No end in sight to traffic jams from new rules

CITY PLANNING
No end in sight to traffic jams from new rules
By George Kuruvila
A macro urban planning guide with the participation of all the stakeholders can solve the problems of traffic in the city.
Deccan Herald

The term “trial & error traffic planning” was coined by an architect/town planner friend to describe the current traffic planning malaise in Bangalore. Are our city’s “traffic police” qualified to be responsible for the complex traffic planning/management? Why is there so much chaos on our roads which should and can be avoided? What are these “poor traffic planning/management” techniques which have created chaotic traffic flows in Bangalore? In brief, these are:

Labyrinth round about the one-way traffic planning which force us go around instead of in the shortest straight route. Count the thousands of extra kilometres many vehicles have to go through unnecessarily, which actually further overload the main arterial road system; the thousands of extra total man hours wasted in traffic; the thousands of litres of fuel is wasted every day and the consequent added pollution to already unhealthy pollution levels.

Bottlenecks

Where one-way traffic suddenly become two-way traffic on the same road; so four lanes of one-way traffic suddenly face two lanes of opposing traffic. This seems to be the norm for the current traffic planning in Bangalore e.g. on Richmond Road at Magrath Road intersection, St. Marks Road at Madras Bank Road intersection, Residency Road at Commissariat Road intersection etc.

Opposite direction one-ways on the same straight road: In some cases one-way traffic is designed to come in opposite directions on the same road e.g. on Cunningham Road at Millers Road intersection, one-way traffic comes from opposite directions and is then forced to turn rather than go straight. This reinforces the “round about” and “labyrinth” pattern of one-way traffic planning prevalent in Bangalore.

Making minor streets into one-way streets: This forces automobile traffic from residential areas onto the main arterial roads. Also, people are thus unable to take short cuts through these secondary/tertiary streets and avoid further loading the already overburdened arterial roads. I experienced this while going to Koramangala from Dickenson Road/M.G. Road. As the minor street, Primrose Road was “one way” in the opposite direction, I had to travel via Residency Road, Commissariat Road, around the Football stadium to Richmond Road and then to Lower Agram Road towards Koramangala. This meant my car unnecessarily added another vehicle to the traffic jam that afternoon. Had Primrose Road to be two-way, then I needn’t have come onto the major arterial roads at all. God knows how many other people also unnecessarily add their vehicles to traffic jams, because of minor streets being one way, which disallows flexibility in route taking and compulsorily adds to the traffic on the major arteries.

Having graduated in urban design & city planning and worked 18 years in Philadelphia, USA, under one-way traffic conditions (other major cities in America also have permanent one way streets). I had never before witnessed such a confusing exercise in one way traffic planning! Why are we being subjected to this type of traffic planning in Bangalore? May be it is time the city should start a separate traffic cell consisting of qualified and experienced variety of related professionals responsible for the city’s traffic projections and planning, rather than it being primarily the responsibility of traffic police and the so called “traffickist”.

‘Traffickist’

Victor Gruen, in “The Heart of Our Cities”, makes a satirical study of the transportation engineer who he terms as a “Traffickist” and a false friend of the city. He writes: “The Traffickist's habitat is the traffic department of every city and town, although he can often be found, too, in planning commissions, in police departments and in government agencies. He lives and dies for the ‘facilitation’ of automobile traffic, and for that purpose he is engaged in an unholy crusade, willing to bring to his goddess, The Automotive Vehicle, as supreme sacrifice, the city and all its inhabitants. Given a choice between removing automobiles and removing buildings and people, he will not hesitate for a moment to choose the latter.”

“The ‘traffickist’ has hypnotised the nation into believing a) that the term ‘traffic’ means solely the movement of automobiles and trucks, and b) that he is the only one on whom some Higher Being has bestowed the know-how and wisdom to deal with this problem. His ideal is ‘automobile city’ which has the ability to constantly adjust itself to traffic by continuous shrinkage of the areas devoted to structures and human activities and by wiping out that outdated species, the pedestrian, whom the traffickist regards as an outright nuisance slowing down the traffic he wants to facilitate. He firmly believes that cities and people were created to serve traffic rather than the other way around. He has succeeded in mesmerising us into forgetting the real meaning of the term traffic, which is movement – specifically the moving of people and goods – and that the earmark of good traffic is that it moves people and goods in the fastest, most convenient and least disturbing manner possible. The traffickist and other ‘false friends of the city’ are the true dehumanisers of the city,” points out Victor Gruen in “The Heart of our Cities”.

Sensing the current traffic malaise in our cities, I suspect many urban planners and sociologists may agree with the above analysis.

To ease this malaise, may be the transportation engineer, described as the “trafickist” above, should be teamed with urban planners, sociologists, environmentalists etc. so that his predominant automobile bias may be tempered with those whose concern may lie with trees (ecology/environment) and others who may be concerned with the safety of children and elders etc., thus leading to more balanced city living.

Please note that the Cantonment section in Bangalore was designed and built hundreds of years after the establishment of cities in Europe and even America.

Most large European and US cities were built during the “horse and buggy” era, whereas Bangalore Cantonment was primarily built during the automobile age and therefore has wider roads in comparison. Most of these world cities also have higher residential density through group housing compared to Bangalore’s single family lot developments, and yet efficiently manage their traffic in spite of narrower roads. Therefore through efficient traffic planning, the need for further widening of roads would be superfluous.

I had earlier written about the possible solutions for “efficient” traffic planning e.g. having permanent one way north-south and east-west traffic corridors right through the city with synchronised traffic lights, and separate lanes for two and three-wheeler traffic including at traffic intersections.

In spite of what some traffic engineers might say, these can and should be done with the help of experienced macro urban planning guide.