UT to hurtle towards slower speed limits soon

CHANDIGARH: The administration is considering reducing speed limit on roads in residential areas (V6) for the safety of pedestrians and cyclists. The administration draft a proposal to reduce the speed limit from 35 kilometres per hour to 25 kilometres per hour on V6 roads. Roads in residential areas across the city are narrow. The width of internal roads in the northern sectors is around 15 feet and in southern sectors, it is 12 feet. Also, there are no footpaths on internal roads, which are used by pedestrians and cyclists besides people with motor vehicles.


With the number of vehicles rising and parking space shrinking, people park vehicles on either side of internal roads, leading to traffic chaos. There are 56 sectors in Chandigarh, which have been divided into four parts, A, B, C and D by a V4 road.



Elaborating on the reasons for the need to reduce speed, a senior official said high speed in the narrow internal roads poses a great threat to pedestrians, especially children, senior citizens and cyclists.

The proposal will be tabled in the road safety committee, which will meet next week. Chandigarh administration last revised speed limits in July 2013. City-based road safety activist Harman Sidhu described this as the need of the hour. He said various studies have proved that even a speed of 30km/hr is good enough to kill a person. “The speed limit should be reduced in residential areas,” said Sidhu, who added that the move should be implemented strictly.

The city has the highest density of vehicles in the country. The high number of vehicles has made roads unsafe for cyclists and pedestrians. In Chandigarh, there has been a rise in the number of deaths in road accidents. A total of 700 people died in road accidents over the last five years. As many as 61 people have been killed so far this year. In 2017, 110 people were killed, while 150 died in 2016.