Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Traffic in Pune

Pune's traffic has become extremely bad in the recent years. In this post I would like to suggest some simple steps the administration or the people of Pune can take to ease the load on the roads.

No Multiple Visits

Today, people have to visit government offices multiple times to get simple things done. A better e-governance could ensure that people do not have to visit a government office more than once for the same work. Lists of documents required should be displayed clearly on major government office websites and buildings. Also, create two different queues for people with regular documents (such as Adhaar card as address proof, and age proof and identity) and another for people who have arcane documents (such as a birth certificate for proof of age, an electricity bill for proof of address and a PAN card for proof of identity).

Cater to Specifics

A lot of students go from Shivajinagar to Akurdi in a couple of local trains. Why not run special local trains from Shivaji Nagar to Akurdi during these times? Why not urge more and more college students to take these special trains instead of using two wheelers on an everyday basis? There  is a train track that goes from Pune station to Hadapsar. However, there are no locals that run on this route. Why not introduce a few local trains during the peak office hours?

Signal is for Everybody

Take a class for all public transport bus drivers and tell them that they will be fined if they jump the signal even 5 seconds before the signal turns green. If the buses will stop for the correct interval, others will be discouraged to start 5 seconds too early as well. Currently the buses form a wall to hide behind for bikers to jump the signal early.

Remove BRT

How do people climbing into the bus get to the bus stop in the BRT system? By risking their life in crossing the whole road on which faster vehicles are supposed to move. How is this the right way of transporting people? Also, the BRT channel is so small that buses have to drive very slowly inside that lane and that too one behind the other. It is a ridiculous railway of buses particularly on the Swargate - Katraj and in Hadapsar area. Stop this nonsense.

Parking on Both sides

All large establishments such as malls, colleges, theaters, parks etc. should have parking on both sides of the road, or a left side subway that allows vehicles to enter the establishment from either side of the road. This will reduce drastically the number of people requiring to take a U-turn. There should be overbridges or escalators that enter directly into the establishment from the other side of the road so that people do not have to cross the road obstructing traffic.

Fine Errant Drivers Electronically

Errant drivers should be caught using cameras at all major signals. All fines should be electronically dispatched to such people. No humans involved and no place for foul play.

AC Buses for Hinjawadi

The public transportation authority in Pune should offer companies in the IT hub special air conditioned buses dedicated to carry their passengers at specified times. These buses can be run through the city to cater to other passengers during times other than the office times of the IT companies. This offers a very healthy way for transport for the relatively affluent IT crowd, offers a slightly subsidized travel for other crowd at non-peak times and therefore plays a large part in reducing the load on the roads.

Encourage Speed and Lane Discipline

Speed is extremely important for taking people and their vehicles off the road fast enough. If there are too many vehicles on the road at any one time, there is a lot of traffic. But the carrying capacity of the road is decided by both its width as well as its speed. Therefore, the smaller a road, the better it should be maintained ensuring rapid transit through that road. In complete contrast, our administration introduces speed-breakers and potholes to slow down everyone even more.

No Horns

Pune is becoming an increasingly loud city. Every horn sounded on the road causes tensions to rise, tempers to flare, and an unnecessary sense of urgency which quickens the heart rate. Horns can be avoided if people driving and people walking, both, follow discipline. Further, use of lights to indicate intent, use of mirrors to see approaching vehicles (bikes don't have mirrors in Pune; helmets are compulsory, by the way!) and using turn indicators correctly will reduce the need for sounding horns to a large extent.

Education in Schools

Today's students will become tomorrows drivers. It could help immensely if the education system teaches the students why good driving is good, why following the rules on the road leads to a better life, and why keeping a calm, cool head is the way to go on the road. It would also be useful if the students are taught about defensive and silent driving at a very early age. Instead of games that reward drifting and dangerous driving, it could be useful if the students played computer games that rewarded good driving.

7 comments:

  1. I hear you brother, but then who will run scams through BRT? do putting special local trains for students will put extra money into rashtravadi's swiss bank account? and signals in pune city, where all people act like they are Maratha shiledars on whom's weak shoulders the whole Maratha empire is resting? And please dont even start on Aadhar, last month i spent seven hours just for that stupid useless card where 10th failed government employee was treating citizens of india as he was Lord Kerzen. Few hours in government office and any optimistic person will go nihilistic in this country. Peace.

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  2. I agree that the problems of commuting in Pune and most cities need to be addressed on highest priority. We require short term and long term approach.
    The roots cause for congestion, I think, is poor and inadequate planning of traffic flow. There is a need of separating vehicular and pedestrian traffic- Chandigarh is a good example for this. Also every block needs to be made self sufficient for Schools, Hospitals, Markets etc, to reduce the requirement of travelling in the first place. Plus the quality of roads needs to be drastically improved. Speed breakers should be abolished on main roads. Schools should not have their entrances on the main roads, but have entry from the inner roads. Signals have to be fitted with fine cameras as suggested by you, and violators should be fined and informed of fines by SMS. The topic is such that one can go on for ever. Basically I agree your suggestions will provide some relief to Pune traffic.

