India becoming pedestrian-unfriendly by the day.

Unlike developed countries, most of our cities do not have pavements / footpaths for safe commuting of pedestrians. And in places where the roads do have them, they are usually
taken over by illegal hawkers.

And now this menace is spreading to smaller towns as well. The road you see in the picture below is the one in front of my home (not seen in pic) in Kerala. Till a few days ago, it was
just some 4-5 metres wide - you can make out the extra metre or so of road that's been
newly added.



They plan to add a similar strip of road on the left side also, with the idea to widen the road
to be able to take the increasing traffic on the road. A few years ago, this used to be a sleepy road, mainly because after some 800 metres or so, the road would just end at the river and there was no bridge on the river. So, only people who lived in the neighborhood would mainly
use this road.

But after the bridge was constructed across the river, the traffic has increased like mad.
Mainly because this road-bridge combo cuts commute distance by around 4-5 kilometres, resulting in quite some time savings. And the speed at which cars/bikes fly on this road is
just frightening.

Till they added the extra strips on both sides of this road, pedestrians could walk on those
strips of dirt road, without worrying about speeding vehicles. But now that the road has
been widened, automobiles will claim that much more of the road, without worrying about pedestrians.

This leaves pedestrians without much options because, the area after the extended road is
not really walkable - either it has electricity/street light poles every 100 metres or the wild growth of shrubs does not make it feasible to walk there, due to the danger of reptiles like
snakes which could be present there.

The only solution is to clear that area and make a raised pavement for pedestrians, but when
our cities don't have pavements, wishing for them in a small town like ours, will just remain
that - a wish. The previous councillor of our municipal ward was my senior in college and a neighbour and a person who took keen interest in the problems faced by the constituents of
his ward. If he was still in office, there would have been a teeny bit of hope.

But a couple years ago, our ward was notified as reserved (for Women) and so he had to give
up this ward. The lady who is the current councillor is not really someone with any background in politics - there weren't enough women wanting to jump into the electoral fray and so all the political parties had a tough time getting women candidates.

Plus I don't even know her or where she lives, though finding that would not be really tough because it is a small town and everyone knows everyone else. I don't think much will come
out of meeting her to request a pavement for the benefit and safety of pedestrians, but I do
plan to give it a try.

What if she understands the situation and does her bit to have a pavement built ? Worth a try.