COIMBATORE: Having replaced signals with roundabouts on several arterial roads in the city, police have started to focus on pedestrians who are having a difficult time in these spots due to the lack of zebra crossing.
City police recently turned off traffic signals and introduced roundabouts and U-turns at around 15 places on Avinashi Road, Mettupalayam Road, Trichy Road, Sathyamangalam Road, and Pollachi Road which resulted in congestion-free traffic.
While the arrangement has received a good response from motorists, pedestrians say they find it difficult to cross the road because of the non-stop movement of vehicles. “As vehicles move without a break, people have to wait for a long time to cross the road.
At many junctions on Avinashi Road, it is very difficult to cross the road as the vehicles are passing at high speed due to the absence of signals. The arrangement only helps motorists but not pedestrians,” said M Krishnamoorthy, a resident of Peelamedu.
Following the feedback from public, police have started to provide a time of up to 30 seconds at a few major junctions even though there are no signals Also, they planned to set up ‘Smart pedestrian crossings’ at a few places where usually people cross the roads. Smart pedestrian crossings enabled with signals will be installed using road safety fund.
They would be operated manually either by a volunteer or police personnel whenever the public wants to cross the roads. Otherwise, the road will be open for the free flow of traffic, said City Police Commissioner V Balakrishnan.
“The Tamil Nadu government provides road safety funds to the police department every year. Using this, the police will make the necessary facilities to better manage road traffic. Coimbatore police received `45 lakh as road safety fund for the year 2018-19 for setting up traffic signals. But here in the city, we have been replacing the signals at junctions with roundabouts. Therefore, we have planned to use the fund received for setting up the signal, to establish a ‘Smart Pedestrian Crossing’ for pedestrians. It will be established in a month,” said Balakrishnan.
In the first phase, it has been planned to place the smart crossing at five places, where more people cross the roads. Meanwhile, in major junctions, even if the signals were turned off like Lakshmi Mill junction on Avinashi road, the vehicle movement will stop for 30 seconds for every three minutes for pedestrian crossing, according to the police officials.