder what is it that people want to shop so bad that they can do it at the cost of being humans!?
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