Anil Baichoo only had a hammer so everything looked like nails to him. What is former minister Baichoo’s track record? How has the broadening of M1 highway really eased the lives of motorists and public transport users? And what about the St. Jean Road in Quatre-Bornes which has been transformed into a highway with cars allowed to park on pedestrian pathways only a meter away from shop windows? Pedestrians seem increasingly excluded from road development and are kept in narrow margins behind ugly pedestrian guard railings to lead them to traffic lights and controlled crossings, at the expense of the driver or the automobile. It is high time that the new government revisits this obsessive use of pedestrian guard railings - a very intrusive element on all our roads. These invasive and unsightly pedestrian railings have not only destroyed visual amenity in Mauritius but have also transformed walking into an unpleasant and a rather silly human activity with people having to walk further away from their destination. These pedestrian guard railings have also contributed to create a motorcar dominated environment which has increased vehicular speeds in our towns and has promoted aggressive driver attitudes. In many spots these pedestrian guard railings have narrowed the usable footway and have led to congestion with even some pedestrians circumnavigating the railings by walking right on the streets. Apart from the compulsive use/purchase of pedestrian guard railings, the former minister’s “preferred” policy or personal bias for enhancing road infrastructure was the unnecessary widening of roads and the construction of new ones. Armed with only a hammer , little did former minister Anil Baichoo realize that his road construction activities and pedestrian guard railings installation were equivalent to a bandaid on a broken leg? To solve the road traffic problem, former minister Anil Baichoo had no other option in mind than to increase the road network capacity either by widening existing roads or by building new roads and highways. Unfortunately, though a very expensive one, this solution was short lived; it has had a perverse effect on the traffic problem: new roads have led to new traffic displacements which now occupy 50 to 90% of the additional road capacity. The result is that no sooner had new roads been built or existing ones widened by former Minister Anil Baichoo than the traffic jam worsened. In addition to having made access difficult to all the services which were formerly so easily accessible to pedestrians (viz. the conversion of St Jean road into a highway), the unplanned real estate development by the Ramgoolam Government has been accompanied by a growing dependence on the automobile. The building of shopping malls and the development of housing estates and “ghettos for rich people” across the island has amplified our traffic because of increasing distances to be covered and the number of additional trips by car. Scrap all unsightly , drab and grey pedestrian guard railingsScrap all unsightly , drab and grey pedestrian guard railingsIf corrective measures are not taken immediately, in a few years we will all suffer from the negative effects of Mr. Anil Baichoo’s excessive zeal. Since there is no evidence that the inclusion of pedestrian guard railings has any positive effect on the safety record, a first measure of the new government should be to focus on more pedestrian-oriented road designs and scrap all unsightly , drab and grey pedestrian guard railings. In a second phase and as a move to embellish the Mauritius streetscape while safeguarding the security of pedestrians, the new government could consider implementing the “shared space schemes” which is already in place in many countries. There is definitely a balance to strike between keeping city center motor traffic moving and making the same roads user friendly for pedestrians and cyclists. At a time when there is much talk about urban planning and the innovative qualities of cities, it is unforgivable that Mr. Anil Baichoo with his ludicrous decisions and armed with his hammer compromised the development of future generations by consciously or unconsciously planning the destruction of our cities. https://facebook/notes/vote-against-second-republic/anil-baichoo-only-had-a-hammer-so-everything-looked-like-nails-to-him/571894656279483
Posted on: Sat, 03 Jan 2015 09:36:41 +0000
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