Pedestrians see the light

Pedestrians see the light
AKANKSHA MEHROTRA AND RAJIV KALKOD
DC | BENGALURU


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Pelican lightsinstalled on Bellary Road has proved to be a boon for pedestrians.
Though such lights at nearly 10 signals including Infantry Road and Cunningham Road have not really helped, traffic officials think it will be a big help on Bellary Road where it was installed around 20 days ago and been functional from the past three days.

About four or five traffic policemen man the traffic here and help pedestrians cross the road.

However, many commuters and pedestrians are not aware of the new system. The cops say they have not started imposing a fine on vehicles that fail to follow the system as they are unaware of it.

“People will take sometime to adapt to the lights as it is a highway and commuters are not in the habit of halting on this road. However, more cops are deployed here until people get used to the system. Even if commuters sometimes don’t follow the Pelican lights, we don’t impose a fine on them as they still need time to get used to the system,” traffic officials at the spot told Deccan Chronicle.

“Once people get used to the system, we will decrease the number of cops deployed there and pedestrians will have to use the Pelican light system on their own,” he added.

The lights function on solar energy function till 11 pm. Later, the light is put on Orange mode and blinks to make commuters aware of the zebra crossing there.

Expressing confidence in the new system, additional commissioner of police (Traffic and security) Praveen Sood, said more home guards will be deployed to assist pedestrians. “Currently, there are 13 pelican lights in the city.

Sadly, public awareness is not up to what was expected. So we deploy home guards to help pedestrians,” he said. Mr Sood stated that the pelican lights on Infantry and Cunningham roads have been switched on the blink mode.

“Many VIP’s visit the police commissioner’s office on Infantry Road. So, a traffic policeman has been deployed to control the traffic. As for the pelican light opposite Wockhardt Hospital in Cunningham Road, lack of public cooperation forced us to switch it on blink mode,” Mr Sood said.

Mr Sood expressed confidence that the accident rates will come down at least by 15 per cent now.

“Pedestrian safety is our prime agenda. We are concentrating on busy roads like Old Madras Road and Bellary Road,” he added.