[sustran] Re: Unplanned mixing on BRT feeds chaos

[Sujit Patwardhan]

8 September 2012



The CRRI study report will become a historical document (for all the wrong
reasons), which may be the only reason for anyone wanting to read it.

The Honourable High Court Judges should now manage the Frankenstein they
have helped to create. I hope their cars get stuck for several hours in
this mess.

DIMTS have taken the correct stand. Handling mixed traffic in the BRT lane
is like trying to fill a bucket full of holes and why should DIMTS try and
sort out the chaos when their views were rejected by the Court?

Sometimes it takes a bitter pill to cure a disease. Hopefully those
clamouring for allowing personal vehicles in the BRT lanes will see this
kind of "free for all" doesn't work, and traffic is bad for everyone - for
the BRT buses of course, but also for cars and other modes.

--
Sujit




On Sat, Sep 8, 2012 at 8:09 AM, Alok Jain <alok.priyanka at gmail.com> wrote:

> I have the CRRI study report now. If anybody needs, pls contact me
> separately on email.
>
> Regards
> Alok Jain
>
> LONG QUEUES
> Unplanned mixing on BRT feeds chaos
> Transport Dept Leaves Out CRRI’s Measures
> Rumu Banerjee TNN
>
> New Delhi: The transport department has taken the Delhi high court’s order
> for mixed traffic on the Ambedkar Nagar-Moolchand bus rapid transit
> corridor quite literally. Traffic on the corridor has degenerated into
> chaos in the past month as the department has been allowing traffic to mix
> without implementing any of the measures that were in place during the
> trial run by CRRI.
>     Neither the signal phasing, which was an important part of the
> experimental run, nor the segregation of vehicles based on direction of
> traffic, is in place at the corridor. The result: vehicles move in all
> lanes, there are long queues at intersections during peak hours and traffic
> rules are violated rampantly. Sanjeev Kumar, a resident of Madangir
> Village, said, “Travelling on the BRT has become a nightmare. I have to
> allot an extra hour to my journey either way to reach any place.” While
> journeys have become longer, it’s especially hard for the school buses that
> travel on the road. Pritha Goswami, a resident of Pushp Vihar, said, “My
> daughter takes the bus from Sheikh Sarai nowadays as the school bus doesn’t
> stop at my colony anymore because of the excess traffic.”
>     During the trial run by CRRI, however, the mixed traffic had been
> successful, said Kumar. “The traffic movement was smooth then, and travel
> time had gone
> down.” None of the measures that were in place then have been implemented
> by the transport department now. During the trial, CRRI had changed the
> signal cycle at important intersections like Chirag Dilli. There were five
> signal cycle changes — four for motorized vehicles and one for
> non-motorised vehicles and pedestrians — reflecting the volume of traffic
> on the road. More importantly, the lanes had been demarcated for
> directional traffic. So vehicles turning left or headed straight plied on
> the left carriageway while the right turning vehicles travelled in the
> dedicated bus lane. To correspond to the directional movement of buses,
> some of the bus stops were relocated to the kerb side.
>     The CRRI report adds: “At Chirag Dilli intersection, one additional
> lane was marked for right turning traffic from Sheikh Sarai to Nehru Place.
> Similarly, one additional right turning traffic lane was provided at Sheikh
> Sarai intersection for right turning traffic from Chirag Delhi to Saket
> during the trial run.” Also, clear signage had been put up, which added to
> better movement of traffic.
>     Reacting to a TOI story published on Tuesday, DIMTS admitted that it
> was only assisting in the operation of the traffic signal and monitoring
> the corridor through its OCC (operational control centre). However,
> itmaintained it was not in-charge of BRT anymore.
>
>
> FREE-FOR-ALL: Neither the signal phasing, nor the segregation of traffic
> based on direction is in place
> --------------------------------------------------------
> To search the archives of sustran-discuss visit
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>
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> SUSTRAN-DISCUSS is a forum devoted to discussion of people-centred,
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> (the 'Global South').
>



-- 
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*It's no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.
*

- J. Krishnamurti

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Sujit Patwardhan
patwardhan.sujit at gmail.com
sujit at parisar.org <sujitjp at gmail.com>
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