While vendors dominate nearly three-fourths of available pavement space, the remaining stretch is taken up by people queuing for buses or autos, leaving no room for safe pedestrian movement
Vehicles parked on footpath outside Asalpha station
Despite being designed for safe pedestrian exit, footpaths outside Metro Blue Line 1 stations have been overrun by hawkers and food stalls, forcing thousands of commuters to walk on the road, jostle through crowds, or risk standing in traffic, mid-day has reported.
While vendors dominate nearly three-fourths of available pavement space, the remaining stretch is taken up by people queuing for buses or autos, leaving no room for safe pedestrian movement. The result is familiarly chaotic, dangerous conditions at some of the city’s busiest junctions.
We need to have better organisation when it comes to Metro stations. We must learn our lessons from crowds outside train stations, where hawkers have taken over footpaths at many spots and pedestrians are walking on the roads with vehicles precariously close.
Planners must see that the same pattern is not repeated as the megapolis gets Metro-ised, so to speak, with line extensions and more connections being made. This paper has several reports about the absolute chaos outside our train stations and there have been altercations, too, between commuters and hawkers. At these spots one sees lines for BEST buses snaking onto the roads as the footpath next to the bus stop is completely overtaken by vendors. Eatables are also being sold next to all kinds of merchandise. While one agrees that a high footfall area means good sales, exits and approaches need to be regulated. They are for pedestrians, not hawkers.
The Metro authorities have to sit together with different agencies and sort out the problem. One cannot allow it to fester or get completely out of hand. Nip the Metro station problem in the bud right now.
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