Traffic on the foothpaths too….Aarefa Johari
NO PARKING In Part III of a series on problems plaguing pavements, we look at how they are being used as makeshift parking spaces
NO PARKING In Part III of a series on problems plaguing pavements, we look at how they are being used as makeshift parking spaces
Whenever Mohammed Ali Road resident Fatema* steps out of her building, she has to manoeuvre around at least a dozen bikes and scooters parked on the narrow pavement before she can get to the edge of the main road, where most pedestrians here tend to walk.
Fatema admits that these two-wheelers, parked by residents of the area, are a hindrance for pedestrians, but she is in no position to complain.
She parks her own scooter on the pavement, instead of using the BMC’s pay-and-park service under the JJ flyover.
In the paid parking lot, twowheelers are given space only behind cars, making it difficult to access. Also, parking attendants ask us to leave our handle locks unlocked so they can move our vehicles to let others squeeze in. Bikes have been stolen because of this, says Fatema, who finds the pavement a safer option.
The pavements of Mohammed Ali road, however, are not the only ones in the city encroached upon by obstructions such as unauthorised parking, shanties and street dwellers.
In Kandivli (East), shopkeepers and auto-drivers park their vehicles on sloping pavements meant for pedestrians.
On Mahim’s Tulsi Pipe Road and Grant Road’s Fores Road, footpaths have been home to communities of cane basket weavers and flower sellers for decades, once again compelling pedestrians to step off the kerb and walk on the bustling, dangerous main roads.
The civic body does not have an estimate of how many Mumbai roads have been encroached upon, but a survey of Fort area conducted by thinktank Urban Design Research Institute (UDRI) suggests that at least 34% of your footpaths have been obstructed by slums and street-dwellers alone.
In Fort, 68 of 196 pavements are obstructed by shanties and street dwellers. This could serve as a yardstick for calculating the obstruction in the rest of the city, said Deepali Mody, director of the research fellowship programme at UDRI.
(* Last name withheld on request)
* Pedestrians find no place to walk
LOKHANDWALA TOWNSHIP, Kandivli (E)
The pavements around Lokhandwala Foundation School, Kandivli (East) are fairly broad and well maintained. But they are not available for use by pedestrians.
On either side of the street here, the footpaths slope upwards to various grocery, medical and general stores. This makes it easy for the store owners to park their twowheelers here. Often, auto drivers stopping for lunch or for an afternoon break also park on the sloped pavements, leaving no room for pedestrians. Shop-owners say they have no option but to park here since there is no official parking space nearby for them. If we park on the road, the vehicle is towed away, says Ramesh Chaudhuri, who owns a chemist shop here. But if we park here, no one takes any action. Here, our vehicles are safe.
An official at the R-south ward office said, on condition of anonymity, that there are plans to start a pay-and-park service on the road, but the plan is awaiting approval from the traffic department.
– TULSI PIPE ROAD, Mahim-Matunga (west)
This bustling arterial road running along the railway tracks has fast-moving traffic and a very narrow pavement, especially along the south-bound side of the street. And even this narrow footpath is occupied, in large tracts, by more than 50 families of street-dwellers, who live, bathe and cook here and practice their livelihood, with some opening tiny snack stores and others making the garlands and balloons that they sell for a living. In other parts, the pavement is rendered inaccessible by the long line of commercial trucks parked here illegally.
– MOHAMMED ALI ROAD
On this road, the BMC has a designated pay-and-park lot in the ample space under the JJ flyover.
However, local residents complain that they are forced to park twowheelers behind cars, to save space, and leave their vehicles unlocked so that the parking attendants can move them around to squeeze in other bikes. Because of this, our bikes become inaccessible to us once they are parked there.