Nuisance bikers in Rawalpindi

Rawalpindi : Have you ever seen bikers shooting through the city streets or swarming places like markets barely missing pedestrians? They weave in and out of the crowd. They blast over speed breakers, barely missing pedestrians. They go too fast with little time to recover if something goes wrong. They ride the wrong way on one-way streets. They ride on the sidewalk. There is none to look after them.

"Bikers have been the bane of my pedestrian Rawalpindi living. I have seen a pedestrian and biker accident and this was probably the real beginning of my annoyance with them. I was crossing a one-way looking in the direction traffic should be coming from when a messenger bike came flying from the opposite direction nearly running me over. I was in a crosswalk as well. The biker had even the audacity to yell at me," says Muzaffar Hussain, a retired headmaster of a local school.

"As a biker, I've had countless numbers of pedestrians step off in front of me, sometimes from between parked cars, sometimes where they have enough space to walk, however, just didn't choose to look. I have had lots of skid-to-a-stop moments and near misses. I will bet most of these pedestrians thought about me as a "crazy biker not realizing they were primarily at fault for the near-miss," says Hasan Zafar Naqvi, a medical rep.

"I've been hit by a bike twice. I saw an elderly man mangled by a wrong-way bike in my neighbourhood, and a friend spent many months recovering in a hospital and at home because a bike hit him. Bikes are a nuisance and a threat," remarks Akbar Abbas, a graphic designer with an advertising company.

"Despite the dangers and the frustrations, most of us support bike use, especially as an alternative to driving in the city. So what is wrong with bikes? Do they really mow down pedestrians? If you are walking, are you likely to be run over by a bike rider because he is zipping from lane to lane? The answer is he will really mow you down because you are not paying attention," says Asjad Ali, a shopkeeper in Raja Bazaar.

"Bikers and pedestrians are frustrated with one another. I saw them driving on the footpath near Mareer Chowk. There is an urgent need to promote responsible bike ownership," says Rizwan Haider, a painter.

"Being a biker I know very well that bikers have problems of their own, as I have tragically observed in the last few months. Not long ago, a bus and a large truck killed two bikers. Drivers of such large vehicles probably could not see the bikes. One thing is clear. Bikes rarely hit pedestrians. The vast majority of biker accidents are biker/vehicle related," says Kazim Raza, a hospital employee.