9am at Marathahalli, past the outer ring road overpass...I am on my way to work after dropping my son at school. I am pleasantly surprised at the brisk pace of traffic this morning.
Normally my first big bottleneck is at the Marathahalli junction when I turn towards the Airport Road coming from the outer ring road. I drive past the famous outlet stores where one third of the road is dedicated for the people waiting for BMTC and Corporate buses and the rest for free flowing traffic.
It is common to see pedestrians using the hand signal to stop traffic and weave past the many different vehicles to cross the road. There are many types of hand signals and so much that it can reflect personality traits.
The Shy - slightly hidden hand signal, hands close to the body with wrists and palm close to the thigh showing the stop sign
The Confident - walk briskly with hands stretched out at shoulder level for an authoritative stop sign
The Arrogant - a high hand signal and cannot but bang the car boot as they walk past and
Of course
The indecisives - step down from the median and back a few times before taking the plunge
The one I noticed this morning introduced a new category - call him the confident safe pedestrian. A guy in white kurta, pyjama and with a black helmet using the confident jay walker shoulder level stop signs. We were not moving too fast as it was a stop and go traffic at 9am. I was thinking to myself that this must be Bangalore's most safe pedestrian. I guess he had the bike on the other side of the road and walking across for something. His outfit, helmet and hand signals caught my attention and introduced a new category of jay-walkers. He drew my attention for sure, went past my car, the next one and now to the last lane where cyclist and bikers use the best maneuvers to get past other vehicles.
As he approached the last row a bike runs into him - Two wheeler skids and now there are 3 helmeted heads on the road. The fall was not too serious. The biker blinded by other bigger vehicles did not see Mr.Safe pedestrian crossing and applied the breaks. Of course the hand signal posture did not help the Pedestrian to balance as the bike skids just in front of him. The bike skids, hits the pedestrian and they all fall down.
If someone did not notice the kurta pyjama helmeted pedestrian earlier, they would have mistaken this for the safest triple riding accident ever recorded - 3 helmets getting off the road. I move past and cannot but keep looking at my rear view to confirm if one of them was actually the safe pedestrian.
His white kurta pyjama with black helmet was a dead give-away.
Winner of the safe pedestrian award.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
When I think of pedestrians in India, the very first thinking that comes to my mind is that:
ReplyDeleteThis is the first time people are so self-less... How they become so self-less, its because they are confident and they don't realize the fear of failure.
I liked the safe pedestrian you saw and his approach to bangalore roads:)-