Tamil Nadu: Don't turn a blind eye to auditory traffic signal glitches

Chennai: A facility aimed at helping the visually impaired and to alert motorists through voice recordings at prominent traffic signals has failed to serve its purpose. The pilot project (auditory traffic signals) for which Rs 75 lakh was allotted has glitches on technical grounds, say users.

“After repeated appeals to the government, the project was finally implemented and though it seems to be a nice move, we are unable to use it as few issues have hampered its purpose. Most importantly, only 10 seconds are given to users to cross the road, out of which two to three seconds are wasted with speeding vehicles trying to cross the signal even after the signal turns red. At least, 15-20 seconds are needed to cross the road,” said B. Prabhu, president, Annai Blind Association.

He further suggested that it would be better if the audio mentions directions as to which side the zebra crossing is. “Moreover, while installing more auditory signals in the city, priority must be given to those located outside blind associations and schools.”

S. Kalpana, visually impaired, said during peak hours, crossing the roads is still a nightmare despite the efforts made by the state differently-abled welfare department to make the roads disabled friendly.

“On a Sunday, a motorist nearly hit me as there was no coordination between the audio and the signal which turned red a few seconds after the announcement about the opening of zebra crossing was made,” she said, adding that the audio quality was poor in a few places.

Echoing her views, another visually impaired, R. Bhaskar, added that during the peak hour rush, vehicle noises are overpowering the sound of the auditory traffic signals. Also, as they are manually operated, audio in most of the signals is switched off in the afternoons.

When contacted, a senior police officer told that the project includes 150 auditory signals and necessary changes would be implemented while installing them.