No (B)road sense whatsoever...!!!

I've always wanted to write about this, but just could never gather my thoughts on the same. It still remains the same but I will write it somehow. It has been there in my head like a brain tumour for a really long time.

I primarily travel to office on a motorcycle, just like the other people riding who look like ants on the roads from a distance. I agree the best & the fastest way to travel to work are the caterpillar like local trains. Bikes make it more convenient since you are at your own disposal, i.e. you can leave for home whenever you want to, because you don’t have to depend on any other modes of transport and it doesn’t depend on a particular time that you have to leave.

Nowadays jobs aren’t the 9 to 5 types where you had a fixed time to get to office and a fixed time to leave for home, but yes reporting to office at a particular time doesn’t change. Anyway this is not my topic for discussion, its something else. It’s about following certain road ethics a certain sense of civility while you on the road. I’m not talking bout observing traffic/road rules while riding/driving, it’s something which is not taught to you in driving schools.

With nearly a hundred new vehicles hitting Bombay's roads and add a couple hundred of 2-wheelers, the ever increasing demand for cars & bikes aren’t going to come down. The soaring fuel prices don’t make a huge impact on the demand. Owning a car or a bike is more like a status symbol, ironically more than a necessity in today’s world. Due to this, we always come across traffic jams, endless bumper-to-bumper traffic in this cosmopolitan called "Bombay". The innumerable flyovers doesn’t help ease the traffic because of the increasing demand of new vehicles. And also the perpetual road-digging that happens at regular intervals.

Due to these traffic jams the 2-wheelers resort to riding on the footpaths, pavements next to the roads causing a huge inconvenience to the pedestrians. This behaviour is not acceptable when you are invading others spaces. Me being a biker, at times break certain traffic rules, but completely avoid riding on the footpath since that’s not my space to ride. If I was a pedestrian and if I find 2-wheeler riders riding on the footpath it wouldn’t be a nice moment. People don’t realise that there are old people, women & children walking on the footpath which is supposed to be a safe place while walking on the roads, and with this kind of behaviour its no less dangerous than the road itself. The psyche of Bombay is that of a fast-paced city, the city that never sleeps, blah blah blah, in a way reflects in each and every citizen living, even on me, and this makes us very impatient. And being a Bombayite, I wouldn’t deny the fact. Every person is in some kind of rush to get back home, to work, to meet his/her Girl/Boyfriend, to deliver something, etc. etc. And being in a kind of rush all the time people resort to taking to the footpaths to get ahead and save some time, but eventually are held by a traffic signal. Thank god the four-wheelers don’t have the luxury to do the same.

All this happens with causing greater inconvenience to the innocent pedestrians walking on what's their space and it entirely belongs to them only. Who are the fucking riders to take it away from them, why do they deserve this invasion of their space? This matter may seem very miniscule, but then why should the pedestrians suffer. The traffic cops just keep ignoring this, infact there has been a few times where I have seen a cop or two on a bike using the footpath to go ahead. If they resort to such practices, the pedestrians would go to incase there is an accident on the footpath. It’s a cliché conclusion that the law protectors become the law breakers, and this doesn’t help grow the trust & faith that the public would want to have on the cops.

People in India don’t have the basic civic sense to respect other peoples spaces, and this irritates me no end. There have been times when a senior irate pedestrian was stopping all the bikers from riding on the footpath, but the bikers weren’t paying any heed to the pedestrian. Why should someone go out of his way to do this? Cause he was retired, nothing more to do in life, that’s the respect we have for our elders.

And this will keep continuing, neither the Cops/Traffic Police will do anything about this nor the infamous Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will do anything to stop this. We the people will always be subject to such inconveniences for the rest of our lives. Bombay will always be subject to such a behaviour from its inhabitants cause even if we keep raving " Yeh Hai Bombay Meri Jaan" we never give it a second thought to make it a better place for ourselves and others to live in. We, the selfish citizens are to blame...