Underpasses proposed for pedestrians

Underpasses proposed for pedestrians

M. Raghuram

The plan is to have them at busy intersections in the city

Underpasses ensure total pedestrian safety

‘They can be constructed without disturbing regular traffic’

— Photo: K. Gopinathan

Dodging vehicles: Heavy traffic makes it difficult for pedestrians to cross the roads in Bangalore.

BANGALORE: With the city’s traffic growing at an alarming rate (approximately 1,500 new vehicles of all classes enter the roads each day), Bangalore is increasingly becoming pedestrian-unfriendly.

If the initiative taken by the Bangalore City Traffic police is implemented, a day will soon dawn when pedestrians will walk through underpasses at every traffic intersection, ensuring their safety.

Speaking to The Hindu, Additional Police Commissioner (Traffic) K.C. Ramamurthy said underpasses would enable total pedestrian safety as well as saving time for vehicles at busy traffic intersections. Emerging out of the first meeting to discuss the issue with police officials on Wednesday, Mr. Ramamurthy said the Traffic police and officials of the Bruhat Bangalore Mahangara Palike (BBMP) would have a joint meeting on improving pedestrian safety in the city.

Mr. Ramamurthy said the police was yet to determine where underpasses will be required. Pedestrian underpasses can be constructed with modern technology to ensure that traffic is not disturbed even for a day.

He said the police had studied busy intersections like the Thimmiah Circle, K.R. Circle, Mysore Bank Circle, K.G. Road intersection, Anil Kumble Circle, Queen’s Circle, Cash Pharmacy (opposite Devata Plaza), Trinity Circle and Town Hall Circle, which had traffic overflow. Though these areas do not have much pedestrian traffic, 20 seconds are allotted for people to cross. In those seconds, traffic piles up so much that even the preceding intersection is blocked. The problem is more pronounced during peak hours, Mr. Ramamurthy said.

In such situations, motorists get impatient and tend to jump the red signal if there is no one crossing the road. They do not understand the importance of the 20-second pedestrian crossing time. If there is even one person crossing at that point of time, the traffic has to wait.

All it requires is for one impatient driver to jump the signal to place the pedestrian at great risk, Mr. Ramamurthy said. BBMP sources said the proposal for underpasses had been pending for a while. This included designs with stairs and ramps for the disabled. But no decision had been taken on it as yet, they said.