Suggestions to enhance proposed one-way system on Residency and Richmond Roads

The traffic police recently announced a move to convert Residency Road and Richmond Road into one-ways. To me, it appears that the move has not been fully thought out. I therefore offer here my opinion and suggestions on the proposed system. Other readers are invited to leave their suggestions as comments to this post.

The move to make Residency Road and Richmond Road one-ways is interesting but yet fraught with the danger of throwing the entire flow of traffic in the central business district in to disarray. Nevertheless, given the present state of traffic on these roads and no visible signs of a mass rapid transit system or restricted access to these parts on the anvil, it is an experiment that is worth trying.

However, the system must be thoroughly experimented with before being made permanent. Therefore it is essential that the traffic police

i. Conduct trial runs

Put off the introduction of the system to Jan 1, 2005 and use the interim to conduct trial runs of the system, perhaps initially beginning with Sundays and then one working day a week to carefully understand the
implications of the proposed system and accordingly tweak the same to optimize traffic flow.

ii. Hold open house hearings

The traffic police should hold open houses so that the general public and independent experts can evaluate the design of the changes and offer their suggestions and therefore bring in elements that may have been
overlooked.

I offer below my opinions and suggestions to the changes proposed, based on my experience as a daily user of these roads.

i. Do not convert Double Road ramp of flyover into two way

The ramps of the Richmond Circle flyover are only 30-ft wide each. Presently, during peak hours, even with one-way traffic, the Double Road up-ramp gets choked with traffic. All it takes is one slow moving heavy
vehicle like a bus to bring traffic to a crawl. It is a foregone conclusion that this ramp cannot take the full load of two-way traffic and is certain to cause an enormous hindrance for traffic flow.

Presently, traffic moving towards Double Road from both Residency Road and Richmond Road flow on the Lalbagh Fort Road below the flyover. One wonders therefore why we cannot continue with the existing system. However the flow is presently staggered because of traffic signals and in the new system entry to Lalbagh Fort Road at Richmond Circle from Richmond Road may continue to be regulated through signals.

Besides, with no change announced to the flow of traffic on Lalbagh Fort Road, traffic from Richmond Road heading towards KH Road will be able to proceed both on and below the flyover. How is traffic going to be segregated, in that case?

The only alternative is to allow only light traffic on the flyover (on both Double Road and Richmond Road ramps) and direct all heavy traffic below the flyover in both directions. This would however mean throwing open access to Residency Road from Lalbagh Fort Road, which is presently barred. This can still be done by restricting that access only to the heavy vehicles which had previously been taking the flyover and force light vehicles to turn left to Raja Rammohan Roy Road as is done presently. This would also take the load off the Residency Road ramp,
which will henceforth have to bear the load of descending traffic that was earlier split between the two down ramps.

ii. Reverse flow of traffic on Hayes Road and Convent Road

Presently a huge volume of traffic flows down Residency Road and takes a right turn at Cash Pharmacy junction on to St. Marks Road to access St. Mark’s Road and proceed on towards Queen’s Road, Cunningham Road, Raj Bhavan Road. With the proposed changes this segment of traffic will flow down Richmond Road turn right at Richmond Circle on to Residency Road and then take a left at Cash Pharmacy junction towards St. Mark’s Road.

This lengthy detour and consequent congestion at Richmond Circle can be avoided by reversing the present one-way on Hayes Road and allow traffic to flow from Richmond Road to Residency Road. This would ensure quick and easy access for traffic on Richmond Road to access St. Mark’s Road.

In contrast the volume of traffic flowing from Richmond Circle that seeks to approach the segment of Richmond Road between Richmond Circle and Convent Road-Richmond Road intersection is relatively much lesser. To allow this access, the flow of one-way traffic on Convent Road should also be reversed (allow flow from Residency Road to Richmond Road). This would also give access to Langford Town/Akkithimmanahalli areas through Convent Road – Richmond Road – Kingston Road. Additionally, for traffic flowing from Double Road side, this access would also be available through Langford Road – O’Shaugnessey Road – Richmond Road route.

iii. Ease Choke-Point at down ramp of Residency Road

Presently, traffic descending on to Residency Road is faced with a huge choke point right at the foot of the flyover because of a bus stop with large number of buses stopping and the Bishop Cotton’s Boys High School.

With the introduction of the proposed system the traffic at this point will nearly double with the addition of the volume that was previously taking the Richmond Road down ramp. While the one-way on Residency Road will no doubt ease this congestion to an extent, because of the short stretch between the foot of the down ramp and Cash Pharmacy junction and there will be criss-crossing of traffic to head in different directions which will negate the gains.

