[sustran] Note from a visit to the Delhi BRT corridorReport on Delhi BRT

[Madhav Pai]

Report on Delhi BRT

Madhav Pai

EMBARQ WRI

 

Delhi BRT - I went to Delhi on Saturday April 26, 2008. It was working
quiet well. The bus lanes were working well. There were 6-8 traffic
wardens at every junction instructing pedestrians, cars, bus drivers and
bus passengers. 

 

The big problems they faced/fixed in the first three days

-          The traffic signals did not work properly. Apparently there
was some lost in translation from the signal timing plans on paper and
the timing inputs to the controller. 

-          High number of bus breakdowns in the bus lane. The chief
minister has suggested keeping a crane on the corridor. 

-          The bus driver behavior was a concern. They had very little
idea of what to do. The additional traffic wardens have helped providing
instructions.

-          Motor vehicles and two wheelers in bus lanes

 

There are still concerns, 

- Blue line drivers stand at the bus stop until the light turns green
and don't move to the signal. 

- Motorcycles are using the bicycle lanes and cut in at the last moment
at the junction.

- The queues in the motor vehicle lanes are long. The travel time along
the corridor has got substantially worse. I think flaring the roads at
junctions and long turn bays may have helped and certain locations. Turn
bays will require driver education as well.

 

Anyway the proof of concept has been done and the bus lanes will stay. I
have attached some pictures from the corridor.

 

 

I was told they were processing 10 Buses per cycle in the peak hour.
These include mini-buses, contract buses, blue line buses and the DTC
CNG buses. So 10 buses per cycle, 20 cycles per hour, assuming an
average occupancy 70 makes it 14,000 phpdt. They do have parallel
platforms. The one bus I photographed had much more than 70 people. I
would say it had over 200 people. 

 

The traffic wardens are from a private security agency. The traffic
police are missing from the scene. There have been very high incidences
of breakdowns of the blue line buses on the corridor. 

 

 

 

 

Madhav Pai

India Transport Engineer

EMBARQ, The WRI Center for Sustainable Transport
10 G Street NE, Suite 800 | Washington DC, 20002
email: mpai at wri.org

phone: (202) 729-7683

cell: +91-99206 44182
website: embarq.wri.org 
blog: TheCityFix.com