Pedestrian Day: Green Idea

For every good intention, there could be possibilities of bad consequences. I had been seeing, hearing and reading over the inconveniences caused by pedestrian day in cities of Bhutan, most notably Thimphu.

His Majesty on first Pedestrian Tuesday. Photo source: google image.

Even I had been victim of pedestrian day. It was one month ago, during my vacation in Thimphu. Unfortunately it so happened that the day for my niece minor operation at JDWNRH felled on a pedestrian day. Acho (elder brother) and Azim (elder sister in law) had gone to the hospital as early as 8am, and I was to reach there by 10am with medical prescription for my younger brother’s medicine. I had to walk all the way from upper Mothithang till hospital. In those tiring situations, I reached the hospital, just realizing that I had brought wrong prescription. With full of irritation upon my carelessness I had to again walk all the way back to home and get the right prescription, which I did.

I didn’t take a taxi as the fare is quite high for a poor guy like me. And moreover I thought it was ok to walk and save some money to have fun with friends in the evening. During those tiring day, for a while, I wished there were no pedestrian day as such so that I could drive my brother’s car. And I know like me many will be wishing and cursing the pedestrian day. But I didn’t curse the situation; I knew that though the idea or reasons behind pedestrian day was not something so logical for a small country like ours, but it could turn out to be something worth to appreciate in the future.

The pedestrian day is being implemented by government, and now many are silently protesting against its inconvenience and I doubt what the government will do next. As per my knowledge, its implementation came as a concern for the environment, air pollution, to develop a habit of walking and as an exemplary move towards the outer world. But all this came without much survey, research and analysis which now resulted into general public’s desperateness for government to subdue its ego and lift the law. Furthermore, the new rules are being implemented again to curb the existing inconveniences, for instance, breastfeeding women can work from home on Tuesday, which I feel is a temporary solution without much study. Our government, though comes up with good intention of solving social, political or environmental issues by implementing laws like, tobacco act, pedestrian day etc. Many of them had landed up with a bad impression to its people. There are few who likes the rules, but many don’t. I feel that it would have turned out to be good successful act/law, if research, survey and proper analysis had been carried out.

Now, maybe some of you are thinking that I am trying to figure out the flaws in our government. I am in no position to bring change to our government, our country or to our people. But as a concern citizen I feel I can share my concern thoughts, opinions and try to bring any possible changes in the way I feel. And as a concern citizen of my country, I personally feel that the pedestrian day which is in practice for more than a month can be appreciated in some way, though the approach is not wise.

My mom walks all the way from home to memorial Chorten to circumambulate, to prostrate and to practice the teachings of Buddha, and return back to home in the evening. She had been doing it, and she still does it. That’s not all, many school going students walks all the way till their school, and many others are there who don’t have cars to drive. For them, every day is pedestrian day; it doesn’t make them any difference.

We got to know that many of us can still walk, and go by foot in cities like Thimphu. But, I am not saying that we all should start walking. We all should avoid travelling by cars. I know, we are in the 21st century, where everything had changed, the times demand us to be efficient, punctual, and loyal with our works. And living in cities like Thimphu without a car is a big surprise for many of us. But, does that means we should avoid a pedestrian day? No!

There are many cities in western who gives more importance for development of pedestrian and bi-cycle pathways, for instance Copenhagen (capital of Denmark) is best known as bi-cycle friendly cities in the world. Bicycle pathways and pedestrian are extensively well maintained, and more than 30% of people there commute by cycle. Why don’t we learn which are worthy of learning from them.

I had stayed around 2 weeks in Delhi, and I had a bitter experience of the city. There we don’t get a proper pedestrian to walk, to pass the road, and the crowd there demands us to take taxi for every journey. Like Delhi there are many other cities. Brasilia (capital city of Brazil) could be another example, where we need cars to commute, not possible to walk even a small distance. This is still not a situation in our city. (Don’t consider me foolish for comparing with those big cities, it could be possible with our cities too).

Yet, Thimphu had rapidly changed in past few decades. Number of cars had increased into the hundreds of thousands resulting into lack of parking space, traffic congestion, and lack of proper road network. Many disorganized houses are getting built. This rapid change arouses in us the need of proper planning. If not taken care, this could lead us into lack of proper space for pedestrian walkways, cycling, etc. in near future. And I guess encouraging pedestrian walkways could be an option for it.

I would say, government need to improve public transport, more bus needs to be included in cities, people need to be informed and made aware of our city's sustainability, proper pedestrian and bicycle pathways need to be maintained, and hence everyone should be called for participation in maintaining and conserving our cities from getting overcrowded with cars. Life should be made comfortable for those who don’t own cars by providing easy access for cheaper public transport.

By implementing all this, I guess we may get better city, better comfortable life, where we don’t need any compelled pedestrian day. Otherwise, who knows in future we may lend up without space to walk.