Moving All Posts to udayms.wordpress.com

This blog would be deleted soon. I am moving all posts to udayms.wordpress.com

Reason: I am finding it difficult to maintain multiple blogs.

Innovative idea to stop drunken driving

Watch this video on IBNLIVE. A simple innovative idea to stop drunken driving.

http://www.ibnlive.com/videos/46921/loo–behold-a-urinal-talks-on-dangers-of-drinking.html

Hope some one would try this in our cities…

Traffic Park in Chennai

Road Safety and Traffic Education – Part II

This place gives a hope that at least the next generation would make our roads safer. These are pictures from the Traffic Park in the Tamilnadu Science & Technology Center, Chennai.

	<< Neatly laid roads and the clear pedestrian crossing with the correct signals are a must for any good traffic system.
	<< The sign boards provides details on the various traffic signs. The petrol bunk gives the park a real life look.

 

	<< With these clear markings, kids would learn the lane rules much faster.
	<< From the pavilion… You can sit and watch the traffic in the park.
	<< The photographs of men in uniform giving directions would help the kids learn the traffic signs and how to follow them.
	<< Kudos to this person. Even though, he could not get any toy vehicle, he decided to take these kids for a walk through the roads. He was explaining to the kids on how to follow the signs and rules while driving.

Areas of improvement:

• The park lacks real vehicles. Some traffic parks provide toy vehicles for kids. Real traffic situation is created and kids are taught on how to handle those situations. Not sure whether this facility is temporarily unavailable or they have decided to close this facility altogether.
• More involvement from the public (students and parents). Even though it was a Sunday, there were only very few parents in this area of the park.
• Support from the NGOs to maintain and promote this initiative.

Best part:

• Entrance fee to the entire park area is Rs. 2, making it affordable to the common man.

Location: Tamilnadu Science & Technology Center, Gandhi Mandapam Road, Chennai- 600 025

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Road Safety and Traffic Education

There was an interesting news that caught my attention. The news  by Meera Srinivasan
 “A school of thought on road safety emerges” published in The Hindu. It talks about a workshop for teachers on the traffic safety:

At a workshop organised by the NGO (Suraksha Road Safety Society) in partnership with DaimlerChrysler India Private Limited and the Society  of Indian Automobile Manufacturers here on Tuesday, teachers from city schools were trained in aspects of road safety. They would go back and train their students in these areas.

Representatives from six schools in and around the city — Ellen Sharma Memorial School, P. S. Senior Secondary School, Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan (T. P. Road), Children’s Garden School, Sivaswami Kalalaya and Chellammal Matriculation — participated. Founder of the NGO Usha Seshasayee said the awareness campaign, targeted at about 1,000 students, was likely to benefit nearly 10,000 students owing to an overwhelming response from schools.

The workshop organisers would also hold a series of contests on road safety for Class IV children to “catch them young” and spread awareness. “A regulatory authority that monitors the issue and connects the exercises taken up by NGOs and the authorities will help,” she says.

Read the fully story in THE HINDU  (http://www.hindu.com/2007/08/01/stories/2007080159140300.htm).

Kudos to the organizers of the workshop. We were not part of the workshop and we do not know what was taught as part of the workshop. But when we consider the traffic education for Kids in Chennai, there is a basic issue:  ” What traffic education are we going to impart to the kids? ”

Let us take few basic things:

• While you are on road, walk only on the footpath. Where do we have proper footpath. The kids are forced to walk on the road.
• Use pedestrian cross (Zebra crossing) to cross the road. We do not have proper pedestrian crossing on most of the roads.
• We do not have enough sign boards. To warn the drivers.
• Drivers forget the courtesy factor while driving; even while kids are crossing the road.
• No signals for the pedestrian crossing.

Along with the workshops, we need to take some creative steps to make the roads safer for kids:

1. Identify school zones.
2. Implement clear and wide pedestrian crossing and stop lines in these school zones.
3. Put up the following sign boards in the school zones: School Zone, Speed Limit, No Overtaking in school zone, Yellow Lines, No Horn.
4. Penalty for not following traffic rules in school zone should be at least triple the penalty levied in other zones.
5. Mark Parking area/ No parking area in the school zone.
6. Local Traffic authorities meet Parents and Teachers once in a month to hear the issues. The meeting can be clubbed with the Open House or any such event. I am sure the parents would be willing to help the authorities to implement any of the road safety measures in the school zones.
7. Create traffic parks in the outskirts of city where the kids get a chance to drive the toy vehicles and learn the traffic rules.

If we do not have these things in place, then… instead of traffic education, it is better to enrol kids and parents to some Obstacle Training courses.

During the third week of June I had to wait near Jawahar Vidyalaya (Ashok Nagar) for almost 2 hours. Since there was nothing else to do, I decided to watch the traffic. It was pathetic. The following photograph summarizes the scene:

This photograph was taken from the footpath in front of the school using a mobile camera. See how the vehicles join another road through the wrong side of the road. See the other two specific issues marked in red. When the traffic police is present, they do their best to control the traffic. But unless the drivers decide to follow the traffic rules… chaos rules.

Watch this video  on Make Road Safe campaign of United Nations

…and read the book let A child dies every 3 minutes.