The average speed of vehicles on city roads has gone up by three kilometres per hour in the last two years.
According to Hyderabad Commissioner of Police Anjani Kumar, the average journey speed on the city roads had gone up to 25 kilometres per hour (kmph). The average vehicle speed in 2019 was 22 kmph and 19 kmph in 2016.
Comparing this with other metro cities like Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru, the officer said, Hyderabad emerged as the number one city where vehicle traffic speed per hour is constantly increasing year after year. This gives certain benefits like savings in fuel, engine efficiency, less fatigue and dropping pollution.
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“When compared to other cities, average speed of the vehicle is improving only in Hyderabad,” Mr. Kumar pointed out.
The roads have become comparatively easy as most of the working staff are confined to homes, use of public transport -- like Metro rail and TSRTC, and the high-end zigWheels may vroom even in the peak hours.
Further, the Commissioner said that road safety in the capital is improving, albeit slightly, going by the number of accidents (both simple and fatal).
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He said that the total number of road accidents as of December 7 has dipped to 1,657 vis-a-vis 1,843 accidents recorded in 2020. While COVID-19 lockdown slowed down traffic movement for a few months in the first half of the calendar year, the overall number of fatal road accidents have also come down when compared to previous years.
Mr. Kumar said that so far this year, as many as 237 fatal accidents took place on the city roads, while the number was 248 in 2020, and 259 in 2019.
"In 2017, the number of fatal accidents was 303, and the following year it was 294. The number is decreasing each year due to massive awareness campaigns by the traffic wing," he said.
Further explaining the reasons for 237 fatal deaths, the officer said 178 accidents took place due to over-speeding, while 13 deaths were caused due to drunk drive, 10 due to wrong side driving, and six died due to minor driving. Careless and negligent driving cases had 24 deaths this year.
The officer said that this year alone over 39 lakh bike riders were issued challans for 'No helmet or improper helmet'.
"The number was 41,000 in 2014 and 1.33 lakh in 2015," he said.
While 1.25 lakh tickets were issued to the bikers for triple rider, 75,000 tickets were issued for violation of stop line.
Hyderabad traffic police issued 76,000 challans for overspeeding/dangerous driving.
The traffic mainly runs on 3Es – Education, Engineering and Enforcement, the officer added.