[shreevishnu]

Originally Posted by Spinnerr

This might be counterproductive, registering an FIR now is quite a pain, if there is an incentive on recording minimum number of accidents, then getting a FIR would be an even bigger hurdle.

Agree, but if there can be cctv cameras recording most of the highway, and provide free access to footage, the enforcers will have no room but to comply with the need to file an FIR.

Also, I guess when you empower people, the results are rarely counterproductive, despite nepotism and corruption.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by nasa_hubble

If education solved everything laws would not be needed. The people follow the law when it is enforced properly and when they know they will be penalised. ... ...

Without education about driving and the law, people will not know the law. Without education about attitude, people will be arrogant and think that it only applies to others.

I believe that education is the key factor.

But no, you are right: it is not enough. Us humans can know all about what is right, and still do what is wrong. Education does not solve everything: proper law enforcement is very necessary too.

[Abhineet Singh]

Originally Posted by locusjag

Nothing works as well as punishments. I wonder if it is possible to have a roving squad of highway patrol cars and staff. They should have speed guns and should have high quality dashcams. They can document, with incontrovertible proof, instances of lane indiscipline, overspeeding and rash driving. They can also fine overloaded commercial vehicles, CVs without working brake lights/indicators.

Yes sir. We do have speed gun equipped patrol cars, but they are very few in number. They have been working on catching violators and are delivering good results.

In particular, indiscriminate parking by the highway can be discouraged via fines, enough warning can be provided that slow vehicles must stick to the left lane and that the right lane is not for traveling and is for overtaking only.

We can try running some sort of awareness campaigns at the toll booths for promoting such behaviour. Will put this in our suggestion list.

The solutions given by me, in my opinion, would eliminate a majority of accidents. The above measures would also help the administration breakeven on the costs of men and machines for the highway patrol, while normatively ensuring that road users toe the line.


Caveat: Road accidents in India are a culmination of a complex problem, a problem with too many contributing causes. Cattle, dogs, people on foot, crossing traffic, broken roads, debris on roads, the misuse of vegetation as highway medians, non-existent medians, slow CVs and 2 wheelers interspersed with fast vehicles etc. are some of the vexing and inescapable causes of accidents that continue to take away our lives.

Thanks for replying.

Originally Posted by //HB

Effective Barricading at strategic places would help ? When I say EFFECTIVE, I mean barbed wire etc. won't work. Try to imagine barricades similar to the barriers installed on Mumbai flyovers as an example.

Sir, I don's think this will be possible considering the resource constraints. Also, the highway breaks the villages in two parts, and people might not accede to such a solution.

Thanks for replying.

[Abhineet Singh]

Originally Posted by SCORPION

I checked on GMaps and the stretch that you are talking about seems to be around 120 kms long. Am I correct? Quite a long stretch, much longer than the Mumbai-Pune expressway.

Since you mentioned lack of funds and other issues, barricading the entire stretch does not make sense.

Under passes might work with regular traffic. But no cow herd/goat herd is going to herd the animals all the way to an underpass if an easy crossing is available nearby. You will need far too many of them for them to serve the purpose, and additionally, have some means of preventing people from crossing directly. Again, this involves additional expenditure apart from dealing with diggerent cogs in the govt machinery.

Same goes for pedestrian bridges. No Indian will climb a flight of stairs to cross a road, if there is nothing preventing him from running across the road. Even if he is standing right next to it, he will not use it. Imagine expecting him to use an over bridge a few hundred metres away! He might use it on the day of inauguration, for it's novelty. Next time he climbs the stairs will be to stick some political bills, sleep undisturbed and stuff like that. Again, need far too many bridges for this to work.

Hoardings and warning boards don't work with Indians either. They hardly pay attention to these.

You have an impeccable grasp of the situation.

In my opinion, the only way is to involve the local villagers in YOUR endeavour to make THEIR roads safer.

1. Distribute pamphlets with basic information and instructions to create awareness.

Absolutely fantastic idea sir. Will definetely do that.

2. Hold meetings with the village heads to find out what they think. Where they would like to have an underpass or a bridge. If you build them on their suggestions, tell them some responsibility lies on their shoulders to ensure the villagers use the facilities. Ask them to give you suggestions to make it safer for them. Have a contest with incentives for best suggestions and stuff like that. Make them feel part of the process.

Yes sir. Was planning on doing something along these lines.

3. Children. Children can be easily educated and they in turn propagate the information more efficiently within their homes and their neighbors. They can be easily influenced in a good way. Hold talks with audio visuals in their schools. Educate them. Have Q&A sessions. They love it. Have a drawing contest for them and ask them to draw what they feel, is a safe road. It will have a huge impact. You can even ask them to involve their parents in some related home work.

Brillinat sir. We can start by raising awareness in schools and the Anganwadi Centers. Nukkad Nataks can be organised, along with various competitions.

4. I hate to say this, but have WELL MARKED (for both day and night) speed breakers at the most vulnerable locations.

Let me look into this.

5. Improve policing if the resources are available. If not, work towards improving it. Get a couple of mobile speed gun units and make a few announcements in local newspapers that speed guns exists on that road.

Would have to scour for resources, but, will try this.

[Abhineet Singh]

Originally Posted by The Observer

Without much ado, given your constraints:

2. Please approach / welcome corporates who may be willing to fund this out of their CSR budget and work with Govt agencies. We can get practical ideas from them too

Yes, we are exploring CSR options.

3. Cattle cross the road mainly to feed and then to get back to their owners homes , can we help the cattle owners in the area you mention to establish designated feeding areas on their side of the highway itself and also enclose the grazing area so the cattle do not really move out ( cannot move out) of that zone. Dept of Animal Husbandry can help?

Most of the cattle is stray, and, as such, herding grounds are a difficult option.

Originally Posted by Zed

Will be hard to design solution without data on accident hot spots & frequent crossing points on this highway. You'll need to consider incremental steps - focus on reducing fatalities in accident prone zones and extend the focus progressively to encompass wider sections of this highway.
For accident prone areas - reducing vehicle speeds from 120 to 70 kmph can be part of the solution.

Yes, sir. I am gathering data for the concerned NH. Will share as soon as I get that.

Focusing on black spots is a good strategy and NH is already working on that. We can try to identify some more areas by talking to the villagers.

[ariesonu]

When the GT road was built in Punjab many moons ago, they also faced exactly same issue. Pls do note that at that time GT road was SINGLE road with just white painted stripes dividing it into 2-way traffic.
What was very noticeable in those days & still at many places is that a 4-5ft deep ditch, parallel to road, was dug and planted with various types of trees, especially eucalyptus trees. This also prevented stray trucks to run into houses along the roads and also helped into directing cross-traffic as people & cattle would only cross roads from non-ditch areas. For such crossing points, SLOW DOWN signs or speed breakers were built.


The ditch also helped into sudden sprinting across road, as people or cattle would be slightly exhausted after going down & then again coming up the ditch, to the shoulder of road.

OT: History states that when Sher Shah Suri built GT road, he directed that fruit trees & shrubs are planted along the road, so that travelers & animal would not go hungry.

Regards-Sonu