chaotic mumbai traffic - part 2 - efforts to ease it
the ever worsening traffic in mumbai has become a topic very close to my heart. everyday, along with millions of mumbaikars, i have been living and lamenting on the situation of traffic in mumbai and how its only getting worse every passing day. the government is trying its hand at verious band-aiding efforts by building bridges all over the city. one would agree that they are doing what they should have done 10 years ago. the snail speed at which the construction goes on makes one think that by the time they are constructed, there would be that many more cars in the city making it an even worse situation.
while i keep driving in the city, especially during peak hours, many thoughts come to my mind that the traffic police, government, corporates and the normal public in mumbai could implement to try and ease the situation.
1. peak hour traffic rules - its relatively simple to understand the direction of traffic during peak hours in the city. for example, 8-12 in the morning the traffic is moving south ward and between 6-9 in the eveing, the traffic is moving towards the subarbs. it is very important for the traffic police to impose strict rules during these peak hours.
2. restrict entry to the main roads, highways from all by-lanes during peak hours - lemme take the example of the route i follow every morning to work. there is a by-lane in dadar just before the dadar circle bridge. its a very small lane and 100's of cars from the inside areas enter the main road from that by lane trying to climb the bridge. there is no signal at that junction (well, its not even a junction). in the process, there is a major choke up between the cars entering from that lane and the vehicles trying to go under the bridge to go around dadar circle to catch the plaza bridge. if only the traffic police could restrict entry for cars onto the main road from that lane, it could totally resolve the choke up at that point. the cars entering from the by-lane would necessarily have to go an extra half km to enter the main road from a signal thats at a good distance from the bridge.
3. strict rules for taxis - again an example from my daily route to work. the dadar plaza bridge in any case is a major bottle neck. the 2-lane each side bridge can hardly handle the number of cars going each direction at any time of the day. inspite of the heavy traffic on the bridge, if a taxi has to take in / offload passengers, they would not mind stopping on the middle of the bridge, just giving a hand signal and thus choking the traffic behind them. they would spend a good 2 minutes in dispensing the change and letting the passenger go. you know, every minute counts. they must be mandated (esp. at peak hours) to stop the taxi only at specified locations, else penalised heavily.
4. strict rules for the distance between 2 bridges - the golden example of the choke up between 2 bridges is the 2 bridges on SB Marg at Lower Parel. There is an entire support system going on between the 2 bridges - taxis halting, road side hawkers, people crossing roads. the gap between the 2 bridges is so minimum that the choke up is bound to happen. i would request the authorities coming up with at least 7 bridges from sion to parel to keep enough gap between the bridges in order for the vehicles to merge and de-merge the moving traffic.
5. choking of intersections - this is more to do with the driving culture than anything else. there is absolutely no respect for the 4 seconds of yellow signal in the city. the idea is to only get past the signal line, even 5 seconds after the light has turned RED. if the road ahead is already choked, and cars halted at the intersection, the cars coming in from the perpendicular road of a crossroads (whose light is now green) will now come in and create a major jam. if a strict rule of 'keep the intersection clear' is imposed, maybe it could help regulating the traffic much better.
6. cab / car pooling - i know that the mumbai traffic police has started an initiative encouraging car pooling. however, i see so many cabs and cars having single passenger (besides the driver of course). its actually very funny - you get to see the rich-poor divide so easily on the road at peak hours. there are these ultra rich guys with big cars relaxing (though stressing on the traffic) in the back seat all alone while these not so well to do people, squeezed in a bus just besides the car. even the cabs at peak hours have just one or two passengers at the most. i guess the incentives by the traffic police are not well publicized and hence not well followed. there definitely need to be more incentives.
