Over 70% of the road signage, traffic signals and road markings in the city do not follow the prescribed norms, a study by the Institute of Road Traffic Education (IRTE) has revealed.
Study results
The study, which was released on Wednesday by IRTE president Rohit Baluja, showed that of 1,514 road signage that were examined across 14 major stretches in Delhi, 1,098 did not meet the standards prescribed by the Indian Road Congress (IRC).
Traffic experts including K.K. Kapila, the International Road Federation (IRF) president; Sewa Ram, the Professor of Transport Planning at the School of Planning and Architecture (SPA); and S.K. Nirmal of the IRC also participated in the discussion.
Regulatory signage
It was also revealed that around 93% of regulatory signage — which are meant to be mandatorily followed — were found to be violating the prescribed standards of size, installation and shape.
“The government is on its way to implement the new Motor Vehicle Act, where penalties for violations will be stricter. However, at present the road environment is not conducive to what the law says,” Dr. Baluja said.
Traffic violations
He said the problems with the road signs, traffic signals and road markings were leading to thousands of traffic violations for no fault of the road users.
Sample this: at Prithviraj Road-Tughlaq Road crossing, where former Union Minister Gopinath Munde died in an accident in 2014, the traffic signal suddenly turns red without giving ample time to vehicles to cross over. Ideally, it is mandatory to have an amber light before the signal turns red, which should be set a few seconds more that the average time taken to cross over.
Apart from these, problems were also found with the placement, design and colours of the signage. “For example, blue coloured signage are used for compulsory messages and the red ones are prohibitory signs. However, we often see that prohibitory signs are cased in blue or yellow boards as if they are some beautification objects,” Dr. Baluja said.
Fines to go up
As per the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, 2016, the punishment for jumping a traffic signal will increase from ₹100 to ₹1,000 and/or imprisonment of up to six months. This, however, may be unfair when most violations happen because of a fault in road design and engineering. Presenting some startling figures, Dr. Baluja said Delhi ranks higher than 122 countries in road death figures. He said, of 14.60 crore violations reported in 2015, an estimated 3.40 crore were caused due to road engineering faults.
Safety audits
Dr. Ram said at least 40% of accidents can be prevented with proper road engineering and design. “There is need for proper road engineering centres and safety audits need to be made mandatory before any design project is cleared. Technology is also an important aspect we need to work on,” Dr. Ram said.