Traffic woes mark Perambur Barracks Road

CHENNAI: The busy Perambur Barracks Road (PB Road) in Purasawalkam is perennially congested with traffic. No matter the time of the day, bad traffic is a constant.Numerous buses use this narrow road, causing roadblocks every few minutes.Two wheelers and cars try to veer around them, only adding to the chaos. Add to this, the lack of policemen on the stretch to direct the vehicles. When City Express visited the stretch on Wednesday morning, traffic policemen were not present on the road till at least 11am.Purasawalkam being a residential and shopping area, vehicular movement is high at all times. With at least ten schools in the vicinity, traffic comes to a standstill during school hours.The traffic policeman at the Doveton Junction, who refused to be identified, says, “Traffic is heavy during the morning and slows down later. Afternoons, we have the shopping crowd.The signal timings have been calculated keeping this in mind.” June Thomas, a long time resident of Velalla Street off PB Road, says, “When I was in school, we would go to the shops ourselves.Now, it is unthinkable to send my kids onto the road alone.” She also said that the road is too narrow to handle the increasing number of vehicles.Vanessa Roche, who uses the road every day, says, “People don’t respond when you honk and they cross the road as they please. But there are also no pedestrian crossings for them to use, and barely any pavements to walk on.” She adds that she tries to avoid the road whenever possible, but it is inevitable.Shopkeepers on the stretch say that customers do not have place to park. The vehicles stop on both sides, constricting the already narrow road.S Shambu, proprietor of Smith Field Bakery and a resident of the area, says, “Share autos stop wherever they please. They are the biggest problem on this road. It takes nearly 20 minutes to cross this stretch during peak hour.” A one-way was implemented a while ago, redirecting traffic through Rotler Street, but the system was scrapped after a few weeks. Many residents feel that this would ease the problem. The Perambur flyover, which was meant to ease traffic flow on the entire stretch, has not helped PB Road. The junction at the flyover helps traffic from Vyasarpadi and other places.There seems to be no end to the woes of the residents and commuters of this road. Residents feel that providing pavements and pedestrian crossings can combat the problem. Widening the road seems out of the question, as many shops and buildings along the road would have to be demolished.