This has been on my mind ever since I got my own vehicular independence. Increasing population, pollution and traffic have always shown their trends on city road infrastructure, and the city in question here is Hyderabad, and having lived there for more than 15 years, watching the traffic trends change was a major interest of mine.
It was during Mr.Naidu's rule, that the skyline of the city started changing considerably and sooner or later, was required to match it with better roads. I do not know if there was a projection done for the next 10 years, for population and traffic, but the attempt to catch up with the development has taken the city in a direction which it was to actually go in the first place - a master plan.
Well, long story short, roads started being widened and traffic started to grow, matched with the release of a variety of vehicles onto the Indian roads, and two-wheelers led the way, considering the Indian economy. Educating people on lane-systems is an uphill task and thus lane markings are just beautifying factors for the new widened roads.
A major issue being ignored by the government and the public is the growing need for parking spaces. Here, the approach taken by the traffic police is completely off-track. All the busy roads have been assigned as No-Parking zones. And when it comes to the highly dense commercial areas like Abids, Koti, Ameerpet and certain areas of Secunderabad, roads have been widened to accommodate a layer of parking at the cost of accessibility to pedestrian traffic.
Although newly constructed malls like Shoppers Stop, Lifestyle and Hyderabad Central have provided parking garages, they have emerged as bottlenecks in the city, proving that the parking provision has been grossly insufficient. The parking has overflown inevitably onto the roads and has created obstructions for smooth-flowing traffic.
Now, Hyderabad is a city which can come up with a higher Floor-space-index, and these commercial buildings can be taller or wider, without eating up the resources. Especially all those buildings which do not have yard space, should venture out for multi-level parking spaces. And these can be designed with entry from one road and exit from another, which helps distribute the traffic into bigger loops, and avoids spillage onto the roads.
But the public has to learn to respect the space of a fast moving vehicle as well as a pedestrian. Even if it is a five minute errand, parking properly eliminates discomfort. The least respectful people are the drivers of public transportation - Auto rickshaws and Buses. Zooming past in all directions possible and traveling at speeds unsafe for them as well as the rest of the traffic, they have been the root cause to more than 50% of the road accidents in Hyderabad.
Shown below is a rough graphical representation of traffic conditions in Hyderabad on a typical four-lane two-way road system.
I have decided to continue here instead of a sequel. Another major issue I have seen in Hyderabad is the complete lack of road sense. During a busy hour, we can find six vehicles traveling parallel to each other on a three-lane road. Everyone is in a hurry and no one wants to wait. And then we have the public transportation competing with the private ones, and so, Hyderabad has come to a situation where, at any given point /junction the count of auto rickshaws will be much more than any vehicle.
And then, since they thought about widening the roads at the cost of the footpaths, there's is an extra spillage of pedestrian traffic onto the roads,and is usually in a direction perpendicular to it. This results in either slowing down of the traffic or the pedestrians getting hit. And yet, they are in a hurry too, and won't wait for a vehicle to pass before crossing the road.
It was during Mr.Naidu's rule, that the skyline of the city started changing considerably and sooner or later, was required to match it with better roads. I do not know if there was a projection done for the next 10 years, for population and traffic, but the attempt to catch up with the development has taken the city in a direction which it was to actually go in the first place - a master plan.
Well, long story short, roads started being widened and traffic started to grow, matched with the release of a variety of vehicles onto the Indian roads, and two-wheelers led the way, considering the Indian economy. Educating people on lane-systems is an uphill task and thus lane markings are just beautifying factors for the new widened roads.
A major issue being ignored by the government and the public is the growing need for parking spaces. Here, the approach taken by the traffic police is completely off-track. All the busy roads have been assigned as No-Parking zones. And when it comes to the highly dense commercial areas like Abids, Koti, Ameerpet and certain areas of Secunderabad, roads have been widened to accommodate a layer of parking at the cost of accessibility to pedestrian traffic.
Although newly constructed malls like Shoppers Stop, Lifestyle and Hyderabad Central have provided parking garages, they have emerged as bottlenecks in the city, proving that the parking provision has been grossly insufficient. The parking has overflown inevitably onto the roads and has created obstructions for smooth-flowing traffic.
Now, Hyderabad is a city which can come up with a higher Floor-space-index, and these commercial buildings can be taller or wider, without eating up the resources. Especially all those buildings which do not have yard space, should venture out for multi-level parking spaces. And these can be designed with entry from one road and exit from another, which helps distribute the traffic into bigger loops, and avoids spillage onto the roads.
But the public has to learn to respect the space of a fast moving vehicle as well as a pedestrian. Even if it is a five minute errand, parking properly eliminates discomfort. The least respectful people are the drivers of public transportation - Auto rickshaws and Buses. Zooming past in all directions possible and traveling at speeds unsafe for them as well as the rest of the traffic, they have been the root cause to more than 50% of the road accidents in Hyderabad.
Shown below is a rough graphical representation of traffic conditions in Hyderabad on a typical four-lane two-way road system.
I have decided to continue here instead of a sequel. Another major issue I have seen in Hyderabad is the complete lack of road sense. During a busy hour, we can find six vehicles traveling parallel to each other on a three-lane road. Everyone is in a hurry and no one wants to wait. And then we have the public transportation competing with the private ones, and so, Hyderabad has come to a situation where, at any given point /junction the count of auto rickshaws will be much more than any vehicle.
And then, since they thought about widening the roads at the cost of the footpaths, there's is an extra spillage of pedestrian traffic onto the roads,and is usually in a direction perpendicular to it. This results in either slowing down of the traffic or the pedestrians getting hit. And yet, they are in a hurry too, and won't wait for a vehicle to pass before crossing the road.
Another problem is the spillage of street-side vendors 'bandis' and hawkers onto major thoroughfares. A lot can be done like reallocating them according to zones and creating a forum-type space for each zone, restricting the movement of vehicular traffic in those zones and creating more pedestrian-oriented areas. Or else, there is always the capitalist approach to it - eliminate hawkers forever and replace them with a more hard-bound infrastructure. (this is a bad idea because it will render so many people unemployed and I am strongly against it!!!)
All this is a part of a Hyderabadi's life and should be changed without killing the flavor in it.
All this is a part of a Hyderabadi's life and should be changed without killing the flavor in it.
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