Therefore it is essential that this choke-point is eased. This can be done by regulating the manner in which vehicles that come to the school and buses halt, park and proceed. Presently it is extremely haphazard. This can be converted to a queue system where the right most lane alone is used for this purpose. Entry in to this queue for vehicles meant for the school would be immediately after the entrance to the Bangalore Club and exit would just in front of the back gate of the school/Cotton Complex. This would ensure that vehicles do not try to swerve in and swerve out of that lane at multiple points. Additionally traffic police could work with the school management to ensure that school personnel are deployed near the gate to safely guide children into the school.
This way parents would not have to park and disembark from the car to send the children into the school premises, thus saving further congestion.

Similarly BMTC buses should also enter the queue in front of the bus stand and exit in a queue at the end of it instead of swerving in and out at multiple points, often at 90 degrees.

iv. Distribute bus stands across the stretch of the road.

Presently bus stands for buses headed in any one direction are distributed between Richmond and Residency Road. Now these bus stands are going to be get converged on either of the two roads. This would mean more buses stopping at the same bus stand and increasing the congestion.

For instance, the bus stand on the left side of Residency Road, abutting the Bishop Cotton’s Boys School is already congested. This bus stand can be split in to two by letting buses that take a left on to St. Marks
Road to stop here and buses that proceed straight towards Brigade Road to stop after the Cash Pharmacy junction. Similarly bus stands across Residency Road and Richmond Road could be split up between buses proceeding in different directions thus reducing the congestion at any one place.

v. Provide pedestrian over bridges.

One of the major reasons for congestion is movement of pedestrians across the road at all points. Pedestrians tend to cross the road wherever they like instead of at intersections. With the roads becoming one-ways even the stop-and-proceed option for pedestrians, in the form of the median in the road, is going to disappear.

Therefore, there is a case for providing an access route to pedestrians that does not interfere with traffic flow. Pedestrian over bridges are preferable to underpasses because they can be constructed without any
disruption of traffic on the road, construction is cheaper and faster than underpasses and they can also be dismantled if the need arises. Usage can also be encouraged because over bridges are open to view and
there fore safer than underpasses. Additionally they can also garner revenue through advertisements and make themselves self-sustaining. Aesthetics can be maintained by growing creepers across the railings as
has been done in Singapore.

vi. Enforce lane discipline.

While unidirectional flow of traffic of gives the illusion of streamlined traffic flow, in reality it ends up increasing the chaos because our motorists tend to drive in the lane that pleases them and at the last minute try to change lanes in an attempt to take the left or right turn as the case may be. With as many as 4 to 5 lanes in one direction in the proposed system, this kind of driving behavior will worsen the flow of traffic. Therefore the traffic police have to enforce lane discipline very strictly and forcibly direct vehicles that attempt
to change lane at the last moment to proceed in the direction that the lane they occupy is meant for.

vii. Impact of traffic on M.G. Road

Presently the flow of traffic from Trinity Circle towards Mayo Hall on M.G.Road is constantly in a jam with traffic at the Dickenson Road signal stretching as far back as Big Kids Kemp during most of the day.

With the proposed system, the implications of traffic flow on this stretch of MG Road has to be evaluated thoroughly. Any additional volume of traffic here would be disastrous as the pile up would then spill over
into Trinity Circle intersection itself.

Further, traffic that presently flows from Trinity Circle on M.G. Road and then onto Residency Road may attempt to approach Richmond Road at Trinity Circle. The stretch of Airport Road between Trinity Circle and Richmond Road intersection (in front of Du ParcTrinity building) is very narrow and will be unable to handle any additional traffic flow. There is a constant jam at this junction between vehicles proceeding from Trinity Circle to Richmond Road and those from Airport Road to M.G. Road even at present. Remedial measures to prevent worsening of the situation at this junction will also have to be implemented.

viii. Impact of traffic on Langford Road.

Traffic from Double Road/Mission Road side headed towards Richmond Road might attempt to use Langford Road to avoid the circuitous route through Residency Road. This could result in a breakdown of traffic on an already narrow and overcrowded road. Therefore the implications for traffic flow on Langford Road must also be studied carefully and if necessary access to this road from Double Road side should be restricted.

ix. Re-lay roads.

Most of the roads that will be impacted by the new system are in an extremely poor condition – notably

a. stretch of Residency Road between Cash Pharmacy Junction and Museum Road junction
b. stretch of Residency Road between Galaxy Theatre and Mayo Hall/Commissariat Road
c. Double Road between Olympic Sports junction and H Siddaiah Road junction.
d. Langford Road between Hockey Stadium and St Joseph’s College.
e. Campbell Road between Hosur Road and D’Souza Circle.
f. stretch of Richmond Road between Trinity Circle and HOSMAT Hospital.

There is an urgent need to asphalt/re-lay these roads

I hope that the traffic police would be open to receiving suggestions and incorporating them before proceeding with the implementation of this system and thus ensure that it would truly alleviate the problems faced
by commuters in the city.