Girl’s nude pictures taken in Puri hotelThe UN’s World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims is a global observance held on the third Sunday of November every year.
This year the day is being observed on November 17 to remember those who died or were injured in road crashes. The World Health Organisation (WHO), which is the directing and coordinating authority for health within the UN system, plays a major role to promote the day.
Almost 4,000 people are killed and many hundreds of thousands injured on roads throughout the world every day. Tens of millions of people are injured or disabled every year. Children, pedestrians, cyclists and the elderly are among the most vulnerable of road users. This day focuses on both the overall scale and the individual devastation caused by road deaths and injuries and the impact upon families and communities.
The day’s theme for 2013 is “let’s have roads that are safe for all”. The theme is to encourage all road safety stakeholders to promote infrastructure that meets the needs of all users, to share knowledge and encourage research and development in safer roads and mobility.
Today, more than 50 per cent of the global population lives in cities; by 2050, that figure will have risen to 75 per cent. This mass migration to cities could result in crowded streets with air pollution, traffic accidents and congestion. A good idea for the process of developing and redeveloping cities has to start from insight into their transport infrastructure. The problem of overdependence on motorised modes of transport has resulted not just in congestion but issues that extend from unpleasant street environments right up to global concerns about accidents and congestion. Achieving sustainable patterns of transport would enable cities to function better and feel better to their occupants. Well-planned settlements avoid the need for unnecessary trips and lead to maximal use of low-carbon modes of travel such as public transport, walking and cycling.
Congestion and delays in both passenger and commercial traffic are widespread in Indian cities and indicate the seriousness of their transport problems. In the absence of an efficient public transport system, a large number of private and para-transit modes have entered into the market to meet the travel demand. Proliferation of vehicles results in congestion, delays and accidents. India loses more than 1,00,000 lives in road crashes every year.
India’s roads are a dangerous mix of high-speed cars, inadequate infrastructure, unskilled drivers and vulnerable road users. A WHO report says less than 50 per cent two-wheeler drivers in India wear helmets while only 27 per centhttp://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/images/pixel.gif car drivers wear seatbelts. It says that while 88 countries have reduced the road fatalities between 2008 and 2011, Indian roads, on the contrary, have been more deadly. India also tops the list of total number of road deaths in 2011 at 1.43 lakh. Only 28 countries have adequate laws addressing the five risk factors — speed, driving under influence, helmets, seatbelts and child restraints. India has a poor record on all these factors.
Indian cities vary considerably in terms of their population, area, urban form, topography, economic activities, income levels, growth constraints, etc. Traffic volumes and patterns are the fundamental basis for evaluating existing and future traffic conditions. At a minimum, average daily traffic volumes and heavy vehicle volumes/percentages should be collected. Certain intersections may need to be evaluated for better transportation demand management. This would change travel behaviour (how, when and where people travel) to improve transportation system efficiency. Congestion results when too many people want to drive on the same routes at the same time. TDM makes more efficient use of the roadway system. A transport system management strategy like one-way systems, improvement of signals and traffic engineering improvement measures should be introduced in cities so that the existing road capacity and road user safety are increased. Road infrastructure improvement measures like new road alignments and a provision of service roads, bypasses, ring roads, bus bays, wide medians, intersection improvements, construction of footpaths, removal of encroachments and good surface drainage should also be introduced. Besides, public awareness campaign should be part of every traffic management strategy.
(Dr Mayarani Praharaj works at the Department of Architecture, College of Engineering and Technology, Bhubaneswar)