A myth for city of Bangalore

Experts’ take

A myth for city of Bangalore

A ceremonious beginning to the lane discipline programme by the Bangalore traffic police is a welcome gesture. Three hard questions will come to my mind but they are hard reality. One is where are the lanes?. Do we have lanes which are continuous for long stretches to ease the congestion. What is a lane for a two wheeler driver ? We have 72% of all the vehicles are the two wheeler on the road. They even move on footpaths. The other is does our people including me has any patience to follow these lane discipline. The third question is how effectively and fairly, with existing number of police in the city can implement this in a complex mess we have created. Many of the planned infrastructural projects are delayed so much and they are bottlenecks at many places in the city. Parking on the roads is major problem.

Despite the traffic police’s campaign to enforce lane discipline, motorists appear to be pretty cavalier about the effort. I may be too skeptical but the harsh reality is that In India in general and Bangalore in particular is the place where people cannot and will not learn the internationally acknowledged traffic rule, called Lane

Discipline, unless police enforces a huge fine on erring drivers. Indian driver is a sample of aberration from a norm in the road and hardly deserves the ownership of a classy vehicles loaded with every information and communication technology and vehicle technology features of a transportation system. Alternative priorities such as a better and dedicated public transport system (both rail based and road based) is essential for the city. Buses should move at a faster pace than the four wheelers so that people do not bring their personal vehicles fearing the congestion.There is greater need of education among our drivers to have some patience and follow the lane discipline.

Technically,  None of the codes mention a safe rule for stopping behind a vehicle in a queue of traffic, either at a minor junction, roundabout, traffic signal or in a traffic jam. Many guidelines talking about the "Driving the essential skills', seems to assume that we never need to stop behind traffic in a queue anywhere - it just doesn't mention Queueing Distance or that we may need to stop behind others in a queue. With very younger generation of drivers this is also one of the issue in the city of Bangalore, where in you always go back in a traffic junction and hit the vehicle which is just behind..

A regular Indian driver, including myself, is morally incompatible with a modern level of vehicle-to-human relationship on our roads which are congested heavily. It is a pity that we hear almost everyday crushing of pedestrians by the big vehicles on the road. The fact is a fact – the commonplace traffic picture in Bangalore remains to be, beyond any controversy, a pattern of a serious mad behavior. I am truly sorry about this language!!

TG Sitharam, Chairman, Centre for infrastructure, Sustainable Transport and Urban Planning (CiSTUP), IISc 

Regional transport offices need to be stringent

Lane discipline will not work in the city in its present condition. First of all, someone should decide what a lane is and tell people that. In Bangalore, each road has a different width and none of them are uniform in its entire length. Each road should have a specific length throughout, based on what type of a road it is.

A road, when demarcated, should indicate different lanes for right-moving traffic, left-moving traffic and straight-moving traffic. The traffic cops may have put cones at junctions to indicate lane demarcation. But the result is that on roads where there are no cones, motorists will not follow traffic rules. In order to indicate demarcation, the roads should be painted with reflector lights that indicate which lane motorists should be on.

Traffic police will also have to take into consideration the speed of each vehicle, the permitted speed on a road and take these into consideration while setting lanes, especially on wider roads. It will be a huge challenge to have mixed traffic with autos at 20km/ hr, buses at 25-30km/hr, cars at 40-50km/hr and bikes at 35km/hr. Motorists will try to switch lanes when there is a slow moving vehicle in front of them and an empty lane next to them.

Another problem with lane discipline is the bad condition of roads. People will again jump lanes to avoid the pothole. Trinity Circle is a classic example for this, coming from MG road, turning towards Ulsoor Lake or Lakshmipuram is a classic example. Roads have to be clear in order to enforce lane discipline. When there are bus on the roads, autos parked on the roads, it disrupts the lane forcing motorists to get into the next lane.

RTOs have to be stringent in issuing licence. Having a vehicle and driving on the road is a huge responsibility. If you do not know to drive, you could kill someone. There has to be some initiative in making this process stringent. Getting a driving licence should not be about 10 hours of driving classes.

The programme needs planning

Lane discipline requires direction orientation in city planning. Without this, people will need to keep making turning movements a lot, and it will be impossible to stay in a single lane for that reason. If we build the Big10 and BigCircle roads into high quality roads that prioritise vehicle movement (all the other roads can be for neighbourhood level, slower, safer uses), then there is some hope for lane discipline.

We need about 250 crores investment each year for the next 3 years to make road improvements (bus stops, turning angles, cross walks, wider footpaths) on these roads. More than this, we need leaders committed to seeing the project implemented properly. But since that seems unlikely to happen, we always end up hoping for some technical solution to 'manage' things.

Note: The Big 10 routes are direction-based routes which connect the centre of the city with the suburbs. For instance, from MG Road to Hebbal, Gorguntapalya, Marathahalli, Nagavara, Hennur crossing, KR Puram, HSR layout, Silk Board, Jayadeva, Banashankari and so on. The second direction orientation is around the city- the Big circle routes.

