A City of Cars

The argument commenced off with, "we need mobility" as stated by the authoritative.

Need is although a strong word, usually applied to something which is a life line for an entity. Unluckily, this word is always confused with want. Sometimes with the luxury of power, limited interaction with humans, above average living, no accountability and mile long VIP protocol, people are henceforth unable to understand the difference between need and want.

Well the governors or the men in power decided to choose access instead of mobility. For a city of 20 million in actual and 15 million after all the cutoff due racism, divisions and political strategies. But still they did not choose 'increase in access' instead of mobility. And the work began. All the relevant footpaths providing access for the most economical mode of transportation i.e. "feet" were removed. All the green belts comprising of old trees vanished. All the service roads providing increased safety and access were transformed into the highways. A city which once performed 50 percent of its trips by walk or cycle was forced to use motorised vehicles from one destination to another.

There are design standards for every area; Urban areas need urban access roads, Highways need mobility. But someone thought about Karachi as "Not" a city and even with a population of 20 million people, they designed every other road as a rural highway.

So the argument became reality. Power when held irrespective of accountability usually creates the biggest mess. Once a lively city, which was well connected is now converted into a lot of segments between connected rural highways. Parks were destroyed, because the priority was highways, beautiful roundabouts were replaced by underpasses because aesthetics do not matter it is not what a city need. Focus of the city governors shifted from community gatherings to repairing pavements. Beaches became dustbin, but the roads near them are well paved. Huge skyscrapers were built all along the roads with no consideration of their frontage.

This created a huge influx of more and more cars. So a meeting was called again to access the need. And again it was called by the people enjoying the luxury of power, involved in very less interaction with people of the city, confident about no accountability and accompanied by a mile long protocol. So they decided that wider roads, more mobility and lesser access create more cars. So it’s time to widen them more to accommodate the new addition. Just like a person, trapped in debts, takes more to manage the situation.

Meanwhile when this decision was being made. A man was on the road with his child. They visited every park and beach, once very beautiful; and at present not in a shape to spend the quality time. Then the child asked, "no parks, no good beaches, no nice community festivals, just big wide roads, is this a city for humans?" The father was quiet, but there the SUV mumbled, 'This is a city of cars.... Get out....