With the Mumbai roads, everything has to happen at the same time. The Metro construction, skywalk constructions, detours during heavy rains, and incessant honking by bikers and car drivers who think sound waves help facilitate smooth traffic movement. Travelling to work is a saga every single day, with sufficient new stories and scripts observed daily to empower 3 television series.
The purpose of skywalks is to eliminate pedestrians from the roads, considering 'footpaths' technically don't exist anymore. They're encroached by shops, tapris, and now, serve as an alternate route for 2-wheelers. Yet, skywalks aren't used by the walking citizens, who choose to run aimless cutting through traffic, contributing to the pandemonium. Subways don't fare better either, but atleast they aren't obstacles themselves.
With improved spending power of the working class, the number of vehicles on the roads has been on an upward trend and will continue to be. Although flyovers have eased the pain along the arterial roads, the scene in the inroads and other lesser important roads is terrible. And if you're a motorist who happens to be on one such road and you encounter a BEST bus here, you might as well cancel all imminent appointments and plug your ipod on to set the numbness in.
the problem with mumbai is that raste nahin hai chalne ke liye, gaadi chalane ke liye, aasman mein raste bana rahe hain. if there is no base, it'l all come down. ps, you must take a trip down from basant park to navjivan. heck, from fine arts to mahul!
ReplyDeleteI heard that Delhi is faring worse actually, with the CWG preparations seeing even side roads being dug up.
ReplyDeleteAs for Bombay, I sympathise more with the people in the BEST bus than motorists. A BEST bus that is stuck in traffic is inevitably packed with people who are slowly suffocating under the lethal combination of sweat, humidity and heat.