7. corporate initiatives - finally, it is essential that the corporates rose to the occasion in helping ease the traffic in the city. shifting the working hours by a couple hours, encouraging tele-conferencing, working from home, cutting down on unnecessary client visits, etc can definitely be steps in this direction. i guess corporates in bangalore have already started acting on this. soon, the folks in mumbai will have to follow suit.
as you can see, it is the responsibility of all parties involved - traffic police, regulators, vehicle owners, taxi drivers and also corporates to chip in as much as they can to make lives a little less chaotic on the roads of mumbai.
while i keep driving in the city, especially during peak hours, many thoughts come to my mind that the traffic police, government, corporates and the normal public in mumbai could implement to try and ease the situation.
1. peak hour traffic rules - its relatively simple to understand the direction of traffic during peak hours in the city. for example, 8-12 in the morning the traffic is moving south ward and between 6-9 in the eveing, the traffic is moving towards the subarbs. it is very important for the traffic police to impose strict rules during these peak hours.
2. restrict entry to the main roads, highways from all by-lanes during peak hours - lemme take the example of the route i follow every morning to work. there is a by-lane in dadar just before the dadar circle bridge. its a very small lane and 100's of cars from the inside areas enter the main road from that by lane trying to climb the bridge. there is no signal at that junction (well, its not even a junction). in the process, there is a major choke up between the cars entering from that lane and the vehicles trying to go under the bridge to go around dadar circle to catch the plaza bridge. if only the traffic police could restrict entry for cars onto the main road from that lane, it could totally resolve the choke up at that point. the cars entering from the by-lane would necessarily have to go an extra half km to enter the main road from a signal thats at a good distance from the bridge.
3. strict rules for taxis - again an example from my daily route to work. the dadar plaza bridge in any case is a major bottle neck. the 2-lane each side bridge can hardly handle the number of cars going each direction at any time of the day. inspite of the heavy traffic on the bridge, if a taxi has to take in / offload passengers, they would not mind stopping on the middle of the bridge, just giving a hand signal and thus choking the traffic behind them. they would spend a good 2 minutes in dispensing the change and letting the passenger go. you know, every minute counts. they must be mandated (esp. at peak hours) to stop the taxi only at specified locations, else penalised heavily.
4. strict rules for the distance between 2 bridges - the golden example of the choke up between 2 bridges is the 2 bridges on SB Marg at Lower Parel. There is an entire support system going on between the 2 bridges - taxis halting, road side hawkers, people crossing roads. the gap between the 2 bridges is so minimum that the choke up is bound to happen. i would request the authorities coming up with at least 7 bridges from sion to parel to keep enough gap between the bridges in order for the vehicles to merge and de-merge the moving traffic.
5. choking of intersections - this is more to do with the driving culture than anything else. there is absolutely no respect for the 4 seconds of yellow signal in the city. the idea is to only get past the signal line, even 5 seconds after the light has turned RED. if the road ahead is already choked, and cars halted at the intersection, the cars coming in from the perpendicular road of a crossroads (whose light is now green) will now come in and create a major jam. if a strict rule of 'keep the intersection clear' is imposed, maybe it could help regulating the traffic much better.
6. cab / car pooling - i know that the mumbai traffic police has started an initiative encouraging car pooling. however, i see so many cabs and cars having single passenger (besides the driver of course). its actually very funny - you get to see the rich-poor divide so easily on the road at peak hours. there are these ultra rich guys with big cars relaxing (though stressing on the traffic) in the back seat all alone while these not so well to do people, squeezed in a bus just besides the car. even the cabs at peak hours have just one or two passengers at the most. i guess the incentives by the traffic police are not well publicized and hence not well followed. there definitely need to be more incentives.
7. corporate initiatives - finally, it is essential that the corporates rose to the occasion in helping ease the traffic in the city. shifting the working hours by a couple hours, encouraging tele-conferencing, working from home, cutting down on unnecessary client visits, etc can definitely be steps in this direction. i guess corporates in bangalore have already started acting on this. soon, the folks in mumbai will have to follow suit.
as you can see, it is the responsibility of all parties involved - traffic police, regulators, vehicle owners, taxi drivers and also corporates to chip in as much as they can to make lives a little less chaotic on the roads of mumbai.
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