The Salem City Police on Saturday conducted trials of auditory traffic signals to alert pedestrians at crossings in the Collectorate Junction here.
City Police Commissioner T. Senthil Kumar, Deputy Police Commissioner (Crime and Traffic) S. Senthil and other senior police officials inspected the trials at the junction. The city police is planning to install speakers at major junctions in its limits to ensure safe pedestrian crossings for public, especially for visually-challenged individuals.
Mr. Senthil said, “initially, 33 speakers will be installed at major junctions here, wherever there are pedestrian crossings. The speakers will be synced to the traffic lights and a pre-recorded voice will alert pedestrians for a stipulated time whether its safe to cross the road now or otherwise.” Police officials said that when the red light is active, the speaker would announce that its safe to cross the road for pedestrians, when its green, the speaker would announce pedestrian to stop.
A private firm, Telescopic Signals and Ads has been given the contract to install the devices.
Mr. Senthil Kumar said that trials are being conducted to check what time would be required for pedestrians to cross the stretch, especially for visually-challenged persons.
“We will be conducting trials with visually-challenged persons as well to check the time required by them. Based on that, timings of signals stopping would be altered and other necessary changes in traffic pattern would be made,” he said.
