Mumbai road safety: Traffic police, BMC launch week-long trial to improve high-risk junctions on Western Express Highway

MTCB began the trial project at the intersection of Western Express Highway

To make traffic junctions safer for all road users, the Mumbai Traffic Control Branch (MTCB) and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) had initiated a week-long junction improvement trial at three high-risk intersections, known as black spots, on the Western Express Highway (WEH) between December 3 to 7.

The MTCB, in collaboration with partners from the Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety (BIGRS), began the trial project at the intersection of Western Express Highway and Goregaon Mulund Link Road (Oberoi Mall junction), the intersection of Western Express Highway (WEH) and Jogeshwari Vikhroli Link Road (HBT Trauma Care Center junction), and the intersection of WEH and N S Phadke marg (Bisleri junction)--three of the city's top 20 black spots between 2019 and 2021.

WRI India and the Global Designing Cities Initiative (GDCI) have been working on improving the three black spots. The existing conditions with wide turning radii that encourage speeding, lack of safe pedestrian crossings, lack of refuge areas, and underutilized carriageway space that gets used for parking, have been making the intersection unsafe for all road users.

Mitesh Ghatte, DCP (West), Mumbai Traffic Police, said, "These locations are a priority because they record a high number of serious crashes and injuries. With this pilot implementation, we will be able to evaluate the success of the new designs and, based on the data, recommend making them permanent. The aim is to reduce crashes and save all lives on the road."

According to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), a "black spot" is a stretch of 500m on national highway/state highway/urban roads where for the past three consecutive years, a) five total serious road crashes (where the injured needs hospitalisation) or crashes led to death) cumulatively 10 or more deaths.

To reduce the number of crashes, fatalities, and serious injuries and make the junctions safe to navigate, MTCB, WRI India, and GDCI used varied infrastructure improvement measures such as tightening the turning radius to decrease the speeds at the junctions by adding footpath extensions, providing pedestrian crossings, introducing refuge areas for people to wait and cross, and providing adequate markings & signages using short-term measures such as barricades, paints, cones, ropes.

With the proposed design interventions at the Oberoi Mall Intersection, the area of the junction was reduced from about 2,450 sqm to 1,320 sqm, creating an 820 sqm area to be used as space for pedestrians. This was done while ensuring the number of effective lanes remained the same. To streamline vehicular movement and aid pedestrian movements, road markings were added to establish clear pedestrian crossing paths and stop lines for vehicles.

Akanksha Aggarwal, Program Manager, Transport, Sustainable Cities & Transport, WRI India, who worked on the Oberoi junction, said, "A good intersection design aids efficient movement of vehicular traffic while making it safe for all users. Around 2,700 pedestrians cross the Oberoi Mall junction daily in an hour, hence it is critical to design the junction to not only streamline vehicular traffic but also ensure the safety of the pedestrians crossing the junction. Such efforts can be scaled across the city to improve pedestrian safety and manage traffic flow."

The HBT Trauma Care Center, Jogeshwari East, and Bisleri junctions, Andheri East are wide, with no signal phases and spaces for pedestrians to pause during the signal phase, exposing them to speeding vehicles. To provide a safe space for pedestrians to wait before crossing the signals, during the trial 1,745 sqm of space was reclaimed from the existing intersection, and the crossing distances were reduced from 15 meters to 9 meters by incorporating a temporary refuge island using barricades.

Jashwanth Tej Kasala, Program Manager, GDCI, said, "Intersections like Bisleri Junction and HBT Trauma Centre are vital connectors for thousands of people daily. At peak times, over 6,648 pedestrians cross WEH-Bisleri, and 7,670 navigate the HBT Trauma Centre, including elderly individuals and wheelchair user groups often overlooked and left without adequate space. This trial aims to assess the impact of changes designed to make these spaces safer and more accessible by reducing crossing distances, calming traffic, and improving the geometry of the Intersection. Through these efforts, we strive to create safer, more inclusive streets for everyone."

Current issues at the three junctions:

The wide intersection and large turning radius at junctions allow vehicles to speed, increasing risks for pedestrians and other road users.

Underutilised carriageway space at the intersection that often gets used for parking, obstructs movement for all.

Lack of safe pedestrian infrastructure, such as safe crossings, protected median refuges, and waiting spaces.