Bengaluru: We’ve all seen this at some point. Roads packed for long stretches with plumes of exhaust spilling from the vehicles paused at traffic signals. Bikers, like gods, using footpaths to cut to the front of the traffic, gliding past the rest of us who are left to moan and groan and curse at the traffic like the mere mortals we are.
Anyone with an ounce of common sense can tell you that footpaths are to be used by pedestrians – as their name would imply – and not by impatient jockeys of the dual wheeled horse powered (not literally) machines.
These white rabbits (‘Alice in Wonderland’ referrence) who are seemingly perpetually running out of time, are proving to be a growing menace to the pedestrians and the traffic cops.
Bengaluru sees more than its share of this menace and is a constant annoyance to the Bengaluru traffic police. Bikers continue to break traffic protocol despite strict enforcement by the cops.
Many of us feel like giving these rule breakers a good thumping or a piece of our mind but, one Bengaluru woman decided that enough is enough and has started to educate these traffic rule illiterates about the error of their ways.
For an hour every day, after work, Manju Thomas, an ordinary corporate employee, stands at the Corporation bus stop here to guide the erring miscreants and convince them to take the road instead of the pavements.
A video of this civic minded woman trying to direct a biker not to take the footpath, has gone viral on social media. In the video, it can be seen that a biker has gotten into an argument with Thomas, even going so far as to call her out for not speaking in Kannada. Concerned passers-by come to her aid (one of whom videotaped the incident) and supported her in her cause.
Describing the incident in a Facebook post, Pavan Kumar (the one who took the video) said, “A lady by name Manju Thomas stood stubbornly on the footpath and did not allow any two wheelers pass on the footpath. Situation turned bad when two crooks in a white Honda Activa KA 51 EF 7695 objected her standing on footpath and allow their vehicle to pass. They even started abusing her in namma kannada bhaashe, because she didnt know kannada. Myself along with my cabmates got down and joined her to support the lady and after heated arguement they got down their activa on road.”
Bengaluru cops in a fix
As there seems to be no sign of the trend dying down, the cops are in a fix as to what preventive measures can be taken. In areas where granite bollards have been erected, the bikers exploit the gaps meant for wheelchair access to come onto the pavements and go their merry way.
The cops had introduced a provision allowing a suspension of the licences of the offenders, back in 2013 but, this is seldom used.
