The number of cars navigating the city’s roads has been increasing incessantly (more than 10 per cent a year for nearly a decade now). With real estate prices remaining high, residential and commercial developers have kept in-premises parking to a minimum. This has led to a dearth of parking space in the city. We now try to squeeze our vehicles into impossible spots and end up violating parking regulations.
Montieth Road in Egmore showcases manifold violations on any given day. While it leads to Pantheon Road, one can notice two-wheelers and four-wheelers illegally parked on either side of the road. Commuters don’t seem to pay heed to the ‘No Parking’ signage placed at regular intervals. Hence, traffic, especially at the Pantheon Road T-junction, piles up. If you have crossed this point and think you can heave a sigh of relief, then you are in for a surprise. Commuters turning right onto Pantheon Road are yet again obstructed by an array of four-wheelers parked alongside the median. Yes, they aren’t parked along the sidewalk (where there is a clear No Parking sign), but are instead in the middle of the road obstructing what ought to be the fast lane of Pantheon Road. This is risky as the rotund pillars along the flyover block the line of vision of commuters turning right from Montieth Road. Unless you are used to this absurd way of parking, you are likely to crash into the first vehicle. The flyover does provide some parking under its shade, but that comes further down the road. The portion immediately after turning right onto Pantheon Road is by no means a safe place to park your vehicle. And the problem of illegally parked cars is not confined to busy thoroughfares. Residential neighbourhoods that have back offices and small retail outlets also face the same problem. Violators here do so with presumably more audacity, as they know they are at little risk of being caught by traffic police or of having their vehicles towed. They park in front of gates, preventing residents from exiting their premises, and reducing the availability of road space.
As commuters, we must learn to park responsibly. As for residents, the answer is not to curse or instruct your security guards to deflate tires. Chennai City Traffic Police offers a better solution. Their Facebook page of the same name allows citizens to post their grievances online. The page is replete with cases where action has been taken (with photo evidence) and complaints have been redressed. They are doing their best to act against any issue (even a misspelled traffic sign was changed) and I have personally benefited from this.
vikram.mankal@gmail.com
