Now and then it makes me wonder if this so-called Pedestrian Day can sustain some years. No doubt, everyone says so – and I will still say the same. The idea of having a day completely designated for pedestrians (like me) makes us all very proud of not owning a car to drive especially on Tuesdays. Some say that puts everyone on equal footing, which I can’t come to agree with. Big people will always be big people and us the little ones would always remain so. That’s that! But the point it is heartening to have a day completely dedicated to pedestrians out on the streets. We need that. Our environment deserves that. Our people deserve to breathe cleaner air at least once a week.

But what have we done to the noble concept? We have managed to create a day completely dedicated to taxi drivers to mint money from innocent people. We have created a condition whereby our people who would actually drive shorter distance to office on the rest of the week to compel him to drive longer distance to his office, burning more fuel and taking longer time to reach the same distance. Inconvenience is another word people used to describe this PeeDay!

Why are taxis there on Pedestrian Day? When did these automobiles started thinking like men and women alike? How can we mistake machines for man? And if machines are machines, then why do we differentiate a machine from machine? How can a taxi be environmentally friendlier than other cars?

And again – let it be clear. I have no personal interest here.(Wow, doesn’t that rhyme a bit?) I don’t own a car and going by the location of my office, even if I have a car to drive, I am not affected by Pedestrian Day at all. I can drive to my office on Tuesdays like any other days of the week. That takes away my personal interest or motives, if there were any in writing this piece.

Let’s assume a taxi drives 100 km (on average) in a day. But on Tuesdays I am sure they are burdened to drive more than double the distance, which they do on normal days. That I am sure emits more gases into our atmosphere – by the way that’s a child’s logic. I don’t want to hear it anymore. But number-wise, yes there will be more cars if there is no Pedestrian Day, but office-goers will not be driving the whole day in the town. They will directly go to the office and come home in the evening. Because of the condition that PeeDay has created our hon’ble taxi drivers drive through every nook and cranny on Tuesdays. Even, odd, fractions or whatever – I don’t think it makes any sense to see taxis plying proudly through the town.

Keep the concept, but do some necessary modifications.  Allow no taxis and instead promote public transport. By that I mean efficient public transport system – not quite the one we have right now. And yes I am an optimist – efficient public transport system is the right solution to our traffic congestion and to some extent rupee drain-out.