United Way Mumbai launches the 2023 edition of the Speed Observation Study, Slow Down

About the project

• India ranked first in the number of road crash deaths across the 199 countries reported in world statistics in 2018
• India accounts for almost 11% of the crash-related deaths in the world
• According to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways Report, 2019, road crashes killed almost 1.51 lakh people annually in India

With an aim to address the innumerable and unaddressed aspects related to road safety and to deepen awareness around the same, United Way Mumbai has partnered with the Traffic Control Branch, Mumbai Police, Motor Vehicle Department, Govt of Maharashtra, and Indian Institute of Bombay to conduct a speed observation study titled‘Slow Down’. Project Slow Down advocates and encourages the need to respect speed limits on city roadsand aims to enhance road safety with a focus on public mobility, and speed management policies.

Project Slow Down was designed around 3 key objectives:

1. To study and identify the causal factors of speeding at the select 20 blackspots
2. To recommend speed calming measures in order to support stricter enforcement of speed limits at these blackspots
3. To provide to the Mumbai Traffic Police, evidence of instances of overspeeding and the need for speed calming intervention recommendations to plan and implement suitable enforcement measures

About the report
This report was released on 4^th of April, 2023 at hands of Pravin Padwal IAS, Jt. Commissioner of Police, Traffic, Mumbai, Vivek Bhimanwar, Transport Commissioner, Jitendra Patil, Addl. Transport Commissioner, Govt. of Maharashtra, David Cliff, CEO, Global Road Safety Partnership (Geneva) and George Aikara, CEO of United Way Mumbai.

Key highlights of Project Slow Down

Following are the common observations

Enforcement:

• Only7 spotsout of20 spotsposted speed limits
• Critical road signages are missingsuch as; ‘Speed limit’, ‘Crash prone spot’ signs and ‘merging section ahead’at 11 locationsand wereinappropriately placed at 2 locations
• Side frictionobserved due to theillegal road side parkingat7 locations
• Pedestrians walking on the carriagewayinstead of the footpaths at7 locations(encroached footpaths)

Engineering:

• Road /lane markingswere absent or faded at17 locations
• Poor visibility at night was observed at3 locations
• Inadequate road signs were observed at11 locations
• Potentialconflict pointsobserved at merging sections at6 locations
• Good road conditions coupled with the straight stretch results in over speeding of the vehicles

Following are the common recommendations

Enforcement:

• Traffic wardenscan be deployed for regulating the traffic during the peak hours
• Vendor encroachmentshould be controlled on the road to avoid side friction
• CCTV surveillancecan be used to check the culprits ofrash and speedingand fines should be imposed
• Undisciplined parkingneeds to be regulated

Engineering:

• Installation ofsignboards(such as; speed limit signs, merging section ahead, road signs, caution boards, etc.)
• Road markingsto be painted at some locations
• Pedestrian walkways, zebra crossing markings and controlled pedestrian walk-way mustbe installed with advance warning signs
• "Accident prone spot”boardsto be visibly installed at all the 20 locations at least 50 meters ahead of the spot and at the spot
• Adequate road signsto be installed at locations wherever observed to be missing/inadequate
• Informatory sign boardsto guide and direct the road users should be installed at 100 mts. and 50 Mts. Interval
• Speed calming measuressuch as; speed humps and rumble strips to be installed wherever found to be missing
• Continuous stretch of the well-maintained footpathis needed to discourage the pedestrians walking on the carriageway where the chances of conflicts are high
• Pavement distressessuch as potholes, and rutting (grooves) should be removed and its condition should be improved for a better level of service
• Medians should be repaintedwith retro-reflective paint to improve the visibility at night at certain locations wherever poor visibility at night was observed
• Need tosmoothen the uneven road surfaceapproach to the flyover and to be marked properly at ascending and descending spots of flyovers
• Project Slow Down is a part of United Way Mumbai’s, United for Road Safety community impact initiative. The initiative aims to support MVA implementation in the state of Maharashtra especially related to speeding and strict enforcement of speed management in Mumbai and build awareness to curb speeding mass media activities, and support the state and city authorities to better plan and implement the ‘Slow Down’ awareness campaigns.

Project Slow Down is a part of United Way Mumbai’s, United for Road Safety community impact initiative. The initiative aims to support MVA implementation in the state of Maharashtra especially related to speeding and strict enforcement of speed management in Mumbai and build awareness to curb speeding mass media activities, and support the state and city authorities to better plan and implement the ‘Slow Down’ awareness campaigns.

To download the Summary report click here

To download Detailed Big report click here