The city traffic police has stepped up efforts to seal unscientific U-turns and introduced many other measures to streamline traffic flow and to lessen number of accidents, on the basis of a study done at accident-prone spots.
“We sealed or modified 31unscientific U-turns and other accident-prone road infrastructure during the past year. Three of them were done on the arterial S.A. Road during the past few days. Removal of these traffic bottlenecks has considerably eased traffic movement,” said Francis Shelby, Asst. Commissioner of Police (ACP) of City Traffic Police-East. Two highly-accident-prone U-turns — in front of Toc H School Road and a smaller one beneath Kochi Metro’s Elamkulam station — were sealed using steel barricades, while one facing the old market in Kadavanthra was temporarily sealed using traffic cones. These turns were totally unnecessary, since U-turns were there less than 100 m from them on either side, he said. The police also installed over two km of steel barricades on Civil Line Road, mainly at Palarivattom and Vazhakkala, to prevent wanton crossings by motorists and pedestrians.
“Moreover, rule enforcement was toughened to segregate traffic moving in different lines, in order to usher in adherence to lane discipline, especially during peak hours. All such measures were possible due to coordinated efforts spearheaded by City Police Commissioner Vijay Sakhare and DCP (Traffic, Law and Order) G. Poonkuzhali. The officers also inspected many such sites and issued directions on how to surmount traffic bottlenecks,” Mr. Shelby said.
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On their part, traffic police personnel readied booklets that detailed issues at different accident-prone spots. Remedial measures followed. The police are also pursuing with PWD, Kochi Corporation, and NHAI issues like narrow bell-mouth at junctions which prevent free-left turns. “We also found that sealing right turn at a few junctions, following which vehicles wanting to cross them took U-turn further ahead considerably helped speed up traffic at the junctions,” police sources said.