Resetting Traffic Signals
About 2 crores were spent on the
installation on modern day traffic light in the city of temples. It was around
July last year that the traffic lights were installed and started. The people
of Jammu, very enthusiastically started following the traffic signals.
Moreover, it also helped in reducing the seemingly never ending traffic jams on
the busy streets of Jammu. The scenario was very much promising in providing a
normal organized flow of traffic on the daily basis. But the question here
arises, that:
“WHAT WENT WRONG”
The article today is to depict
what the common man experienced already and what it envisages. Some of the
rumors heard are that, due to the chaos occurring at various chowks/rotaries such
as Vikram Chowk, Jewel Chowk, Paloura, Vivekananda Chowk, and High Court Chowk
at Janipur, crossing near Asia Hotel etc., the traffic lights at these areas
were left blinking. After being questioned from the SSP traffic Jammu, it came
to notice that the lights were left blinking so that the ongoing sewage work by
the NBCC could be completed smoothly. Similar was the case when the
commissioner, JMC was questioned.
Well
actually, the improper functioning of traffic light not only produces more
confusion but also becomes a major cause for many road accidents.
Many
lights now-a-days can be seen with something totally different and unexpected.
A blinking green light and a red light are continuously lit at the same time,
which can be heavily misunderstood by the common public. A normal person will
not know whether to ‘Go’ or to ‘Stop’ for that time being. This can lead to a
large no. of accidents.
In
the beginning the JMC itself took some steps and fixed sign boards and produced
some advertisements for people to become aware of the functioning of traffic
signals. At that time, people found this thing useful and they were even
following the traffic signals. But, as the time passed this practice went
obsolete. Simultaneously, the lights also started dysfunction and with that the
people also started losing interest in following them.
These
days, people are seen breaking almost all the signals and rules, and driving at
their own choice.
One
more problem which was seen at the initial period of fixation of lights was the
amount of time for passing vehicles at various junctions. It was almost
arbitrary, and was nowhere near the amount of time it took for vehicles passing
through the particular junction. For instance, about 90 seconds were fixed for
a lane in which only 20-25 vehicles would pass and on the other hand only 30
seconds were set for the lane whereupon 60 -80 vehicles needed to pass, but had
to wait for another turn due to improper timing.
Now
the thing is, what the public needs and what JMC should be doing which is in
interest of common people.
First
and foremost, JMC should organize a fast track maintenance drive to fix all the
traffic lights. The things that they should be keeping in view are that, the
timing fixed for particular lights at various junctions should be set by taking
suitable statistics from few busy days and holidays as well. Regarding
maintenance, it is an appeal to the corporation or the responsible department
to please look into the matter seriously, and provide regular check on their
functioning.
In
addition, a proposed thought for this maintenance is that, a reset button
should be provided to the technicians who are in charge of the maintenance and
a weekly or monthly reset can be done to traffic light system, so that, if
there is a problem in lights at any junction, it can be kept checked.
The
traffic lights in Jammu were once installed long ago, but they could not be
worked at that time and once again this technology is at the breach of becoming
history.
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