A pedestrian crossing on Rajaji Marg that appears to jump out of the road could end up getting motorists to stop and allow people to walk across, the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) is hoping.
An optical illusion, the zebra crossing looks three-dimensional when viewed from a distance. An initiative of the NDMC and Delhi Street Art, the ‘3D’ crossing is an experiment aimed at grabbing the attention of motorists and making them stop.
“This is the first such ‘3D’ pedestrian crossing in Delhi. The whole idea was to make the crossing more visible to vehicle-users so that they let pedestrians cross,” said Yogesh Saini, the founder of Delhi Street Art.
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Completed over a period of 48 hours last week by a 10-member team of artists and NDMC workers, the crossing was chosen for its location.
The spot is centrally-located and not too busy, so it could be closed for the painting, said Mr. Saini.
The initiative is in the “trial” phase currently and the NDMC will assess its feedback before repeating the plan elsewhere, said NDMC chairperson Naresh Kumar.
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The civic body on Tuesday asked the Traffic Police to study the ‘3D’ crossing and look at its visibility at night.
“Once the Traffic Police is on board, we will consider having more ‘3D’ crossings. We want to grab the attention of drivers, who generally don’t respect traffic signs,” added Mr. Kumar.
The Traffic Police will “wait and watch” if the crossing ends up reducing or increasing accidents on the stretch before giving its assessment to the NDMC, a senior officer said.
Adding that the experiment had succeeded in Singapore, the officer said it would take about three to four weeks to see if it works in Delhi.
In India, crossings were painted in a similar manner in Ahmedabad by a mother-daughter duo in March in order to curb incidents at accident-prone spots.