Tuesday, May 7, 2013

32.35% of pedestrians died in 2012

Vibhor Mohan, TNN | May 7, 2013,
CHANDIGARH: Pedestrians are not safe while walking on the city roads. And unlike other cities, chances of their being hit by vehicles are more while they are walking on or crossing roads rather than when they are at intersections and roundabouts where traffic tends to slow down.

A 'Chandigarh Road Crash Analysis' conducted by Navdeep Asija, research scholar, department of civil engineering, IIT, shows that 32.35% of those who lost their lives in road accidents in 2012 were pedestrians. But while cyclists have higher likelihood to get killed at intersections, pedestrians seem to be more vulnerable mid-block (that is, while walking on or crossing a road) due to missing footpaths and zebra crossings. As many as 44% of pedestrians died while walking on the city roads.

"It is primarily due to engineering faults such as discontinuous footpaths. But the blame is limited to enforcement agencies, like traffic police. Footpaths are missing on most of the stretches or these are not well lit to encourage people to walk around in their sector in the evening. This is against the concept of pedestrianism propounded by Le Corbusier in the concept plan for the city," said Asija. About 88% of the cyclists were involved in fatal crashes at intersections. Slow-moving vehicles, like cycle rickshaw and auto rickshaw, too were found to be more prone to accidents at intersections, says the survey report.

Urban planning department has finalized a plan to promote walking among residents. For this, it has been proposed that widening of roads at the cost of pedestrian paths be discontinued. Besides, pedestrian concept should not be disturbed for creating more parking spaces. Policies will be worked out which encourage walking habits. Chandigarh should revert back to pedestrian concept, it has been mooted .

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