A crisp evening, at the cusp of one of the rare pleasant days in delhi. Biking back from ITO just past midnight, to vasant kunj; i encountered a series of events which all seemed to tell the same story.
Now you are one of two types of people . . . either you are in charge of a machine, or you're not. The type of machine you have may vary, and vary they do. But vulnerability is largely proportional to the size of the machine.
The most drastic determining quality would have to be the presence of an internal combustion engine. cycles is to motorcycles, more drastically carts to cars. Not however to undermine the import of private vs. public owned machines. here they begin to be called modes.
Well coming back to the drive, as i turned to out from behind times of india, an auto toppled, screaming women and a crowd tipping back the vehicle from its turtled position . . . this had an impact on me, and i broke the red light driving cautiously at the right extreme of the left lane. it struck me that there used to be a board at ITO that displayed the number of people lost to the roads, 4 a day used to be the usual figure 5 years ago, i think it would still be the same. improved safety and roads causing a deficit made up for by increase in population. so i decided to study the road on the way back and see if i could establish a pattern . .
the pattern in the use of public space in .the city.
'pockets of private space linked by webs complex mixtures of the two'
space that has been given ownership of to large elected municipalities, to the mercy of the PWD, and nameless others. All of whom provide essential services without which the metropolis of millions would .screech .all of which we pay for anyhow.
transportation is the crux of this public space. Cities like currencies work on the movement of capital. money is replaced by everything you can imagine, for the city moves it all. even the money is transported through our public space in heavily armoured machines. not to mention people, electricity, shit, water the list is endless . . .
exiting india gate on shahjahan road, i encountered three glowing ice cream vendors set in a triangular formation on the left lane. The middle one touching the bus line as if a centre forward attacking the fast lane. this left two lanes for traffic, more than sufficient, i passed within a meter of the cart doing 50. Now shahjahan road opposite upsc has pavements behind lutyens trees and generous ROW's. but its here that they stand ready to attack a drive by, forcing a bottleneck and thus business.
Caught up in thought, steadily right of left lane a beep disconcertingly near revealed a white innova rapidly approaching . . . banking out of the way i realised sometimes the fast lane is the safer place to be. by now i had just crossed lodhi road, and approaching the jorbagh metro station under construction, i almost jumped when i saw a guy standing by his cycle wearing his shirt in the middle of the fast lane (right extreme for right hand drive). narrowly missing him i wondered maybe it is the opposite here. as in the left lane is actually the overtaking lane.
approaching aiims flyover, the ultimate traffic lubricant, i realised how machine centric our public space is. the inherent approval for a metro, a superior machine which disappears under the ground leaving our roads free. heaven sent is the public sentiment. block up lanes to make pavements or more drastically bus corridors, and they're up in arms. there are no pavements on the aiims flyover, there are four free pedestrian lefts, and what average out to 500m detours to go straight.
At andheria modh i witnessed the spectacle of a truck overtaking a laden truck overtaking a even heavier truck, taking up all but enough space for me to squeeze past rapidly from the left. breaking the red light screened by a honda city, i turned home to vasant kunj.
What we need is a truck free city, all goods should passing through the capital should go vide an exclusively electrical means. The ring rail can be used as the core network, five or six high speed arms out of the NCR could form nodes. This would also help get the metro linked to the ring rail.
but not to forget the .pedestrian
why they don't make a pavement on the road, the long walk from andheria modh to vasant kunj is undertaken daily. cycling is also very common not to mention goods rickshaws. If we're getting a metro link surely non motorised vehicles for para trasnsit should be prioritised, or are we going to build mlug parkings at the stations and drive our fancy cars to the metro.
.End note
The PWD laid a fresh hot mix road leading in to D2 for the annual day of the fancy goenka school. less than a week later DJB commenced digging a deep sewer through one of the two freshly laid lanes. 3 months later they have reached the main road, leaving behind ruins akin to a martian landscape.
.this is india
;-)
