Crossing Roads In Delhi

What Calculation It Takes To Cross The Road Near Our Markets

It is 9.00 a.m. and I just reached home after a nerve shattering experience of crossing the main road in CR Park. When in school ,we were taught “How to cross the road, safely”: (1)First look right- if no vehicle then Look left- If no vehicle, then cross the road  OR (2) Wait for the traffic light to turn red so that all vehicles stop, then cross the road.

However, as per my recent experiences, I believe that we need to put down fresh guidelines as below :-

·      Look Right- calculate the exact time of arrival of the traffic from you right and left 

·      Sharpen your eye-leg co-ordination,

·      Say a short prayer and sprint to the other side.

You also, need a fair bit of luck because of unpredictability of the men behind the wheels. Red Lights are of little help as (1)Either they do not work OR(2)These are set in such a way that there is always a traffic flow on the road, either from front or back or from the sides and at no point can a pedestrian cross the road without bothering about oncoming traffic.

So what is the way out? As a layman I can think of various possibilities including overhead/underground crossings but I believe the best solution is to install pedestrian operated red lights.

Most people who travel to Europe will be familiar with these lights. These lights come with push buttons where the pedestrian pushes a button before crossing the road, after 5/10 minutes the lights turn red and pedestrians get about a minute to cross the road. After this the lights automatically turn green till, someone else presses the button again.

These Traffic lights are probably slightly more expensive than our run of the mill traffic lights but with huge budgets allocated to the councilors/MLA’s/MP’s, it is high time that we start asking them to install these lights to facilitate pedestrians crossing busy/unruly roads.

We (pedestrians) need to leverage the oncoming municipal elections and put our foot down and vote for those who can give us back the “right to safely cross the road” in CR Park.

By Arunendu Roy (arunendu.roy@rediffmail.com)

#chittaranjanpark  #Delhi #SouthDelhi  #brokenroads