This paper talks about the mentality of the pedestrians on road when tackled with the problem of overtaking a stationary bus. The paper talks about the various options, scenarios and problems with each option and the psychology of the pedestrian when confronted with such a choice.
Assumptions made:
This is true for those Indian pedestrians - or peds in short - in one of the many suburbs in any of the cities. This also applies only to those suburbs that do not have a footpath for the peds to walk on. Also, as the sample group that I’ve considered is only for Chennai suburbs, I believe further improvisation would be required to make this global!
Some basics:
The people who travel by the Metropolitan Transport Corporation, MTC in short - still PTC (Pallavan Transport Corporation) to some – must be aware of the concept of “Staging!” To the uninitiated, the concept of “stage” is tied up with the ticket charge. For a particular stage which corresponds to the distance between two not necessarily successive stops say the ticket charge is Rs. 2.50 for the immediate next one the charge increases by 0.50 paise or something. So, needless to say, the conductor ought to dispense away the tickets to all those who board the bus in Stage 1 before he reaches Stage 2 lest the government is swindled off that 0.50 paise! So, if the crowd is excessive, the bus is stopped somewhere in between along the side of a road so that the conductor can wiggle his way through the crowd and dispense the tickets.
The theory:
This, as explained earlier, concerns neither the bus nor its passengers but those peds who ought to get past the bus to proceed on their way. Me being an avid walker, I’ve been studying the mentality and the methods that the peds follow when confronted with such a slightly capsized metallic hulk of a bus on their way. On reaching the bus the peds go through a brief emotional struggle as to which side of the road they should take. The bus is stopped by the left side of the road so that other commuters can get by. So, now the ped has to decide whether to take the inside route and brave the foot boarders who have got off the bus and soaking up some of the hard-to-come-by breeze or go by the outside route and brave the traffic. We’ll take this argument case by case.
Case I: The ped has decided to take the inside route
Case I being what it is, the ped comes across the below problems:
- If the ped belongs to the fairer sex, she has to withstand the cat calls of the foot boarders who consider that ogling at women peds on foot from such a vantage position as the footboard is a protocol that ought to be strictly followed!
- A ped of any sex will mostly have to traverse an obstacle course with a regurgitating cow chewing the cud, a couple of dogs, lots of vegetable refuse from a nearby green grocer’s, discarded make-shift utensils from an “aatu kaal” soup road side eatery, a sewage that is miraculously always brimming with water even when the city is suffering from an acute water shortage and so on and so forth acting as obstacles.
The problems being what they are I still can maintain that people who come under this category are passive and unadventurous people whose only bout of adrenaline powered rush would be when the aforementioned cow flicks its tail at them or when the dogs snap at the ped’s ankles! They don’t mind dirtying their pant cuffs or saree edges or their footwear.
Case II: The ped has decided to take the outside route
This poses the below problems:
- The most important problem or might I say disaster that could occur would be the “liquid missile” which somehow finds your shoulders or worse your crest in its projectile path. The said liquid missile being a crimson colored, highly fragrant wad of saliva which as per common law will be ejected out the window when the probability of it splattering some poor soul is remarkably high.
- The oncoming flood of traffic with many an enthusiastic autowallahs who race across as though their tails were on fire, the unruly truck drivers who think they are riding a bicycle and not a truck, the Mahindra vans that are stuffed full with people and then some flitting across the map, other MTC buses, cycles coming the wrong way and fellow peds who come from the opposite direction.
- The driver of the said bus himself starting the bus and banking slowly towards the traffic leaving the ped in the middle of the road, giving him/her the opportunity to scrutinize the tires of the bus closely.
I’ve noticed that those who belong to this category can be called adventurous, speedy, cleanliness minded or downright suicidal depending on how they tackle the problem.
- Peds who on reaching the derriere of the bus take the outside route after a cursory glance up and down the road are adventurous. It takes about a fraction of a second for them to calculate the distance traveled multiplied by time factor to determine the velocity of the vehicle behind them and they leg it to the front of the bus if they rate the possibility of over taking the stationary bus without splattering the asphalt with their innards high! They can also be called speedy.
- Those who don’t tackle the obstacle course designed along the inside route of the bus can be called cleanliness minded. They take their chance and brave the wad of saliva than walk in the above described mire. They are sometimes called people with their heads in the cloud, mistaking the fact that they hold their heads high to spot any window seat passenger getting ready for a mighty “snort and eject” procedure. The fact that they would probably step on an already ejected wad should also not be missed. But there are those people, they brave it all!
- The downright suicidal do not bother for a cursory glance to check for speeding vehicles and just walk the walk daring the drivers to hit them, maul them or at least abuse them. I’ve noticed quite a lot of galoots who do this mistaking foolery for bravery.
Further info:
For the curious, I take the outside route with a cursory glance at times, always hold my head high and shake my fists furiously when the driver takes off without a cautionary honk! The reader can argue that the ped should infact walk facing the traffic and not the other way to avoid all this, but then again, the butcher shops that lie on the other side of the road forms another topic for another day!
Note: The writer is a very patriotic Indian who is not making fun of the current condition of the country, comparing it with any firangi country just for comical value. The writer is also not a dumb spectator to the ongoing soiling of the environ and tries to practice what she preaches.
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