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:
- To study and identify the causal factors of speeding at the
select 20 blackspots
- To recommend speed calming measures in order to support
stricter enforcement of speed limits at these blackspots
- 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 4th 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

