More zebra crossings in Delhi to go the 3D way

The New Delhi Municipal Council is planning to install around 35-40 more 3D zebra crossings in 10 roads of Central Delhi in a bid to check speeding vehicles.

The New Delhi Municipal Council is planning to install around 35-40 more 3D zebra crossings in 10 roads of Central Delhi in a bid to check speeding vehicles.

NDMC will install new 3D zebra crossings on stretches of busy arteries, including Safdarjung Road, Teen Murti Road, Janpath and Ashoka Road. (Ravi Choudhary/HT Photo)

The zebra crossings will come up on stretches of Abdul Kalam Road (formerly Aurangzeb Road), Teen Murti Road, Wellington (crescent)/ Mother Teresa Crescent, Sardar Patel Marg, Maulana Azad Road, Janpath, Ashoka Road, Rajaji Marg, around the high court and Supreme Court.

Incidentally, the Capital’s first 3D zebra crossing was installed on July 9 at Rajaji Marg. The next such 3D crossing came up at Safdarjung Road in another week.

Delhi Traffic Police officials claim that ever since the 3D crossings were put in place, the average speed of traffic on the stretch in a week has come down to 30 km per hour from the usual 50 km per hour.

Delhi Traffic Police data too shows that in June, there was just one non-fatal road accident on the two stretches. From July till September 8, no accidents had been reported from the stretch.

“The 3D zebra crossing experiment has had success in Singapore. When you approach the crossing, the road looks uneven – either it looks to have been dug up or elevated. This ensures motorists slow down their vehicles. During the day pedestrians can be seen hopping and jumping on these painted roadblocks,” the official said.

Read| Optical illusion: 3D zebra crossing tricks drivers, slows them down in Delhi

Artists Saumya Pandya Thakkar and Shakuntala Pandya have already installed India’s first 3D virtual speed breaker zebra crossings on the roads of Ahmedabad.

Yogesh Saini, founder of Delhi Street Art, collaborated with the NDMC to paint the Capital’s first two zebra crossings. Saini is now in talks with the council to take up the work for other stretches in the pipeline.

The focus, this time, will be on quality, civic body officials said.

“We are stressing the quality of these painted roadblocks. The paint will be procured from specialised agencies. The trial received a positive feedback and we want to repeat it elsewhere,” NDMC chairman Naresh Kumar said.

Last year, the council had installed speed resisters (red patches that slows a car’s speed) at Sunheri Bagh Road at the Udyog Bhawan roundabout, Minto Road in Connaught Place and parts of Akbar Road to check speeding vehicles.