Size: 1,423 square meters
Key partners: Mumbai Traffic Police, Municipal Cooperation of Greater Mumbai
In April 2017, WRI, in partnership with the Traffic Police and the Municipal Corporation of Mumbai, carried out a trial safety improvement on the HP Petrol Pump Intersection, a high-risk intersection in Mumbai.
WRI’s proposed redesign involved creating dedicated pedestrian infrastructure and redistributing space to benefit all users. By expanding sidewalks, protected medians, and islands and streamlining traffic lanes, the intervention reduced the size of the intersection by 29% and reduced pedestrian crossing distances by 50%. Other features like protected waiting areas, crosswalks and wheelchair ramps also improved safety and accessibility for pedestrians. For motorized traffic, the redesign called for standardizing the number and width of traffic lanes entering and exiting the intersection.
The trial was a major success and learning experience for the city. Following the trial, the installation was made permanent, and the intersection area further reduced from 1,400 square meters to 1,000 square meters with the additional area used to increase median size to include refuge islands and wider traffic islands further reducing crossing distances and improving safe pedestrian movement. What used to be a slip lane for less than 1% of traffic was also converted to public space. The permanent construction has been completed and is open for public use.
Impact:
- Preliminary projections using existing crash site data and crash reduction factors suggest that 57 lives will be saved over a 20-year period.
Safer Streets with the Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety is part of our WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities.
