Nagpur: Medians (road dividers) are expected to regulate, smoothen and facilitate the traffic. But in Nagpur, the medians are not just constructed unscientifically but also at wrong places and distances resulting in traffic disturbances, increase in travel time and also accidents . It also affects synchronization of the signals.A study conducted by civil engineering department of the Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology ( VNIT ) has shown that 48.72% of accidents in the city are caused on medians and of these 70% are caused due to wrongly-placed and designed medians.The study showed that the disturbance in traffic at the medians causes a delay in travel time of 21.23 minutes per day for commuters which works out to about Rs 68 crore annually in monetary terms. In fact, a data from the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) showed that last year the corporation paid as much as Rs 28.45 crore as double accident benefit to the kin of policyholders.“This money could have been saved by not just the LIC but other such companies if citizens are educated and the medians are scientifically designed. The VNIT tried to convince the LIC to fund its research as a CSR activity, but in vain,” said associate professor Vishrut Landge from the department.City has 2,500 median openings that are not planned properly and scientifically. The medians, according to Landge, should have a minimum distance of 500 meters, they should be designed using a particular technique. Except for schools and hospitals, where there can be medians even if not required, this distance should be maintained everywhere else.Landge told TOI that as per the institute’s data, last year there were 1,242 accidents claiming 232 lives and injuring 1,285 persons. Giving example of the entire stretch from Variety Square to Ravi Nagar Square, the study video-recorded the traffic at all the medians and found that each median had a delay time of 21.23 minutes. “This results in delay to a person’s reaching workplace which in turn results in loss of work. If calculated in terms of financial loss, this ranges between Rs 68 crore and Rs 70 crore. Isn’t this criminal,? In developed world, this is called as ‘time pollution,” said Landge.Sarika Pantawane and Bahuguna Dalai were the two students who were involved in the study.Prof YB Katpatal also from the civil engineering department says, “Besides medians, traffic indiscipline is another big cause of accidents. People from different strata and age groups behave differently on roads. Hence, every school must teach traffic as a compulsory subject to imbibe traffic sense in every citizen.”

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