Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz has ordered the creation of dedicated motorcycle lanes on major roads in Lahore, at a traffic management meeting on Tuesday (Dawn; Express Tribune).
What else was ordered
– strict enforcement of zebra crossings through camera-based digital monitoring – alert buttons for pedestrians at road crossings – a pilot project on The Mall for zebra crossing compliance – development of Ferozepur Road as a model thoroughfare – proper covers on cargo tractor-trolleys – traffic signals at Pine Avenue and Jati Umra Chowk – action on congestion at the Shahdara and Thokar Niaz Baig entry and exit points
What prompted it
The meeting was dominated by traffic violations involving vehicles of Suthra Punjab, the provincial cleanliness programme. The chief minister expressed grief at the death of a minor girl who was run over by a Suthra Punjab vehicle, and said the programme’s vehicles must comply with traffic rules without exception.
What has not been specified
No implementation timeline was announced, no budget figure was given, and no motorcycle accident statistics were cited in support of the decision. These are directives issued at a meeting, not a funded scheme with a delivery date — and Lahore has seen dedicated two-wheeler lanes proposed before without them being built.
The measure that is easiest to deliver is the tractor-trolley cover requirement; the hardest is physically segregated motorcycle lanes on roads that are already at capacity. Motorcycles account for the overwhelming majority of registered vehicles in Lahore and for a large share of road deaths, which is the case for doing it — but the announcement stands or falls on execution that has not yet been scheduled.
[Image: file photograph of Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz, via Dawn.]
