No one knows how and when did this innocuous vehicle, a blessing for the under privileged turned into such a menace, especially in the big cities. But that is how these hordes of motorcycles, running into hundreds of thousands, are looked at by fellow commuters -- a menace.
Of course, this is linked with how the planners have been managing our cities. They probably had no clue that a near absence of public transport coupled with urbanisation and population explosion would lead to people finding their own solutions.
In Pakistan’s case, this happened in the form of a market that was ready to provide most commuters with a motorcycle of their own.
In a free market, you can’t stop people from buying their chosen mode of transport. But the chaotic proportion this motorcycle buying has reached was clearly not envisaged by any of the stakeholders.
Today, the bikers relish the thought of having the transport of their own that happens to be the most convenient as well. But the truth is that it has had consequences not just for the cities’ traffic problem but for the bikers themselves in putting their life at risk.
After the free market has made bikes available in the easiest of ways, there does exist a system for their registration. But that is where the administration’s responsibility ends, it seems. The issuance of a driver’s license for motorcyclists is a big farce since close to half of them are much below the age of 18.
The traffic police is simply incapable of implementing any kind of rule or law on this huge population of motorcyclists. From what one can see, they don’t even try. Almost 90 per cent of the bikers do not wear helmet, the foremost precaution they must take, and the police seems hardly pushed. As a consequence, hundreds of motorcycle accidents take place in big cities on a daily basis, many of which are fatal.
Today’s Special Report is an attempt to look closely at the phenomenon, aiming that the governments will be pushed to act once they realise the gravity of the problems. Implementing laws in a stern manner and imposing heavy fines on the violators could be a good starting point.