HSR Layout resident Sankar Sarma is shocked that his complaint about footpath parking on 14th Main Road in Sector 3 was rejected by the Public Eye app of the city traffic police. “Are you saying parking on footpath is not a violation?” tweeted Sarma to the top cops in traffic. “Footpath is for pedestrians. Please check again.”
HSR residents believe that parking on the footpaths in commercial roads should be restricted as the pedestrians could be risking their life and limb if they stepped on to a busy thoroughfare. In addition, it’s impossible to commute on foot for senior citizens and children. Therefore, such offences on busy roads should be acted upon by the traffic police.
To be fair, we have also seen the ‘tiger’ patrol vehicle of the traffic police removing cars and bikes from such busy roads. However, the drive isn’t intensive enough. In addition, rejecting complaints of footpath encroachment by cars and bikes on the app itself sends out a confusing picture.
In Pune, parking on footpaths invites a fine of Rs 1000-2000 and yet people violate the law over there for lack of intensive police drives. In Kerala, the State Human Rights Commission ordered the police to crack down on illegal parking on footpaths in Thiruvananthapuram in May this year. Interestingly, pavement parking is a grey area even in the UK, barring London. Their law states that you ‘should not’ park on footpaths elsewhere in UK and ‘must not’ in London.
