Medians no hurdle to cross the road!

Over a year ago, a speeding ambulance rammed into the pedestrians waiting to cross the road through the median erected on Chamaraja double road in the city. Though the pedestrians escaped with minor injuries, it didn’t trigger an alarm for the police to plug gaping holes in the system.

A total of 11 gaping spaces with broken railings of medians, and replaced by stones at places by the locals for their own convenience, can be noticed on the stretch, which witnesses burgeoning traffic throughout the day. At some points, the medians are skewed too.

Chamaraja double road named after 23rd maharaja of Mysore Chamaraja Wadiyar X, is also known as 100 feet road for the length of the stretch, starting from Basaveshwara Circle (Sri Manmaharaja Sanskrit School junction) to Ramaswamy Circle in the heart of the city.

When Deccan Herald made a reality check on Saturday, what came to the fore was ubiquitous pedestrians blatantly making their way through the gaps of the median at places oblivious to the dangers.

The stretch passes through another junction in the middle near Shanthala theatre. From Basaveshwara circle to the theatre alone, five such ‘man-made gaps’ can be found, while from theatre to Ramaswamy circle there are six such shortcuts.

Two-wheeler riders push their vehicles through these spaces, just so that they can avoid taking the circle to reach the other side of the road. Sometimes, jaywalking pedestrians glued to their cellphones and unmindful of their own safety suddenly take the shortcuts.
At theatre junction, it is happening right under the nose of traffic police on duty. A huge gap right behind the traffic box, is accessed by many, instead of taking the zebra cross meant for pedestrians.

Another such huge gap opposite Graduates Cooperative Bank and Lakshmi theatre, where stones are erected in place of medians with equal gaps for people to use, calls for immediate attention. It’s a classic case of mockery of the system, where medians are erected only to ensure smooth flow of traffic by preventing vehicles moving in opposite directions coming in close contact, in the event of burgeoning traffic.