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  3. 1. No Multiple Visits/ A better e-governance:
    Anyone would agree for the need of better e-governance; but will it really have significant impact on traffic?
    Number of people going to govt office for some personal work would be tiny fraction of the total traffic.
    So, it is irrelevant from traffic perspective.

    2. Cater to specifics:
    Theme looks good. But, just availability of train track is not sufficient. We will have to look at overall cost-benefiet analysis. For example, is it economical to have a local train if that would sit idle in the off-peak hours.

    3. Remove BRT: Do not blame the idea for its in-efficient implementation. If rightly implemented, BRT has a potential to serve as default transport mechanism across city.

    4. Parking:
    You addressed the secondary issue of avoiding the U-turn. But, primary issue is many large establishments do not have sufficient parking lots(forget about on both sides). Any plan aprroval for mall, theatres should also check for sufficient parking space considering peak hour visitors.

    5. Electronic fine: OK. No issues.

    6. AC buses for Hinjewadi:
    Let us compare it with Bangalore. In Bangalore, BMTC have taken special efforts to serve affulent IT crowd. Also, these buses are running through the city to cater other passengers at off-peak hours. But, rates in off-peak hours are not all subsidized. They are 2.5 times normal bus fare. Resulting in low occupancy rate for AC buses during off-peak hours. Bangalore-bus-prayanikara-vedike, an assosiation of BMTC commuters demands to lower spendings on purchasing AC buses and asking them to procure more ordinary buses with the same funds. Let us say that if BMTC can buy 3 ordinary buses at the cost of one AC bus and assume that combined revenue generated by these 3 ordinary buses is greater than (or equal to) a single AC bus; then don't you think that adding 3 buses would benefiet larger section of the society. Also, note that IT crowd won't mind going by ordinary buses if they get good connectivity, enough buses to accomodate the demand and reliable, timely service.
    So, I think it is better to focus on primary need for well connected, reliable, timely bus service. After that we can think of luxury services for affulent crowd.

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    Replies
    1. 1. No Multiple visits:
      According to this pune mirror article, RTO alone receives a footfall of 5000 per day. http://www.punemirror.in/article/2/201308062013080609434259e4fb07c1/Insecure-RTO.html
      So the issue is not trivial.

      2. Economies of trains can be seen in the following management pitch. No numbers here, but the ideas expressed are similar to my points. http://www.bombardier.com/en/media-centre/insight/economy-and-rail.html

      3. BRT eats up bandwidth of the road. Unless new bandwidth is created and people are transported to and from the bus stop without contending with the other traffic, BRT is a problem.

      4.Primary issue in Malls is NOT of parking. It is of the bottleneck created at entry and exits. For example, look at the Orion Mall in Kormangala. The line of vehicles wishing to enter into the parking overlaps the exit gate! Is this not lack of planning? Exiting cars should be able to exit easily from the Mall and not obstructed by the inbound traffic.

      5. No contention on this point.

      6. AC buses. BTMC dedicated monthly pass for IT companies where the bus drops the passengers inside the company campus is costlier than the usual monthly pass (by more than Rs.200/-). This is the subsidization I am taking about. Volvo buses are cooler, noise and pollution free (Tata equivalents are not always so, by the way!) Crowd segregation is important for safety as well. Incidents of theft are much lower in AC buses than they are in ordinary buses. AC buses serve another very important purpose. They cause a lot of people to shun their own cars and go by the bus instead. If affluent crowd is not catered to, then the number of cars on the road will not decrease. Only AC buses can provide the comfort close to that of our own cars.

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  4. Very crisp and actionable thoughts Ashutosh! Even if 50% of this is implemented by 50% of people -- it would have a great impact. And it is not even rocket science! Very nicely put.

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  5. Recently came across this article from Times of India:
    http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/Indias-love-for-cash-costs-3-5bn-a-year/articleshow/45934597.cms

    It mentions how much time people waste at the ATM. Quoting, "Citing the example of Delhi, the report says that residents spend 60 lakh hours and Rs 9.1 crore ($1.5 million) to obtain cash."

    These people who needed to visit the ATM, could have been saved a lot of time (and thereby traffic) if everyone accepted credit cards. I was shocked that in Pune, some food courts in even large malls do not accept credit cards. I visited Central mall on University Road and faced this problem.

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  6. I had recommended local trains to run till hadapsar, in the "cater to specifics" section. I ran a check about how many trains halt at Pune Station (junction) and how many halt at Hadapsar. The comparison is shocking. I agree that many of them take a different route from Pune St. but those which terminate at Pune St. could easily go to Hadapsar serving as local trains during this last leg.
    Check the links below for seeing which trains halt at Hadapsar:
    http://indiarailinfo.com/arrivals/hadapsar-hdp/6038
    And this one for checking the number of trains that halt at Pune St.
    http://indiarailinfo.com/departures/pune-junction-pune/76
    If the whole list does not load, you will have to click more a couple of times to see the whole list.

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