>>India ranked first in the number of road crash deaths across the 199 countries reported in world statistics in 2018
>>India accounts for almost 11% of the crash-related deaths in the world
>>According to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways Report, 2019, road crashes killed almost 1.51 lakh people annually in India
With an aim to address the innumerable and unaddressed aspects related to road safety and to deepen awareness around the same, United Way Mumbai has partnered with the Traffic Control Branch, Mumbai Police, Motor Vehicle Department, Govt of Maharashtra, and Indian Institute of Bombay to conduct a speed observation study titled ‘Slow Down’.
Project Slow Down advocates and encourages the need to respect speed limits on city roads and aims to enhance road safety with a focus on public mobility, and speed management policies.
Project Slow Down was designed around 3 key objectives:
1: To study and identify the causal factors of speeding at the select blackspots
2: To recommend speed calming measures in order to support stricter enforcement of speed limits at these blackspots
3: To provide to the Mumbai Traffic Police, evidence of instances of overspeeding and the need for speed calming intervention recommendations to plan and implement suitable enforcement measures
Speaking on the launch, Pravin Padwal IAS, Jt. Commissioner of Police, Traffic, Mumbai said, “I appreciate the efforts taken by the team from United Way Mumbai as part of the Slow Down project, and I am confident that, the Speed Observation Study Report will prove to be a useful tool for Mumbai Traffic Police in enforcing stricter speed management policies at the identified blackspots. We are also keen to leverage the active citizen members of the Road Safety Advocacy Clubs formed by United Way Mumbai during this project. Our officials will continue to work hand-in-hand with these volunteers for improving the road safety in their neighbourhoods.”
Jitendra Patil, Addl. Transport Commissioner, Govt. of Maharashtra further added, “While the actual scope of the study was limited to certain spots in Mumbai city, the methodology and approach adopted is certainly scalable and can be replicated at the larger level across the state of Maharashtra for improving the speed management efforts of MVD. I am confident that we can leverage the collaboration with United Way Mumbai for taking the learnings from this study to compliment the state level efforts for speed management.”
David Cliff, CEO, Global Road Safety Partnership (Geneva) added, “This report is the outcome of a Speed Survey study undertaken by United Way Mumbai as part of their advocacy efforts to improve road safety in India and in particular, to support the implementation of the Motor Vehicle Amendment Act 2019, especially as it relates to managing speed. A range of public policy recommendations for interventions to address speeding as a key multi-dimensional risk factor are presented in the report. We at GRSP commend the efforts of United Way Mumbai in undertaking this work to support safer speeds to enhance the lives of all those who use the roads in Mumbai.”
“United Way Mumbai, through the “Slow Down” project, has taken an evidence-based approach towards road safety interventions. Along with scientific assessments, we have leveraged our expertise in community mobilisation to ensure a sense of ownership among local stakeholders towards road safety. We hope this scientific and participatory approach also guides the development of the speed management policy at the state and national levels. We are confident that the report and recommendations will be helpful for the Mumbai Traffic Police in their endeavour to stricter enforcement of speed control measures across Mumbai.” concluded George Aikara, CEO of United Way Mumbai.
Key highlights of Project Slow Down
Following are the common observations
Enforcement:
• Only 7 spots out of 20 spots posted speed limits
• Critical road signages are missing such as; ‘Speed limit’, ‘Crash prone spot’ signs and ‘merging section ahead’ at 11 locations and were inappropriately placed at 2 locations
• Side friction observed due to the illegal road side parking at 7 locations
• Pedestrians walking on the carriageway instead of the footpaths at 7 locations (encroached footpaths)
Engineering:
• Road /lane markings were absent or faded at 17 locations
• Poor visibility at night was observed at 3 locations
• Inadequate road signs were observed at 11 locations
• Potential conflict points observed at merging sections at 6 locations
• Good road conditions coupled with the straight stretch results in over speeding of the vehicles
Following are the common recommendations
Enforcement:
• Traffic wardens can be deployed for regulating the traffic during the peak hours
• Vendor encroachment should be controlled on the road to avoid side friction
• CCTV surveillance can be used to check the culprits of rash and speeding and fines should be imposed
• Pedestrian walkway, zebra crossing markings and controlled pedestrian walk-way must be installed with advance warning signs
• “Accident prone spot” boards to be visibly installed at all the 20 locations at least 50 meters ahead of the spot and at the spot
• Adequate road signs to be installed at locations wherever observed to be missing/inadequate
• Informatory sign boards to guide and direct the road users should be installed at 100 mts. and 50 mts. interval
• Speed calming measures such as; speed humps and rumble strips to be installed wherever found to be missing
• Continuous stretch of well-maintained footpath is needed to discourage the pedestrians walking on the carriageway where the chances of conflicts are high
• Pavement distresses such as potholes, rutting (grooves) should be removed and its condition should be improved for better level of service.
• Medians should be repainted with retro-reflective paint to improve the visibility at night at certain locations wherever poor visibility at night was observed
• Need to smoothen the uneven road surface approach to flyover and to be marked properly at ascending and descending spots of flyovers
Project Slow Down is a part of United Way Mumbai’s, United for Road Safety community impact initiative. The initiative aims to support MVA implementation in the state of Maharashtra especially related to speeding and strict enforcement of speed management in Mumbai and build awareness to curb speeding mass media activities, and support the state and city authorities to better plan and implement the ‘Slow Down’ awareness campaigns.
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