The struggle of a pedestrian attempting to cross the roads in Hyderabad during peak hours is as chaotic as the traffic itself, if not more. To ease the woes of people in the city, the Hyderabad traffic police and the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) in a new initiative have installed LED lights on the stop line at the KBR Park signal, thus helping pedestrians to cross the road at the signal without having to worry about the approaching traffic. The KBR Park Signal is one of Hyderabad’s most crowded traffic signal points.
Under this new initiative, the LED lights on the road gleam in the same order of that of a traffic signal- red, orange and green – indicating stop, slow down and go. This comes as a part of the pilot project which aims at encouraging the commuters to stop at the signal and let pedestrians cross and also discourage them from jaywalking, especially during the night time.
Fancy fancy fancy lights come up at junction near NTR Bhavan and KBR. The lights are for the stop line, embedded on the road in a special frame which coordinate with the traffic signal and encourage people to give way to pedestrians. Cool initiative by @HYDTP and @GHMCOnline pic.twitter.com/0CrWYE2NdU
— Donita Jose (@DonitaJose) July 2, 2019
Speaking to TNM, Prasad Rao, Inspector at Banjara Hills Traffic police station, says that in the past two days there has been a significant decrease in the number of people jumping the traffic signal.
So how do the lights on the stop line work differently from the traffic signals which also perform the same function? Cops say that it’s more about tapping into the psychological effects that the lights have on the commuters.
Here's how the lights work:
“The lights are so bright that any commuter will be forced to stop as the signal turns red. Earlier, the white lines on the road didn’t serve as enough deterrent for people who thought it was okay to cross the lines and stop there. Now that the lights shine so bright, people will be forced to stop at the signal and anyone crossing the line of the LED lights will be easily identifiable by both the traffic cops and the CCTV camera,” Rao says.
The LED lights work in coordination with the traffic signals. This is the first to be implemented in Hyderabad. But similar models have been tried and tested in Chennai before, the cop says.
“The lights at the signal were installed on July 1 and if the model is found to be successful, plans are underway to install them at other crowded signals in the city as well,” Rao adds.