Saturday, 20 July 2024 | PNS | DEHRADUN
The staggered school timings in Dehradun improved traffic in certain areas while most areas saw no change in the traffic situation on Friday. The traffic near schools situated on main roads was better in the morning but there was no significant change in traffic congestion in the afternoon as the students and those who had come to pick them up violated traffic rules, walking on the road and parking vehicles on the road as usual. However, the traffic situation was better outside some schools situated in residential areas like Dalanwala. Several parents and students also opined that staggered timings improved the traffic situation more in the morning than in the afternoon. The police had identified 21 schools that were causing traffic jams but only 19 changed their timings.
The remaining two will change their timings from Monday. The senior superintendent of police Ajai Singh also inspected several areas in the afternoon to check the effect of staggered school timings on traffic. Singh said that he found during his inspection that some schools have not appointed any guards to manage the traffic on the main roads outside their schools and the guards appointed by some schools are not functioning properly. More use of private vehicles than the public transport to pick up and drop children was also found to be the major cause of traffic congestion around schools.
Singh said that traffic pressure on main roads like Rajpur Road, Nehru Colony and others was comparatively less than usual school hours. Due to the abundance of private vehicles in schools situated on Balbir Road and Curzon Road areas and due to the narrow roads there, the SSP observed traffic jams there. Singh said that the police will soon organise seminars with all private schools to promote public transport in their schools and motivate parents for this as well. The police will also talk to the schools about the traffic management outside their schools and the appointment of guards as per requirement. He said that improving traffic near schools is an ongoing process and necessary changes will be made in the plan as per the police’s observations and feedback of people accordingly.
