While the city roads have become better for motorists with the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation repairing several potholes over a while, the civic body's newfound practice of installing PVC (Polyvinyl chloride) speed breakers in place of the traditional black top speed breakers have turned into a new cause for concern.
Crossing the PVC speed breakers which form an obstacle like steep humps has been a great discomfort to motorists, including two-wheeler and four-wheeler users.
Speed breakers are meant to slow down the vehicles at necessary spots such as junctions, residential and school zones and others as a safety measure, and they should be laid as per the Indian Roads Congress norms which ensure that the vehicles slow down
“There should be no damage to vehicles nor excessive discomfort to the drivers and passengers when passing at the preferred crossing speed. The hump should not give rise to excessive noise or cause harmful vibrations in the adjoining buildings or affect the other residents of the area. Above the design speed, a driver should suffer an increasing level of discomfort (but without losing directional control and without any vehicle damage) depending on the extent to which design speed is exceeded,” the IRC guidelines say.
The ideal specification of a speed breaker as per IRC is 0.1 metre (or 10 cm) high and 3.7-metre wide hump so that vehicle speed is brought down to 25 kmph for general traffic.
However, the new easy-to-install speed breakers and several other traditional speed breakers with steep humps force vehicles to almost come to a halt for comfortable passage or have a jerky passage, which may lead to loss of control of the vehicle or discomfort.
"For a youngster like me, these speed breakers might not be an issue, but elderly people who use the road frequently are complaining of back pain. They make sense for pedestrians but trouble motorists," said Sk. Amhed, a resident of Bharati Nagar.
When contacted VMC Chief Engineer M. Prabhakar said that the VMC had been installing these (PVC) speed breakers following the requests of locals who wanted to avoid the danger of speeding vehicles. "The PVC speed breakers come with a standard height and don't vary from road to road like the traditional speed breakers. They can be installed easily. Also, finding contractors to lay traditional speed breakers has become tough," Mr. Prabhakar said.
