‘Need to address accessibility issues, curb stopping violations for road safety’
   Date :18-Feb-2020

Need to address accessibi
There are several factors that must be considered while discussing design and engineering interventions to improve pedestrian safety on road and designing safer streets. Some of these factors were pointed out by the participants of training workshop on ‘Creating Cities Safer by Design’ on Monday.
 
After conducting a field visit and recording observations relating to road stretches from Rahate Colony Square to Lokmat Square to Central Bazar Road and Tuli Imperial in Ramdaspeth, the participants of the workshop made their presentations in groups. Though the groups had different approaches to the issues concerning road safety, there were some common observations for the above-mentioned parts of the city.
 
The participants included officials from Nagpur Smart and Sustainable City Development Corporation Limited (NSSCDCL), Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC), Nagpur Improvement Trust (NIT), Maha Metro, Public Works Department (PWD), Regional Transport Office (RTO), Transport undertaking, Traffic Police, as well as faculty and students from Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, Smt Manoramabai Mundle College of Architecture, and IDEAS School of Architecture etc.
 
The most common observation was ‘accessibility issues’. According to the participants, at many places along the road, accessibility to footpaths was blocked either because of haphazard parking, lack of proper ramps, broken/damaged footpaths, encroachments on footpaths, and even the interruption in footpath stretches. Further, they pointed out that there were stopping violations. Many vehicle riders/drivers crossed the stop-line at traffic signals, thereby creating issues relating to safety on roads and causing inconvenience to the pedestrians crossing the roads.
 
With the help of photographs of various spots, the participants also pointed out that many footpaths were occupied by two-wheeler parking. As a result of such parking on footpaths, encroachments, inadequate space, pedestrians had to walk on roads instead of using footpaths. At some places, the footpaths and ramps were in broken or damaged condition, creating issues regarding movement of wheelchair-bound persons. Besides, there was no transition space for wheelchair-bound persons while crossing the road. Though there were several hospitals and commercial establishments in the area, the participants observed, inadequate availability of parking space in the premises of these establishments created some unpleasant situations.
 
The other issues flagged off by the participants included non-working traffic signals, poor maintenance of space under the flyover, maintenance works being carried out without proper safety measures. They also underlined the need for creative and better utilisation of space occupied by bat-makers presently along the stretch from Rahate Colony Square to Lokmat Square. Also, they stressed upon the need for creating traffic islands so that people crossing the roads could have a space to stop while crossing the road.
 
Urban Mass Transit Company Limited (UMTC) had organised the workshop in collaboration with NSSCDCL, NMC under Mobilise Your City (MYC) initiative. According to the MYC team, the observations of the participants are to be compiled in next few days and a submission would be made to the authorities concerned so that engineering and design interventions could be discussed with specific inputs.