Hyderabad: More than one in three accidents on the city roads involves pedestrians. The city has few footpaths, many of these are overtaken by hawkers and shopkeepers. As a result, people are forced to walk on the roads, and they end up getting hit by vehicles.
Besides, jaywalking is a common phenomenon on the city roads as pedestrians carelessly cross the roads after ‘signalling’ oncoming vehicles to stop.
Of the 1,186 accidents that have occurred on the city’s roads this year till June 30, 444 involved pedestrians. As the data, 38 per cent of accidents involve pedestrians, and 50 per cent involve two wheelers.
Traffic expert S. Adishankar says, “No road in the city is safe for pedestrians. No road has a usable footpath to an extent of even 100 metres. Most footpaths have been encroached upon and the rest have been turned into parking spots for shops and showrooms. There is no safe place to cross, and pedestrian signals are not properly designed and timed.”
He said roads should primarily be designed for pedestrians and the space that is left should be allocated to vehicles. “Pedestrians are not a priority for the government, due to which they are vulnerable to accidents,” he says.
Hyderabad traffic DCP A.V. Ranganath says, “We are coming up with measures such as pelican signals and foot overbridges. We have introduced a few of these in Mehdi-patnam, Punja-gutta, Necklace Road and Film Nagar.”
Mr A.R. Srinivas, Cyberabad traffic DCP said, “Pedestrians account for a large number of victims because we give them least priority in terms of the development of infrastructure such as pavements.”
