Pramesh S Jain & Yogesh K Porwar
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irst-of-its-kind capacity-building workshop conducted in the city today, 45 traffic police officials attended a workshop on road safety that focused on creating safer,inclusive and accessible streets for all.
The ‘Creating Safer Streets for all in Bengaluru’ workshop saw a welcome address by Dr BR Ravikanthe Gowda,IPS,Joint Commissioner of Police,Bengaluru Traffic Police (BTP) and an introductory session by Pawan Mulukutla, Program Director Integrated Transport,Electric Mobility and Hydrogen at the World
Resources Institute India (WRI India).
It included a two-hour capacity-building session followed by a walking audit by officials.All participants walked the 500-meter stretch from the workshop venue (Traffic Training Institute) to Hegde Nagar Junction to analyze the junction, based on the training received,and suggest recommendations.
Some observations that were made included the need for providing pedestrian infrastructure such as safe waiting spaces or refuge islands for pedestrians to halt,clear and visible road markings and continuous footpaths.
Design interventions suggested included lane alignment and reclaiming unused space on roads to improve traffic flow for all road users.
The teams went on to present their suggestions to a jury comprising of S Savita,DCP North (Traffic),Mr. M Babu,Dy.Superintendent of Police, KSRSA and Priyanka Sulkhlan,Senior Manager,Integrated Transport,WRI India.
Speaking at the workshop, Dr Gowda said,The Bengaluru traffic police plays a crucial role in ensuring safety on-ground and this practical knowledge will help plan and execute safer roads.
This initiative by BTP and WRI India will further improve in understanding road safety issues which will hopefully result in safer roads.”
Conducted under the Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety (BIGRS),the workshop is the first of multiple capacity building sessions that will aid agencies in undertaking road safety audits,collecting on-ground data,and providing analytical solutions and feedback for improving road safety in Bengaluru.
Mr Mulukutla said,“Street design plays a crucial role in improving both, road safety and streamlining traffic.
These minimal interventions can help save lives in the city and make daily commute a smoother experience for citizens.
The hands-on exercise undertaken at the workshop helped the police put these theoretical ideas into practice and will also help them with better traffic management in the future.”
Ms Sulkhlan said,The traffic police know the nerve of a city given their amazing on-ground experience.
The suggestions they presented to the jury after visiting the Hedge Nagar junction today were on-point,where they looked at making the junction safer for both pedestrians and motorists,by providing the right infrastructure.”
The Hedge Nagar junction,close to the traffic training institute where the session was undertaken,is a four-arm intersection connecting to the Thanisandra main road. It sees heavy pedestrian footfall daily.
As per WRI India analyses (based on first information reports),road traffic crashes claimed 2,739 lives in Bengaluru between 2017 and 2020, of which 907 were pedestrians.
More than 500 pedestrians have lost their lives while merely trying to cross a road in the city between 2017-2020.
