Fortunately, I have never hit a pedestrian. The closest call was when a middle-aged man stopped a few cold inches from my bike’s front wheel as I hit the brake abruptly. The man grinned, meekly knowing it was his fault. Why? When it happened, we were right at the center of the road.[break]
So this is not about a biker claiming the entire road for himself and asking pedestrians to parachute from the roof of their homes to their destinations. I know bikers can be far more reckless then pedestrians, which could be a subject for a separate column.
But here I just want to talk about why pedestrians don’t follow the simple rule of keeping to the sides.
The place where I live is about a kilometer from the main road. Everyday, by the time I reach the main road, I exhaust my limited vocabulary of expletives, all of which are directed at pedestrians. Usually a calm person, and not prone to aggressive behaviors, the unnerving experience of passing through the streets on motorbike simply causes the bad guy in me to run riotous.
On my way, I come across a group of women who act as if a road is the perfect place to hold a conference on rising vegetable prices, to complain about the wantonness of their husbands, and discuss ways to control their wayward children. I face young boys who, if confronted about their walking on the middle of the road, stare back as if to say, “Tero baule banako road ho yo?” It is no use telling reminding them that the road wasn’t built by their fathers, either.
Then there are people who fiddle with their cell phones as they walk, their eyes fixed on the screen instead of the road. And the classic example of people who don’t mind where the little kids with them are going and who are quick to put all the blame on gadiwalas if anything untoward happens.
By far the most irritating are the macho guys, local dons of sorts, who think paying heed to horns is an insult and won’t budge or cede an inch of space just to prove who they are. The kinds who think you rather get out of your vehicle and offer a salute or two as they pass.
If we take into account the recklessness of other people who unload construction materials on the street and those who park vehicles carelessly, it would not be hard to see why vehicle owners should feel enervated.
Of course, pedestrians have their own set of problems and it would be insensitive not to mention them. For example, if vehicles are parked on both sides, the already small road grows so thin it is difficult to figure out the left, right and center of what is left. And the sides usually have gutters with sludge overflowing onto the road. In such circumstances, pedestrians do not have much of a choice.
But then I have also found quite often that even if a road is good and you have enough space to walk on the sides, people still love to take the center. As I pointed out in the beginning, I don’t curse each and every person I see on the road, but the recklessness of some really breaks the valve that holds my patience.
Since I pass the road twice or thrice a day and pass again on my way back, cursing had become a routine. I had to do something to prevent the expletives from becoming a habit.
Thankfully, I am a changed man at long last. I no longer curse pedestrians.
And what brought about the change?
I did a little research about road rules myself and found that the law is more sympathetic towards pedestrians, perhaps rightly so.
The rules in most countries say that while pedestrians, bicyclists and motorists all must share the responsibilities of using public streets and roads, motorists should exercise extra caution because bicycle riders and pedestrians are more vulnerable in accidents. Since those on foot have no protection against vehicles, motorists must look out for them regardless of the circumstances. Blaring horns or giving signals through indicators does not give motorists the right of way.
Though the rules don’t put it in explicit terms, the implicit meaning is that unless it is a freeway, pedestrians have absolute right of way.
Even if a pedestrian deliberately throws himself in front of a car, the law sees it as the fault of the motorist. A pedestrian can never be at fault.
Ther writer is a copy editor at Republica. He admires Gabriel Garcia Marquez and wishes to someday write a novel imitating his style.
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