For the last few months, the traffic signals in the city have started functioning. But lack of uniformity in the signal directions is leaving road users, especially those who travel to the city from other States or districts, in a fix.
There is difference in functioning pattern of signals at various junctions on the same road. For instance, signals on Avinashi Road.
Be it at Lakshmi Mills junction or Anna Statue junction, the signal turns green uniformly for vehicles going straight and turning right. At the GKNM Junction, the light turns green first for vehicles going straight, while it is still red for those who want to take the right.
At Anna Statue, the signal turns green for the vehicles going straight and those turning right. But the timing for those turning right is less compared to those going straight.
However, the signal at LIC Junction is almost the same as GKNM Junction. It turns green for vehicles going straight from LIC Junction to the Avinashi Road Flyover. But vehicles that have to take the right have to wait and they block a major portion of the road, making it difficult for those going straight.
“A car blocked the first lane (the extreme right) and two buses blocked the two other lanes. I could not go straight despite the light turning green,” says R. Vignesh Karthik, a motorist. Another road user Immanuel Anand from Kancheepuram says that signals in the city are confusing.
He feels it would be better for people from other places if uniformity in the pattern of signals was maintained.
Secretary of Coimbatore Consumer Cause K. Kathirmathiyon expressed the need for uniformity at traffic signals to avoid confusions and even accidents.
The police should also take appropriate action to bring about lane discipline – to ensure that persons following the signals were not affected, he said.
“Police manning the signals should not be mere spectators of such violations,” he said and added that the above said issues would be discussed in detail at the district-level road safety committee meeting to be chaired by the District Collector next week.
City Police Commissioner A. Amalraj said that traffic is regulated at signals based on the vehicle movement at the individual junctions.
He said that the traffic police would conduct a study on possibility of regulating traffic at all traffic signals in the city in a uniform pattern.
