No road for pedestrians in Hyderabad, space to walk on city roads lowest in the world
Hyderabad: Lack of proper road infrastructure, zebra or pelican crossings, footbridges, under passes or skywalks even at prominent junctions has pushed pedestrians on to the roads, resulting in the 1,500 accidents involving them this year. A recent study said that about 52 per cent of people who die in road accidents are pedestrians.
How to take pedestrians off the road, therefore, has been a big question. Bengaluru made walking on the road an an offence last year, and 826 people were penalised with fines between Rs 500-Rs 1,000. (Jaywalking is defined as “crossing or walking in the street or road unlawfully or without regard for approaching traffic.”) But this model cannot be implemented in the city.
“Pedestrians cannot be completely blamed till there is enough infrastructure. There is no law as such imposed against jaywalking in Hyderabad,” said Syam Sunder, DCP, Traffic II. “Only two per cent of the 300-plus junctions have some facility like a foot over bridge or an underpass,” he said.
He pointed out that as part of the Hyderabad Traffic Integrated Management System, pedestrian signals at important junctions will facilitate safe crossing of roads. While this is so, a slew of projects to help pedestrians are either incomplete or unused.
The skywalk project at the Secunderabad railway station is still pending. The skywalk between Rathifile bus station and the Secunderabad railway station was proposed to decrease congestion; the stretch sees 6,041 pedestrian movements per hour, one of the highest in the cities.
Suresh Raju of the Vaada Foundation, an organisation working for road safety emphasised on the need for more zebra crossings. “A pedestrian is supposed to cross only on the zebra crossing, but there must be walkable footpaths connecting to the crossing at least at every 500-800 metres. Motorists should respect pedestrians and vice versa.”
The pelican crossing pilot project with a first-of-its-kind system traffic control on the 13-km stretch from Sarojini Devi Eye Hospital in Mehdipatnam to Hitec City is waiting for GHMC clearance. A pilot project was installed opposite the Care Hospital in Banjara Hills as well.
“Once a group of people gather at a junction, the sensor will control the traffic flow. It will give 10 seconds to pedestrians to cross the road. The sensors are ready, but the GHMC has to give us permission to start running it,” said Suresh Raju.
GHMC commissioner Somesh Kumar said, “Such equipment is new to Indian roads and sensibilities. We need to learn about the procedures, how is it suitable, create awareness about it among the public. Different junctions have different traffic movement, so the way of crossing is different. After spending so much on it, we want to be sure of its viability.”
