Signs of our time

Signs of our time

Anil Kumar Sastry and Govind D. Belgaumkar
The Hindu

Road signs are taken seriously in developed countries. There is no sign of us reaching there in the near future

BANGALORE: There is no dearth of guidelines and specifications on the kind of precautions to be taken to ensure that night driving is safe. But we have enough lacunae in their implementation.

The Indian Roads Congress (IRC), the premier technical body of highway engineers in the country, which is a wing of the Ministry of Surface Transport, does enjoy legal status and its recommendations are binding on different agencies building roads in the country. But lack of supervision over the way the roads and humps are built has led to the recommendations being sidestepped, according to traffic expert C.E.G. Justo. He and N. Arvind of Span Consultants, a traffic engineering firm, also blame human tendency of showing scant regard to rules for night accidents.

While Prof. Justo points out that IRC insists on road humps being uniform in shape and design all over, it was mandatory to give advance indications to people about their placement. Road humps should be usually only on narrow roads not on arterial roads. “But every time there is an accident, police get a contractor and erect one under pressure from local people.”

Signs and road humps should either be lit or equipped with reflective material to make them more visible during nights.

Code IRC 67 – 1977 extensively deals with erection of road signs, classifying them three category — mandatory/ regulatory, cautionary/ warning and information signs.

Mandatory signs inform road users of certain laws to provide safety and smooth flow of traffic. Cautionary signs warn road users the existence of certain hazardous condition either on the road or adjacent to the road. Information signs provide information regarding destination, location of utilities and the like.

Warning signs should be in triangular shape with apex pointing towards the top and painted with red border and black symbols on white background. They should be located 50 metres before the point of hazard in urban areas.
Implementation

A senior police officer associated with traffic management in the city, who wished to remain anonymous, said it was difficult to implement all the IRC recommendations saying the roads needed to be of proper width. “However, we are trying to minimise the traffic hazards in the night.”

Why are IRC recommendations not implemented in spirit? In advanced countries, people sue the agencies and claim huge compensation for injury or deaths on roads, Prof. Justo says. This was not possible in India because justice delivery is slow, he points out.

On the other hand, people will have to take part of the blame. Mr. Arvind adds: “We Bangaloreans love to break the law. Once we do not see a traffic cop’s cap (especially during nights), we tend to violate all traffic rules,” he noted.