Hyderabad: Pedestrians will be the worst hit with GHMC and the traffic police adding another 200 free left turns to the 150 that are already in place. Pedestrians lack zebra crossings — and driver compliance — and footpaths. Continuous traffic from free left turns will leave no time for pedestrians to cross the roads.
Traffic and transport experts said foreign countries have pelican signals at junctions to facilitate pedestrians, apart from a display of mutual respect between pedestrians and motorists.
In India, pedestrians just start crossing the road expecting the vehicles to stop, said Engineering Staff College of India former director-general Dr Nagabhushan Rao.
Prof. P.R. Bhanu Murthy of JNTU said that in Hyderabad too, pelican signals and other pedestrian facilities should be introduced along with free left turns as foot over bridges and underpasses have not been popular with pedestrians.
Both Dr Rao and Prof. Murthy said GHMC and traffic police can build in mechanisms in the signalling systems to provide pedestrian with time to cross the roads. Sensor-based technologies are available which even read the number of pedestrians at a signal.
