How limited parking space affects traffic, local businesses, and safety in the Apple Town Sopore. The town has to plan better and provide enough space to build more parking places and ways of developing public transport. Increasing awareness among the community about rules on parking will also help. These steps will enable Sopore to reduce traffic, safety can be improved, and a better environment for all can be created.
Shoiab Mohmmad Bhat
Sopore is one of the principal towns in Baramulla district, Jammu and Kashmir, India. This town is at a distance of about 48 kilometers north from Srinagar, the summer capital of the UT of Jammu and Kashmir. Sopore is one of the prime commercial and administrative centers in North Kashmir. Also known as “Apple Town,” Sopore is an essential part of the agricultural economy in the Kashmir Valley. This is a historic town that finds its origins even way back to the ancient periods.
Sopore has gained importance due to its active commercial activities and availability of local products such as apple, nut products, etc. The place has good roads leading to connectivity via the highway; Sopore-Srinagar highway acts as a pathway connecting commuters to cities and transports goods. It witnessed rapid development for the last decade with its development in infrastructures and fast expanding commercial areas. However, with such growth comes the traffic congestion, inadequate parking space, and so on, as well as an increased demand for basic amenities.
The town also boasts of a rich cultural heritage and educational institutions, markets, and historical landmarks. Still, Sopore is moving forward as a vibrant place by balancing its old charm with the new growth in the town. With population growth, and commercial activities taking place, more automobiles are coming out on the streets. Such expansion has exerted pressure on available parking space facilities, which had not been made to handle a large number of automobiles. For this reason, people find parking space to become a challenging aspect in their lives.
Traffic Congestion: Sopore, like many growing towns, internally within had little road space available to it. As the number of private automobiles is increasing in the town, it is often fraught with regular traffic jams. Even narrower streets in the town, along with heavy pedestrian and vehicular movement, make it difficult to park. It blocks lanes, and that subsequently reduces the space of the road when people park their cars on already congested roads. It becomes worse during peak hours, especially when people, out of necessity, try to park in commercial areas or near markets, whereby there is a resultant delay and frustration.
The main problems are the poor organization and the lack of defined parking areas within the town i.e Lack of Specific Parking Areas. Residential, commercial, and the busy market zones do not contain specific parking areas. People are parking their cars wherever they could find some empty space, and it may include the roadside parking, parking along the shops, or even any open space. This results in a confused parking scenario and is one of the main reasons for congestion. There is also no designated parking area, so in case of emergencies, emergency vehicles such as ambulances and fire trucks have to go through blocked roads, which might be hazardous at the time of emergencies.
Illegal parking is a very common issue here as most people park their vehicles at no-parking zones or in unauthorized areas. The presence of parked vehicles blocks the view at the crossroads, causing it to become harder for the driver to find a clear passage through the crossroads. Furthermore, illegally parked vehicles also obstruct the movement of public transport and emergency services. Moreover the impact on the local businesses is not less, the dearth of local parking directly hurts the local economy. Customers prefer not to step into commercial sites because they don’t find where to park their vehicles. Hence, this also leads to declining footfalls. Shop owners, as well as businesses in town centers, ultimately lose sales revenue. In such a growing town as Sopore where local business activities are emerging and at verge of an increase but not having enough local parking creates economic problems for such a town.
Incorrect parking is prone to raise many safety issues. The ill-parked cars might block several road signs and lane narrowing in lanes and may restrict pedestrian walking paths. It might sometimes be positioned in front of the field of view before crossing intersections or pedestrians, hence becoming more prone to accidents. Additionally, due to the absence of proper parking, pedestrians have also been found to walk on roads, increasing their chances of getting involved in an accident. Beyond the safety risks illegal parkings has environmental impacts also where there is an absence of proper parking there is a negative impact on the environment too. When people circle around to look for a parking spot, it consumes unnecessary fuel, adding more to gas emissions and ultimately to poor air quality. More time idle on streets waiting for parking leads to higher emissions.
The parking problem is so stressful for the drivers as now they are having troubled parking. Time wasting while searching for a parking area causes frustration in crowded areas, such as markets or near hot spots. Moreover, this increases the already congested daily driving in Sopore, so it is no longer fun and time-consuming. Anxiety of getting a parking area turns routine drives into major problems. The major problem is that the public transport in Sopore has not been developed well. Since public transportation is not that efficient, many people prefer plying their own vehicles and therefore require parking spaces. To alleviate this crunch, if public transport were more readily available, economical, and frequent, people would prefer to make use of this service rather than driving around. On the other hand, the town’s increasing population of two-wheelers is adding to the problem of parking space for cars. insufficient parking for bikes and motorcycles, they have to be parked in car spaces or on roadside areas, creating more congestion and nuisance for others using the road.
During festivals, local fests, or religious gatherings, the count of visitors to Sopore increases because of more catchment areas and population , giving rise to temporary but high demand for parking. The visitors further strain the already scarce parking spaces and make the area badly congested. The seasonal increase in demand has merely worsened the parking shortage that was already present, and it really irritates both locals and visitors.
The parking problems in Sopore are growing due to an increased demand for parking facilities. The town expands, and there is a lack of parking facilities to keep pace with the growing number of vehicles, making traffic worse tremendously as there is considerable parking of cars illegally on most streets. It also causes safety hazards because, in most cases, emergencies and people are barred from the area by vehicles. Businesses are also affected negatively because people are frustrated to find a car-parking spot, thereby resulting in lesser customers entering shops. This also means more pollution because the increased use of cars contributes to causing more harm to the environment. The town has to plan better and provide enough space to build more parking places and ways of developing public transport. Increasing awareness among the community about rules on parking will also help. These steps will enable Sopore to reduce traffic, safety can be improved, and a better environment for all can be created.
