Come, reclaim Bangalore for the pedestrians

Here is one effort to reclaim Bangalore for those who have contributed little to the city’s traffic mess. Hasiru Usiru is organising Come, Cross the Road, a programme to highlight pedestrian problems, from 5.30pm to 6.30pm on Monday at five locations in the city. The programme involves activists attempting to cross major roads , and make note of the time taken to cross these roads. They also plan to record the behaviour of motorists towards pedestrians.

The programme venues are Sankey Tank Gate (Malleswaram side); Bashyam Circle, Sadashivanagar; Bellary Road (at Princess Academy and after Mekhri Circle in front of IAF station) and Lingarajapuram.

Hasiru Usiru pointed out that while the BBMP is more focused on widening roads and making them signal-free, pedestrians, however, never figured in the civic body’s scheme of things.

“Roads are public spaces, and they belong as much to the pedestrian and the cyclist, as they do to motorists. Our aim is to make Bangalore a walkable, pedestrian-friendly city,” it said.
Sridhar Raman of Hasiru Usiru said this programme would be held once a week at various locations in the city.