mid-day campaign: Reclaim footpaths for pedestrians

Have you been crying over the lack of parking space in the city From the looks of it youll soon get a giant parking lot the entire city choked with vehicles such that there is no space to move If you think thats farfetched take a look at some numbers 700 new vehicles are added to Mumbais 2000 km of roads every single day and the latest Regional Transport Office RTO data reveals that citys vehicular population shot up by 50 per cent over the last five yearsThe numbers are skyrocketing traffic density has gone up from 1050 vehicles per km to 1650 and we have no space to accommodate them all Enough saidHaphazardly parked cars block footpaths in Mulund East Bikes on a footpath on LBS Marg in Mulund West haphazardly parked cars block footpaths in Mulund East PicsSameer MarkandeOfficially speakingA senior RTO official said that as per the latest statistics about 29 lakh vehicles were registered in Mumbai in 201718 Thane isnt any better either with a total vehicle count of about 3831 lakh of which 357 lakh were registered in 201718Elevated stack parking and multistoreyed parking lots are in place and yet the eyesore of a huge number of vehicles parked haphazardly on footpaths and in pedestrian zones remainsAfter losing space to encroachment hawkers illegal shop extensions and utilities pedestrians are now losing their walkways as footpaths are turning into parking spacesGround reportmidday went for a walk to see for itself how footpaths in Mumbai its suburbs and even Thane and Navi Mumbai have been occupied by vehicles parked vertically horizontally and sideways Our reporters found that no areas neither outside busy hospitals residential or commercial colonies or even crowded hubs were spared the horror of illegal parkingWe kick off the series with Powai Mulund and Bhandup among the most populated areas with an eclectic mix of commercial residential industrial and market areasMulundThere is rampant violation in both east and west sides of this populated suburb Starting from the road outside the station in the west to LBS Marg and along the stretches of Eastern Express Highway in the east to Mithagar Road inside the culprits are twowheelers and autorickshaws In the east auto drivers use footpaths for parking said Salil Arora a resident When midday visited the site we not only found plying autorickshaws parked on the pavement but also broken down ones lying idle thereBikes parked on a footpath in PowaiPowaiThe JogeshwariVikhroli Link Road JVLR is one of the newly developed key eastwest arterial roads with proper sidewalks and wide multilane roads But theres also improper parking right from Gandhi Nagar IIT and beyond twowheelers horizontally parked on footpaths along with mechanic shops near IITA twowheeler parked haphazardly on a footpath at JVLRAlso private tourist vehicles were found parked along the Holy Trinity Church stretch and towards the Eastern Express Highway junction Here many marble dealers along the stretch and their customers park their twowheelers on the footpaths sometimes youll find fourwheelers too And all this despite there being parking space under the JVLR said Nishikant Kamath a commuterThis motorist seems oblivious to pedestrians problems or rights parking a huge car right on the footpath near Bhandup railway stationKanjurBhandupThe arterial LBS Marg has become much narrower thanks to the ongoing work on Metro IV Mercifully though footpaths along the stretch are relatively free barring a car showroom and the Metro Mall where one can find twowheelers parked right on the footpathsBikes parked on the footpath outside Corporate Park on LBS Marg BhandupThe smaller stretches here do not matter that much in the scheme of things They do not obstruct residents movement Sometimes there is parking along the footpath near Huma Adlabs said Rishika Salge who works near KanjurmargLocalspeakRecently the footpath width was increased We pedestrians were overjoyed only to have the walking space snatched away from us by twowheelers using it as a parking space Now we again dont have space to walk on and with Metro work causing heavy traffic on the road its not safe for us to walk on the street eitherAarti Mayekar a residentPolice personnel themselves let vehicles involved in accidents and seized vehicles rust away on footpaths leaving little or no space for pedestrians What can we do when law enforcement agencies themselves treat us like thisNisha Kunju secretary Bhandup Amma Care FoundationExpertspeakI think we need a parking authority for Mumbai on the lines of London Today parking on footpaths is nobodys responsibility The traffic police only remove vehicles that affect the traffic flow and dont give a thought to pedestrian movement The BMC too does not consider parked vehicles on footpaths as its responsibilityAjit Shenoy transport expertAlso Readmidday impact Vendors flouting plastic ban get visit from Environment ministerCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and also a 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