Why use footpaths when the road is all yours?

BANGALORE: As the IT boom hit the city, the dormant pensioner’s paradise suddenly woke up to high rise plush buildings with glass facade as well the desperate need for wider roads. Taking into account the city’s growing appetite for space for more development, the civic bodies began gnawing at whatever space they found.From felling trees to reducing the size of pavements to now talks of acquiring some land from the century-old playground in Malleswaram.Looking at the exponential pace of construction in the name of development and for the betterment of the infrastructure, a handful of men and women, had seen enough.“With all the development that was taking place, it seemed as though the civic agencies had forgotten to ask the public’s opinion, even though these ‘thoughtful’ deeds had been done to better the facilities for the public,” said Sridhar, one of the minds behind Come, Cross the Road (CCR).CCR focuses on some of the most common problems faced by pedestrians on a daily basis. “Roads are public spaces, and they belong as much to the pedestrian and the cyclist, as they do to people in vehicles,” he opined. He further explained that the motive behind such an initiative was to gather a database charted with numbers and statistics and then take it to the civic agencies to make them realise the plight of the pedestrians.Over the last one month many have participated in the local event. Thanks to word of mouth, many residents have asked Sridhar and his friends to visit their areas to make a note of the problems faced by them. Every member of CCR is united with their passion to help others, to an extent, that they manage to squeeze time out from their coding world to be part of the cause.The initiative looks into various factors such as the installation of Pelican lights at regular intervals, proper zebra crossing and ground level crossing facilities. Shylaja, a member of CCR said that though the pelican lights on Bellary Road were functioning, the duration for the same was not sufficient to cross the road.Broken and battered pavements are another problem that the group is aiming to deal with. “So far most of the footpaths that we have come across are either broken or all together missing. There is hardly any proper place for the pedestrians to walk on,” added Sridhar.Anitha, another member reinstated the condition of footpaths and said that all the pavements must be repaired and those who ride on the pavements must be penalised.Today, the members of CCR will be distributing sweets to motorists on Infantry Road who use the pavements during peak hours. “It is an attempt to embarrass these people in the hope that they will not do it anymore,” explains Vinay, another member.The team is also focusing on other areas of concern with respect to the pedestrians like the case of the missing zebra crossing, super high skywalks and dingy subways that are hardly used by anyone.On the other hand, the BBMP is getting all geared up to construct 30 more skywalks in the city. They are even planing to involve IT giants to construct skywalks on Build Own Operate Transfer basis.