City roads lack uniformity

Darwin got it right – there are too many of us on the road and survival of the fittest manifest in our road driving behaviour.  Moreover, there are multiple vehicle types – 2 wheelers and autos tend to weave in and weave out; buses are lord and master to do as they deem fit.

Moreover, lanes are too wide in some areas and narrow in others- there is no uniformity. Suddenly the road width widens and then shrinks back to original size – causes everyone to slow down.
What can be done

Start with enforcing left-lane-must-turn-left where feasible; force drivers to take left if they are on that lane and let them resolve themselves after turning left

 In the interim barricade to demarcate lanes forced to turn left or right necessary in India since adherence to lanes does not exist metres width enough; we still stick to 3.5 m based on IRC guidelines meant for highways.
 
Let’s expand footpaths and provide for bicycle lanes, not widen roads

 Buses should be encouraged to be on the left lane (except when need to take right) and not overtake for small stretches only to return back to the same lane.

Go step by step to ensure people know benefits of lane discipline

Lane discipline will definitely help to reduce the congestion, travel times, accidents and finally reduce the air pollution. Lane discipline can be implemented and enforced at all major intersections as well as on a stretch of any highways.  Before we implement these new rules and regulations we need to do the following:
At all the major intersections (including the approach roads):
1) We have to make sure that we erect permanent overhead signboards (across the entire stretch of the approaching roads), which clearly indicate the downward arrow on each lanes with destination (where it leads to).

2) In addition to overhead signboards, we have to mark the directional arrows (left, straight, right) on the pavement itself with pavement markings.  The pavement lane lines should be painted so that they are clearly visible at night too.

3) To make it more visible during nights and rainy days, for about 600 feet before the intersection on the approaching roads, place raised pavement markers (RPM’s) to separate the lanes going in different directions.  This will supplement the already marked lane lines.
 

On any stretch of highway:
1) The principle of separation of traffic by speed works so well on surface streets with longer stretches . Vehicles with higher speeds should occupy the right lanes and vehicles with slower speeds should use left lanes.

2) You must drive on the left side of the road, except for passing, and you are only allowed to pass on the right. We could see that the higher speed limit, when combined with mandatory lane discipline, will definitely save lives.  We can adopt laws such as “Keep Left – Pass Right” law.

3) Even here also before approaching major intersections, lane markings supplemented with overhead directional signs should be provided well in advance so that approaching traffic can stick to the lanes which leads them to their destination.

4) Buses and trucks must be restricted to left and middle lanes only (in a three lane stretch) of the road, and must be restricted to left lane only (in a two lane stretch) unless they are passing other vehicles.

5) All pavement lane markings should be clearly visible for the traffic to drive in their own lanes. 
6) Well before changing the lanes, all traffic must show their turn signals (indicators). Violators should be fined.
7) Any pot holes should be filled and repaired so that we can prevent accidents and bottlenecks resulting from that.(Traffic police must make sure that BBMP does this as soon as possible).

Currently most of the bus stops are located just after (or before) the intersections, and when the buses stop to pick up the passengers they create bottlenecks for all approaching directional traffic.  Hence, bus stops must be located on approaching roads much before the intersections so that even if there is bottleneck due to the bus stop, it affects only that directional traffic only.
Since most of our major main roads are one ways, we have to limit access from these roads to some of the minor cross roads.  Similarly only from some of these minor cross roads, access can be provided to the main road.  This will help to reduce the weaving effect during which a car from left most lane wants to go the cross road at right, will try to cut across all the lanes and thus may cause accident and delays for all other traffic.

Once we do most of the recommendations that are detailed above, then we can launch the campaigns, to educate our traveling public with the concept, advantages and benefits of  “Lane Discipline”.  This can be done through TV advertisements, or five-minute documentaries that can be played in movie theatres, colleges/schools, and on television channels.

A combination of making proper geometric changes to our roads, taking into consideration all safety aspects, and educating the public through awareness campaigns, besides strict enforcement of laws will definitely help make this program a success.
Both government agencies and traveling public must work with each other as a team for the success of such programmes.

Once this awareness campaigns are done with, then we can do a brief customer survey to see what percentage of traveling public is aware of this new law; and if we are satisfied, then we can launch this program on a trial period for two weeks to see the adherence of the public to the new laws and make any necessary changes/modifications to the signs & markings if needed.

Then we can fully launch it and enforce the laws. While enforcing the laws, we have to make sure we are operating and maintaining all the signs, markings in good conditions so that traveling public don’t have any complaints. Strict enforcement through CCTV cameras @ intersections and on major highways, Traffic Police handheld cameras will help to reduce the violations. Most of the three wheelers (autorickshaws) & two-wheelers (bikes, scooters etc..) who have tendency to change the lanes abruptly must be fines so that they follow the rules.