Road dividers or dubious levellers ?

Road dividers or dubious levellers ?
Deccan Herald

Motorists in Bangalore may have mastered the skill of riding on potholed roads. But they are now facing much more serious challenge on the City’s roads in the form of haphazard, uneven and unscientific road dividers.


Motorists in Bangalore may have mastered the skill of riding on potholed roads. But they are now facing much more serious challenge on the City’s roads in the form of haphazard, uneven and unscientific road dividers.

Almost every motorist has her/his own bad experience to share about killer road dividers and majority of them would have escaped major accidents by a whisker, especially during evening hours. And there are many cases of loss of lives or serious injury.

Sample this. A four-wheeler passing through the narrow Victoria Road on Tuesday night bumped into concrete blocks laid on the middle of the road as dividers. These concrete blocks can hardly be seen in the night. Though the driver was not hurt, the vehicle was badly damaged.


In another incident, a two-wheeler rider had a miraculous escape on Residency Road on Wednesday when he hit a haphazardly lying stone slab (which previously served as road divider and now left unwanted).

Such incidents have become common of late on the City roads.

These and many such incidents came to light when Deccan Herald went round the city surveying the condition of road dividers on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Dividers all!

From rusty metal barricades to metal grills, old street light poles, stone slabs, concrete blocks... all kinds of junk form road dividers. While broken metal barricades and light poles are used as dividers on Hosur Road, on Magadi Road (near Binny Mills), sharp-edged stone slabs (that were previously used for footpath) make for road dividers. There are places where broken metal pieces could be seen dangerously jutting out on the road.

Road dividers menace is not confined to places where there is a two-way traffic.

Motorists are facing the same problem on one-way roads (which previously had two-way traffic) also, as there is either a huge hump or a pit.

Groping in the dark?

On roads where dedicated lanes for autorickshaws were introduced recently, big barricades have been put up as indicators. But one can hardly make out their presence in the dark.

OFFICIALS SPEAK

There is a need for better road dividers in the City. But this does not mean that existing ones in the city are the worst. Steps are being taken to install good road dividers.

Harsh Gupta

BMP Joint Commissioner (Works)



True, road dividers on many roads have to be put up properly without causing any inconvenience to motorists. It is the responsibility of BMP to ensure it, in consultation with traffic police.On many roads temporary centre median are put up and the work is on to erect proper dividers.

M A Saleem

Deputy Commissioner of Police (traffic)