New overpasses near Budapest lack pedestrian access

Csömör (pop.: 7,906), a village near Budapest, is risky or impossible to reach without a car, as the overpasses recently built above the M0 motorway ring road that connect the village with Route 3 and the HÉV train to Gödöllő lack safe foot or bicycle paths. Crossing the overpasses by wheelchair is clearly impossible, but the investor says this is not a problem, as very few disabled people live in Csömör, writes index.hu.

Index.hu

Crossing the overpasses above the M0 motorway ring road on foot, by bicycle or by wheelchair is either risky or impossible.

While some locals interviewed by the portal were not aware of the problem - "There is no footpath on the overpasses?" asked one of them - it was clear that they all own cars.

Others, however, are worried about the safety of children who have to cross the overpass every day. "How can they get home from school? It is not sensible to sit on a bus for one stop but who would let them cross the overpass at the back (the one built in the middle of the village) alone? That one doesn't even have lights. It's life-threatening after dark," said one woman.

Another woman mentioned new difficulties the bicycle team of the village has to face. "It will not be easy for them to train from now on," she said. "They will have to transport the bikes out of the village by car."

A girl interviewed while walking across the dangerous overpass said she had taken the same road every day for ten years, and now it includes the overpass. Bus 31 coming from Budapest drops off passengers nearby. "It is easiest to walk from there," she said. "The Csömör bus runs infrequently, and why would I pay Ft 300 when it is a ten-minute walk? I come to see my horses every day. There are many others who take this road, because it is the shortest way from this direction. There was no sidewalk before either, but I'm sure there will be many more accidents in the future. This overpass in dangerous, and traffic will increase."

The Csömör Civilian Association (Csömöri Civil Egyesület) has started campaigning for an overpass usable for everybody. "On the other side of the overpass, there is a company that employs disabled people. They are in the most difficult situation because of this overpass, as it is impossible to cross by wheelchair," said the president of the association, István Fábri.

"There are plans for two more overpasses, both for pedestrians only, but they are only at the application stage," he continued. "And even if they are built, they will not be located where they would be most needed by pedestrians." Moreover, these overpasses will not solve the problems faced by cyclists and wheelchair users, as they will have stairs.

The new overpasses were built largely from EU subsidies. "This was a state investment," said Mayor György Bátovszki. "We are neither the investors, nor the constructors or the permission giving authority. We are not even owners of these overpasses." He stressed that he supports the cause of the civilian organization, though is unhappy about the fact that it blames the local government for the problems.

While the investor had to show the plans to the local government, which had a right to veto, apparently there was a misunderstanding about what was needed for a safe overpass. Bátovszki did not specifically ask for a sidewalk or lights though he did have the authority. The local government only asked for a structure that was safe for traffic.

An unidentified leader of the National Infrastructure Developer Zrt. (Nemzeti Infrastruktúra Fejlesztő Zrt.), the company responsible for the investment, said the current situation is the result of a late response from locals. He said they could have looked at the plans, but did not complain until after construction had started. (Fábri denied this, saying that locals said they needed a bicycle path over the M0 when the plans were presented one year ago.)

The National Infrastructure Developer Zrt. also said it "would not not be logical to build a sidewalk on the overpasses, because the road did not have a sidewalk, bicycle path or lights in the past either." It also claimed that only three or four disabled people would need to cross the overpasses each day. (According to the portal, 300 disabled people work at the above mentioned company.) The investor added that building a sidewalk on the overpasses is not impossible but would be costly at this stage.

Fábri said that similar overpasses are planned to be built in the vicinity of Kistarcsa, Kerepes, Nagytarcsa, Isaszeg and Fót in the near future.

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