Students identify blockages hampering pedestrian movement in Jaipur

Jaipur: Kanoria PG College students surveyed busy roads like JLN Marg, Tonk Road, Bapu Nagar and identified blockages for pedestrian movement in Jaipur. The students identified areas with zebra crossings that were blocked either by dividers or vehicles stopping on zebra crossings.

The survey covered pedestrian crossings on JLN Marg, Tonk Road, outside Rajasthan University, Bapu Nagar, Jawahar Circle and Takht-E-Shahi Road.

The students covered 111 pedestrian crossings, where they found that only 36 crossings had proper markings, and 75 crossings were faded. The types of obstacles on the markings were identified as barricades, vehicles parked on crossings, faded crossings and blockages due to dividers.

Students conducted the survey from Feb till April and compiled a report that will be submitted to the state transport department for proper enforcement of norms.

“As part of an internship, we conducted this survey, where we checked zebra crossings on key roads and found that at most places commuters do not stop before the stop line and cover the pedestrian way. At many places, the zebra crossing is not even visible, due to which the pedestrian does not get its right of way,” said Jashandeep Kaur, a student of BSc Mathematics at the college.

Students also said while speaking to other students as part of the initiative, they learned that around colleges and educational institutes, young college-going commuters admitted to peer pressure for not following traffic rules.

“During the survey, it was very common to see vehicles covering the zebra crossing and two-wheelers rushed at most places to jump traffic signals. When we asked other students why they tend to drive fast, we learned that peer pressure was one of the reasons, especially boys said that if their friends drove faster then they followed, leading to traffic violations,” said Muskan, another student of BSc Mathematics at the college, who was part of the survey team.