Weekend bikers scare regular traffic

Late night revelers ruin the peace on Main Boulevard.

LAHORE: At 12:30am on Saturday night, Abdul Tanveer drives home with his family on Main Boulevard. Suddenly, a motorcycle zips past him at high speed on the left side. Then another, this time on the right side.

Tanveer looks into his rear view mirror: the whole road is buzzing with motorcycles. They are driven by young men, some with young women passengers. Many look too young to be driving, and some too drunk. Tanveer slows down the car, then eventually stops at the side of the road to let the swarm of 50-60 motorcycles past. “It was extremely dangerous and irresponsible,” he says. “Any one of these boys and girls could have died.”

“The traffic in Lahore is already so unpredictable and then suddenly this occurs. You have to be defensive due to the aggressiveness of the bike riders,” said Tanveer.

These motorcycle clubs have become normal sights on Main Boulevard on Saturday and Sunday nights. “This is a regular occurrence on the weekends,” said Nauman, who owns a shop in Main Market. “They race all over Main Boulevard and perform an array of tricks.”

Atif, who works at a shop in Main Market, said the bikers were a nuisance and they were putting their lives and those of others at risk. “They have no regard for society,” he said. “Their tricks, like one-wheeling or standing up on the motorcycle, seem like fun but it can end very badly.”

“There is almost anarchy on our streets,” said Zainab Sharif, who works at a local marketing firm. “The traffic police are more fond of handing out petty fines than dealing with speeding and reckless driving.”

A government official said that 90 per cent of these motorcycles were rented. “The issue is that requirements like needing a licence to rent a vehicle are flouted. This is part of an overall problem that unqualified and unlicensed people are driving cars and motorcycles, which leads to the traffic being a mess.” A traffic warden on Main Boulevard said that traffic police needed more equipment and personnel to tackle the motorcycle clubs. He said that full strength traffic police shifts usually end around 11:30 pm. Night shifts are thinner, except in certain high-risk areas, he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 18^th, 2010.