It is a tightrope walk on Kochi roads
The Hindu : It is a tightrope walkon Kochi roadsImagine yourself stranded in the heart of Kochi without a mode of transport on a sunny day and you decide to walk from Kaloor to the north end of M.G. Road where you expect a friend in about 45 minutes.The distance is roughly a kilometre-and-half. The weather is fine. The roads are congested. The sidewalk looks quite promising until you get to it. You soon confront loose slabs and gaping holes on the sidewalk.Then it disappears completely from view on North Railway Overbridge.The bridge does not have a place for pedestrians and you realise how risky it is to walk this way. However, you make it through the rush of two-wheelers and autorickshaws. Once you are past the bridge, the hurdles you face are a little different from crossing the rail overbridge.TiringThe level differences make the sidewalk difficult to negotiate. Chances are that while you keep watching your steps you also keep bump into people and you will be exhausted by the time you meet your friend.You would most probably be late and tell your friend that it was no walk in the garden, that you crossed the roads where there were no zebra lines, that the level differences of the sidewalks tested your concentration and that it would be better not to walk about at all in the city.That is a lesson learnt the hard way. For the thousands of walkers and would-be walkers, Kochi offers no solace of any sort.And that should be a cause for offence for a city that is poised to ride the big wave of economic growth over the coming decades. The volume of investments, the type of international attention it is getting and people’s expectations from its planners make it imperative that Kochi, like several other modern-day urban centres, becomes a walkable city, encouraging pedestrians and simply those who love to walk.WalkabilityContrast…More
