With the vehicular population increasing by the day, commuting in Bengaluru has turned nightmarish. The IT Capital is one of the most congested cities in the country. Pathetic traffic management and lack of initiatives by the traffic police are to blame for the logjam that the city is in.
Possible solutions
nitiatives like signal synchronization, introduction of storage bays (having sufficient space before the turns on the roads), lane continuity and providing sky-walks and subways…all these definitely improve the traffic movement, experts said. In addition, training and awareness should be provided to drivers.
DC interacted with traffic expert Vivek Menon to find possible solutions which can help ease traffic congestion and he gave the following solutions:
Signal synchronization
This is one of the most suitable methods to help ease traffic congestion. When signals are synchronized, it turns a series of signals green at a stretch, facilitating the flow of traffic. For example, if a commuter on wheels starts from Trinity Circle and heads towards Rajbhavan Road, all traffic signals starting from Trinity Circle, signals at Mayo Hall, Brigade Road junction, St Mark's Road junction and the signal at Kasturba Road junction should go green, making way for easy flow of traffic, say at an average of over 40 km/hour.
Introduction of turning bays or storage bays
Most developed countries have this concept where vehicles that want to turn left or right can wait in the 'turning bay', until the signal opens for them without halting the vehicles going straight through. A turning bay can be designed to accommodate 6 or 8 or 10 vehicles based on the existing traffic density at the traffic junction.
Prevent traffic weaving
If ‘traffic weaving’ is prevented, vehicles can move 10 times faster. Let us understand this concept by considering the example of St Mark's junction near Bible Society. While vehicles heading towards Shivajinagar from St Mark's Road wait for the signal to go green, vehicles heading towards Kasturba Road and Queen's Road can take a free left. These vehicles which take the free left turn affect the flow and speed of vehicles coming from M G Road going towards Kasturba Road, resulting in traffic weaving. This sort of traffic weaving can be averted by putting a policeman or signal which can stop vehicles from St Mark's Road when the signal is green on M G Road.
Skywalks and underpasses
A main reason for crowded roads is jaywalking. Skywalks and underpasses must be built scientifically, based on areas where where maximum number of pedestrians move and cross. A pedestrian will not walk up to half a kilometre and take a skywalk or an underpass to cross a road. Instead pedestrians prefer jaywalking. In developed countries, underpasses are well-lit and have coffee shops, eateries which attract people. The same thing can be done in Bengaluru. Steps must also be taken to clear encroachments on roads and footpaths.
Lane continuity
Lane discipline and lane continuity are badly needed to ease traffic congestion. A four-lane road, when it comes to a junction, turns into two-lane leading to traffic bottlenecks. Instead, why can’t the four-lane, when it meets a junction, have 2 lanes for vehicles heading straight and one lane on the left and one on the right for free flow of traffic at cross roads?
Driver education:
You might have seen places where cab drivers and auto drivers slow down near main traffic junctions looking for passengers, affecting the free movement of vehicles. Apart from having a licence to drive, people must also be educated on lane discipline, driving without causing trouble to others and following rules.
Bus bays
The other main reason for traffic is buses stopping right in the middle of roads near bus stops. Wherever possible, a separate bus bay has to be set up so the buses do not stop in the middle of the roads creating traffic jams. This will also help passengers who won’t need to run around to catch a bus. They can sit and wait in the dedicated bus bay.
Guest Column: Experts, not police, should manage traffic, says Dr Ashish Verma
The writer is a mobility expert and associate professor, Centre for Infrastructure, Sustainable Transportation and Urban Planning (CiSTUP), IISc
The very first thing which needs to done is that experts should manage traffic and not the traffic police. I am not degrading the role of the traffic police, but trying to convey the point that traffic police should restrict their role to traffic enforcement. The job of managing traffic should be given to experts.
Traffic management is a technical subject and it needs the capacity and skill for managing traffic, which the traffic police do not have. When they change a two-way into one-way and vice-versa, or when they come up with plans like introducing a separate lane for auto rickshaws, they go ahead with such plans directly on the road.
These kind of measures have to be taken up by computer-based traffic simulation methods, which will clearly show how this change in the road or new plan will work on the entire traffic network.
This kind of expert assistance is needed to manage rapidly-growing cities like Bengaluru. Transportation engineers based at a given junction can come up with various methods to ease the bottlenecks.
Another thing, we are still following the Webster's method for traffic signal design. This method works well for places which have homogenous type of vehicles and also places which strictly adhere to a lane-based system.
In cities like Bengaluru or even in the whole of India, we do not have homogenous vehicles and there is no lane discipline. We follow the ‘gap filling’ principle where we simply fill the gap in front of us, no matter whether we want to take a right or left turn. So this Webster’s method for traffic signal design cannot be implemented here.
Instead, we have to come up with more effective methods which suit Indian traffic conditions with the help of transportation engineers, who will help design the signal timing, decide the green time, how long the pedestrian walk timing has to be provided, help signal synchronization etc.
