Pelican signals to facilitate pedestrians to cross roads safely

First thing, I would like to say that ‘Everyone is a pedestrian because everyone does walk as part of their means of getting around, no matter which mode of transportation they happen to be engaging in’.

In today’s world, we all have to be somewhere at specific times, therefore the road traffic is growing rapidly on regular basis and causing increase in fatal road accidents. So to face up, Traffic Signals are introduced as the solution to all accidents and traffic control.

Most of times it happened to see that Pedestrians are forced to wait endlessly at busy junction to cross the road and they take the risk to cross the road and ‘yes’ that risk can convert into an accident and sometimes it happens. But no worry, a tool called “Pelican Signal” is here to help us to overcome these situations. Though the Pelican Signals have been installed at various crossings in Delhi a little more than 3 years now, but public is yet to know that such a concept exits.

Pelican (Pedestrian Light Controlled Crossing) signal is a definitive light controlled crossing signal that features a set of traffic lights (Green Man & Red Man Signal) with a push button, operated by pedestrian for crossing. The controls to operate the light signals are on the pedestrian’s corner while the light signal for crossing is on the other side of the road. So if 4/2 wheelers are taking too much time at the signal, the pedestrians can press the button at the signal to cross the lane. When you want to cross, push the button to activate Pelican and if, Red Man signal appear on the other side of the road, do not cross and wait for the Green Man Signal to appear, but if, green signal begins to flash then you should not cross if you have already started you should have time to finish crossing safely. At some places audible Pelican with warning sounds are installed for visually impaired to safely cross the road without assistance.

So obviously, it would reduce the ‘wait time’ that pedestrian have to spare for crossing the road and once people will know the usage of Pelican there will be no question of chaos or accidents. We just need to spread awareness about it.

The Pelican Signals have been installed at more than 46 crossings in Delhi including Shanti Van, India Gate and Ashram Chowk. And I think, it is very important step taken by Delhi Traffic Police as the system had considerably reduced the accident toll of pedestrians in countries like US and UK among others.

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Electronic Parking Meter should be introduced in all Parking Lots by Delhi agencies

Today, Our Capital is reeling under a severe parking crisis at parking lots because parking in Delhi is often a pain at varied places like Hotels, Metro Stations, Shopping malls, government offices, because of the exponential growth in number of automobiles at unbearable rate for the corresponding space to park them at ease. In fact today MCD has only 143 surface parking sites which can accommodate approx 15,000 cars as against 60 lakh registered vehicles in Delhi. There can't be any ban on buying cars but 'Yes' there is always a thing called 'Management' which is made for and comes out for rescue to manage any messed chaotic system.

Parking is not about creating more space but optimizing its usage. The strategy behind parking is to manage the total available space and implement time limits for parked vehicles. How many times you people said that we don't want to go for shopping and it is just because there is no parking space in parking lots. There is no space because of lack of well managed system. "Electronic Parking Meter" can be a great tool in managing parking lots.

An electronic parking meter is a device used to collect money against parking a vehicle in a specific place for a limited time. A timer is set in the meter and display on the meter displays the remaining time. This helps people to move their cars within the allotted time. The credit card or smart card swiping option cuts the wait for the parking slip. When implemented properly it can support identification of unoccupied space and vehicles can be guided towards it. Through this, Govt. can also charge people who park their cars on public space on a street. It reduces the requirement of manpower for managing parking. Apart from it, people go on vacation and works around 8 hours per day only, so these issues will obviously be overcome by Parking meters so it also reduce the personnel cost.

Authority concerned Delhi Urban Mass Transit Authority (DUMTA) can consider proposing these meters for the welfare of traffic society and this will lead the current parking system to a more orderly and manageable parking system. Services like this will surely be another milestone in an aware developing country like ours.

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3 Es of road safety Engineering, Education and Enforcement

How many people of us have experienced the fatal experience of getting almost into an accident and the very next moment thanked god by closing eyes for a sec for saving us from getting into a catastrophe? How come these situations happen to exist in our life? Reason might be the error on the part of us or other road users. No matter what, the incident still pamper n lingers our mind later when we relax at home or when we have nothing else to think about but only highlighting incidents of the day. And we assure ourselves not to get into the situation again if possible at par.


But as they say "life doesn't always give you second chance". It's good to learn from mistakes, but it can't be every time the reason or excuse for learning, to be a decent player on the road. Today there is a need to focus on few things about technical aspects of road safety, a need to revisit 3 Es of Road Safety which is an acronym for three major aspects Engineering, Education and Enforcement.

It is observed everyday a lot of people get injured and killed because of road accidents. And these accidents occur mainly due to pesky road conditions.
Engineering
Today we have got modern equipment, facilities and lot of other engineering marvels to make our lives a lot safer on the road. But there is always, lot more left to do to keep up with the standards or norms of technical road aspects. For instance in practical consideration, wider markings consistently produce improvements in lane keeping discipline on highways. We need to work on the concept of forgiving roads. It is the concept which ensures minimum danger to a road user even in event of accident. A lot needs to be reconsidered and improved upon.

Education
Another aspect for road safety is to educate people about the best practices, guidelines, regulations. Because one would follow a guideline or law only if he knows that guideline or the law. Press and media can help us in this regard. Documentaries, films, booklets and posters apart from other online and offline mediums can be made use of to improve awareness. It is imparted through the exploitation of the Do's & Don'ts from the time a person gets in touch with the road arena. In Delhi; Delhi Urban Mass Transit Authority (DUMTA) is the nodal authority to tackle the capital's chaotic traffic. DUTMA and other agencies like Delhi Traffic Police should take up the responsibility for the awareness programs. And moreover Campaign presentations and Publicity & radio Advertising will do even better.

Enforcement
Higher authorities, traffic wardens and police are responsible for the system to come in force. Police enforces and law courts are responsible for penalizing the person not making upto the rules criteria and so allotted with traffic chalans or penalty and fines to be payable, which acts as a learning lesson for offender for future awareness. Enforcements are generally implemented in the formal ways through "Targeting Crash risk areas", "Extra Patrols on Roads", "Speed Cameras" and much other which may include Road fatalities Ambulance, Special Police duties among others. The stricter we implement the laws the safer we will make the roads. No corruption should be allowed for the enforcing authority because there is simply no scope of it. Read more!