The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Walking a good exercise, but hellish along Harrington Road

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Friday, Sep 19, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Walking a good exercise, but hellish along Harrington Road

Vidya Venkat

This is the finding of a pedestrian safety audit

“Adding to the woes of pedestrians is the dumping of construction debris and bricks on pavements”

— Photo: Special Arrangement

Driven to corner: A woman tries to squeeze herself through the narrow pavement space on Harrington Road, Chetpet.

CHENNAI: Walking along Harrington Road, Chetpet, is not a safe exercise, especially for schoolchildren studying in eight schools situated here. This is the finding of a pedestrian safety audit carried out on Thursday by members of Harrington Road Residents’ Association and Walking Classes Unite (WCU), a research collective lobbying for pedestrian rights.

A representative of Madras Christian College HSS said students reaching the school on bicycle or by foot were facing risks from fast-moving vehicles. He urged civic authorities to take action against pavement encroachers and those who were parking their vehicles on the road.

Residents said that traffic snarls had become a daily affair as cars and two-wheelers were parked indiscriminately, blocking the road. They blamed the situation on a hospital and a shopping mall that did not have adequate parking facilities.

Karen Coelho of WCU said that despite the high volume of pedestrian traffic, only 1.5 m had been set aside as pavement space. Encroachments such as tea shops, vendors and police booths impeded pedestrian space on different stretches of the road. Adding to the woes of the pedestrians was the dumping of construction debris and stacking of bricks on the pavement. Besides, a transformer and a green-zone developed on the pavement in front of a hospital, hinder the pedestrians, she said.

These force the pedestrians to walk on the road, braving risks from vehicles moving towards and from Poonamallee High Road and Nelson Manickam Road.

Sheetal Parekh, a resident, said the 15th Avenue here did not have any pavement, adding to the woes of the residents. “This is after the traffic on the avenue increased when vehicles were re-routed to stop right turn from Spur Tank Road and Harrington Road,” she said. A subway near Harrington Road had taken up major stretches of the sidewalk, she added.

Sources in the traffic police said that cars obstructing free flow of traffic were towed away using a recovery van. But, only one such van was available for the area and hence they could not always focus on this particular road.

The WCU is conducting a 6-km walkathon on Sunday from Labour Statue to Foreshore Estate to highlight the needs of public transport users, bicyclists and pedestrians in the city. To participate or share similar concerns on road safety, call 98847 06531 or log on to www.pedaccess.wordpress.com

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