Road Lanes - Will it work in India?

I think the solution to traffic moving smoothly is the building of proper footpaths. If footpaths are well build and the kerbs are regular then people can actually use the left most lane.

Ramesh

Well, its all linked up - you cannot separate pedestrian facilities from roads. I was in Gavipuram or some such place, near Kengeri, yesterday, where they are developing a new layout. They have built this big wide road, evenly spaced, double etc. off the `Outer Ring Road' connecting Magadi road and Kengeri. But they have made absolutely no provision for a footpath. In fact, already buildings are coming up around 1m from the end of the road. So in a couple of years I am sure it will be a crowded, cramped road with no smooth flow of traffic - regardless of how well the roads are marked or even if the lanes are even.

Shops and houses will come up on the sides and as a consequence cars will stop there. People will walk all around the cars and the current 2 lanes will become 1/2 a line for vehicles to stop on. Add to this the occasional broken down truck or the TATA ACE driver who seems to think that the ace means  he is Michael Schumacher traffic will not move as smoothly as it could. It seems to me that even after all these years of discussing the problems both here and in the BDA/BBMP and Traffic police no planning is done and the same mistakes are repeated.

Ramesh

`Pedestrians dont belong on roads'

I cannot agree with you more - but the reality is quite different. Your suggestion of having a pedestrian authority is a good one, but as things are it seems to be impossible to co-ordinate the existing authorities so I dont think adding one more will help things.

To me it seems like the aproach to road building should me more holistic - and the task of building pedestrian facilities/ cycling facilities  along a road should be given to the people assigned to build the road. Otherwise there is no way in which the two will be co-ordinated.

One of the few places  in Banagalore where I think things are well defined is in the BEL area - simply because the development of the whole area was done by one authority - namely BEL. Another is the area belonging to HMT.

In fact, it is universally true that within the `gated' communities run by the large PSUs in Bangalore, the roads and pedestrian facilities are designed much better. That is because there is one authority controlling the local area - who is responsible for planning the layout, building road and pedestrian facilities etc. Having different authorities for each aspect of the development of a neigborhood has lead to this rather chaotic situation.

Making people obey road lanes is only one aspect of a much larger problem which cannot be solved without the other issues being addressed.

Coming back to the other point your brought up about footpaths along freeways. Along the outer Ring Road, for example, they have not built any sort of footpath. However, there are a lot of people walking and crossing it. This is one of the fundamental mistakes they make in building all these roads - they make no provision for people to walk even though, in India, there are always people walking. All these flyovers, for example, are used as much by pedestrians as by cars - but in none of them is there any provision made for people to walk which results in people on roads taking up road space, slowing traffic, adding to chaos etc.

Ramesh

@ pathykv and rs... IMO, ids has a point. Let's not confuse improper zoning (ribbon usage etc.) and pedestrian facilities. Although they would (possibly) be encompassed under the umbrella of traffic engineering, ids (if I've got his drift) is solely talking about lane design. Well-designed lanes, in my mind, are analogous to a canal where your ultimate aim is to to smooth flow.

"  (The traffic engineer provides)... roadway conditions that contribute to smooth and efficient traffic flow. Experience has shown that safety goes hand-in-hand with smooth traffic operation. Disrupting the smooth flow of traffic increases the probability of accidents." - Quoted from the link above

Now, no one would dispute the fact that pedestrian infrastructure is a vital part 'in any holistic road/traffic plan'. But traffic lanes are NOT pedestrian zones. They might become so because we haven't provided pavements, but (again) pedestrians are NOT traffic. And as for all drivers/passengers of (those non-unmanned) motor vehicles, they cease to be motor vehicle users once they are no longer in (or on) the motor vehicle and now are classified as pedestrians.

Back to ids' core issue, a little bit of data mining and a pic (worth those 1000 words) reveals something really strange in IRC.

(Source: DNA E-paper (dated 30-07-2010), page 4)

See 3 vehicles occupying the 2 lanes? Without getting derailed about the whole debate about autos, Nanos, rich 4-wheeler owners and all that..., let's look at a few numbers:

In the US, in the state of Florida, the maximum width of a motor vehicle should not exceed 102 inches or 2.59m (see 'Width Limitation' section in this source). Although that's 15cm larger, it does compare to the maximum permissible vehicular width of 2.44m as set by IRC. Logic would then point us to conclude that IRC should specify narrower lanes for Indian conditions. Right?

