To address the issue of wrong-side driving, the BMC has taken the measure of installing spikes on speed breakers in Mumbai. Although residents welcome the move, it has raised concerns regarding safety.
The BMC has placed spike speed breakers on B G Kher Marg in Malabar Hill to deter bikers from using the wrong side of the road. While this is the first time such spikes have been employed in Mumbai, similar installations have been seen in Noida, Uttar Pradesh.
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According to BMC officials, they decided to take this step after receiving numerous complaints from residents about bikers entering the wrong lane from the Kemps Corner junction. The traffic police also recommended the use of spike speed breakers, leading to their recent installation. BMC is open to installing more of these spikes in other locations on the same road if necessary.
While locals appreciate the new initiative, experts have voiced their concerns and disapproval. The spikes indeed pose a risk of causing serious injuries in the event of an accident. Instead, some experts suggest that the traffic police should issue challans to discourage motorists from using the wrong lane.
In a similar situation in 2018, the Pune traffic police ordered a private society, Amanora Township, to remove tyre killer speed breakers they had installed to prevent wrong-way driving. The police deemed them dangerous and instructed their removal.
Noida City had done similar installation
In the past, Noida Police took a special initiative and announced the installation of heavy-duty tyre killers around the city. They also placed huge signs above the tyre killers to ensure that people noticed the barrier and did not go over it from the wrong side. Once a vehicle hit the tyre killers from the wrong direction, they needed to replace the tyres as the size of the spikes was quite large.
Earlier, police officials had identified five major points where wrong-side riding and driving were most common in Noida. All five spots saw the installation of tyre killers in the near past. After the installation at Sector 76, the police also installed the same kind of tyre killers at Sector 77 North Eye junction, Hoshiarpur U-Turn, Sai Temple U-Turn in Sector 61, and near Sector 75 metro station.
After the tyre killers were broken into pieces, most of the motorists aimed for the small opening in the series of pointed spikes, creating chaos on the road. They were working on the problem, and to permanently solve the issue, they planned to put bitumen slope near the tyre killer and fix the structure permanently to the ground. As of then, the tyre killer was installed with a number of bolts. It seemed like the bolts could not take the heavy stress caused by the passing of heavy vehicles over the tyre killers, and they came out of place. However, the project failed, and currently, there were no such tyre killers in Noida city.
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