Pavement bollards stump pedestrians

Bengaluru: While conceptualising wide footpaths to promote safe pedestrian movement in the city, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) clearly did not think of a section of society such as those on wheelchairs, the visually impaired or guardians with a baby pram etc. for using these pavements. Worse, iron bollards – which are becoming common on all newly-developed footpaths – are being mindlessly installed with least concern for providing ease of walkability. 

Take, for instance, Nandidurga Road, which is being developed between Millers Road and Jayamahal Road. The bollards have been installed so close to each other that pedestrians will find it difficult to use the footpaths.

To make things more difficult, the height between the road and the footpath is so high that senior citizens will find it difficult to climb onto the pavement. 

The situation is no different in other parts of the city. Possibly due to the lack of standardization, different zones of the BBMP are following different designs without considering the safety of the vulnerable sections of society. 

Aishwarya Othena, who is visually challenged, had a tough experience recently of using the footpath in places like Church Street, and MG Road, which were hailed as roads with international designs.

She specifically pointed out that the bollards, which are supposed to prevent two-wheelers from driving on the pavement, be done away with as they were causing trouble to many. 

“For whom is a city designed? Who gets to use its infrastructure? One of my friends, who had the arduous task of helping me navigate through these pillars last weekend, dubbed them “Pillars of Oppression”, and I do think they are. It is, of course, not that urban planners met together and decided to exclude people with disabilities from using the pavement. However, if a group is so consistently and systematically excluded from city planning that their exclusion is viewed as customary and unsurprising, then it is high time to reconsider our priorities,” Othena, who is pursuing a doctoral degree, told DH.  BBMP’s chief commissioner Tushar Girinath said some footpaths are not designed well but pointed out that bollards are needed to prevent motorists from using the pavements.

“Residents themselves have requested us to install bollards. It is needed but that the design should not inconvenience the physically challenged or the visually impaired,” he said.

Othena, however, did not agree with the BBMP. “It is not an acceptable trade-off to say that, to make the pavement more usable by certain sections of the population, it is natural or alright to leave other sections out. The law enforcement agencies should use other ways such as penalties to prevent riding on the footpath,” she said.