Wrong.

Specifications for urban-multi lane roads in Florida call for a width of 10 feet (or 3.3m; see Table 25.4.3 in this link) while desirable 'carriageway width'  as specified by IRC is 3.5m for each lane in India (source). Simple algebra, instead tells us that desired carriageway width for a multi-lane road for Indian vehicles should be closer to 3.1m. 

In the picture above, by marking narrower lanes, you could have got a much wider pavement or provided for 3 lanes and not have that Swaraj Mazda forging it instead.

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What I have noticed is that if the road width is restricted to one lane - as it is sometimes where Metro work is going on, traffic moves much more smoothly as one does not have vehicles trying to overtake and every possible opportunity.

Perhaps a solution is to make small physical barriers between each lane to enforce people not to keep trying to pass. The problem with having those, though is that often there are broken down vehicles which can choke the entire road. Or the occasional auto guy who decides to stop there to wait for a passenger, completely inconsiderate of any other vehicles or people.

There has been considerable logic and discussion against segregating of traffic. Let me however argue for it.

I beleive that Indian roads need to be designed differently given our unique needs as opposed to copying from the western world where there is more uniformity on the road.

Here are some sugesstions:

- Roads should have at the minimum a segregation of public and private vehicles: a dedicated lane for buses, autos and taxis and the other for private vehicles. 

This is akin to the model in Europe. Dedicated lanes for public buses ensures reliability of buses and hence higher usage. Ahmedabad has successfully implemented this. I think there has been suggestions already on this forum on this.

This lane should be barricaded and strict chalans for any vehicle caught outside this lane should be enforced.

- Create a smaller width lane for 2 wheelers. This will remove the two wheelers weaving through the traffic and causing confusion.

Create a smaller width lane for 2 wheelers.

@ amitc, that throws up a whole lot of other questions. Here are a few:

1. What would be the plan then for at a typical 4 way-junction (e.g. Brigade Rd-MG Rd)? Would there be one 2-wheeler lane for each directional lane (which if you were coming from Kamaraj Rd (or Trinity Circle or even Anil Kumble junction) be 3 regular lanes and then 3 two-wheeler lanes? What about more complex junctions (e.g. South End circle)?
2. If that is not the case, will they merge with other traffic before the intersection? What then, would the minimum road length be to permit safe merges between modes of transport. Finally, and most importantly, how many roads in town meet this criterion?

We are not the first city to have struggled to figure out how to manage 2-wheelers. Chennai has had mode-based segregated lanes for a while now on Anna Salai.

(source: The Hindu)

However, (IMO) the very fact that I have not seen it implemented on any other road in Chennai, testifies to its very limited applicability.

I think it's time we stopped making excuses for 2-wheelers and simply require ALL of them to obey the same set of rules as other motor-vehicle users (as every other country in the world does). The only two-wheelers that deserve exemptions are bicycles (see here).

FYI, I asked a friend of mine how they got traffic to stick to their lanes in Chennai. Apparently, they flooded the stretch with cops, went all out on fines... and lo and behold- entropy dissolved into order (shock and awe if you will!)

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Fundamentally, the question comes down to what we want these designated lanes for.

Worldwide, they have been opted for in one of two ways:

- Busway system: Creation of a 'busway system' aka a metro / tram system: In mot such cases, the bus lanes have also enabled developing a tram system, reducing pollution and improving traffic. The limitations however are that it is difficult to do this in already well developed cities with little room to expand roads aka namma Bengaluru.  But this can be successfully adopted in the townships that are coming up now in the outskirts even as they are being built, almost frmo scratch.

- Removing congestion: In this case, lanes are created for short stretches with separate and assigned traffic signals with the main objective of alleviating traffic congestion. This could be more adaptable for the Indian city roads.

Bumpy reflectors should be placed along with white lane marking, like done in hosur road expressway. Whenever somebody doesnt follow lane will hear "dhad dhad" and will come back to lane. It will trouoble autos more because they have 3 wheels more likely to hit a reflector.

I searched, cat's eye is used only for blinking reflectors. Otherwise it is called Botts' dots. Who has to bell the cat is a separate issue. But these dots will be useful against autos, who never follow lane. But these should not be used near junctions. Mind you white lane marking exists all major roads in Bangalore.