Chennai: It’s raining bonkers in Chennai, with the majority of our road networks throwing all sorts of obstacles to motorists on a daily basis.
Chief among which are caused by vehicles themselves. I am not speaking about the vehicles that are driven and ridden and thrashed to its limits by motorists who do not have a care in the world about a human other than themselves and about their vehicles.
I am speaking about hoardes of cars and bikes that are parked on the road all day, every day and the kind of abuse they face and cause is quite serious.
It is obviously illegal to park one’s vehicles on the road and for reasons known to them, owners of such vehicles park them under a tree most of the time.
However, when it rains and visibility is minimum, things go a bit south because of these vehicles. For example, there is a huge pothole over a manhole, which is of the exact same size of a deep crater on the moon, in the middle of the road near where I live (maybe ISRO could help me ligitimise the claim once Chandrayaan 2 lands on the moon). If one wants to navigate it, they have no option other than to cross through it because cars are parked either side of it.
Being good samaritans, motorists traverse through it and in the process hurt their hurting backs a bit more and learn the extremities of the suspension in their vehicle.
It is not the fault of a common motorist in any way but that of the offenders and the government. But who is the victim? We can’t go stand in front of the Corporation office asking for reimbursements for the broken part we changed due to poor infrastructure right?
I get the point that not every one has a parking space to park their vehicles. But they should really behave. Simple enhancements like adding reflectors in a subtle manner would warn a motorist that there is a vehicle lurking in the dark there. Also, people avoid parking in such a manner that some part of the vehicle juts out. It seriously causes injuries because it will not be visible when the heavens are chucking it down.
Now, I am not claiming one should douse their car or bike with paint the colour of high visibility jackets, although that seems a good idea. All that I am saying is when one person is allowed to park their vehicle on the road, they have to behave.
Parking as they please might land them in trouble because not every one will be a patient, easy-going lad. They must expect consequences in a world where people are becoming more sadistic.
| What to do? |
| * Park vehicles leaving adequate space for motorists * Park under the lights for better visibility * Avoid placing vehicles at blind spots * Build/choose houses with parking bays * It is best to keep off the roads you know |