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Doc - I am past getting amazed at your postings. I only wish our friends in the so many different forums we have in Bangalore - City Connect, CTTP, ABIDe, etc, (apart from our tech savvy AdCP, traffic) get to take a look at them. Also, if Pune can't bother to avail your services, perhaps PRAJA, Bangalore, would like to nominate you for the Mayorship of Bangalore. Muralidhar Rao

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After going through this proposal if the PMC still does not try to implement it than they are not serious. For the financial viabilty of the Transport Routes and modes and frequency of buses- PDCOR in Rajasthan has developed a model-I think. You may contact them. Only thing is that if the cycle track and side bus lane can also be segregated by a phycological curb I think it will be healthy for Pedestrians, Cyclists and The Drivers. nJ

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ASJ - Many thanks for those links.

The contra-flow idea seems only to facilitate bus routings in the easiset /fastest /shortest way. At some places, if the bus goes in the opposite direction of mixed flow, it might save distance & time, & hence, this may be the reason why it is being used - there does not appear to be any other benefit. Mixed vehicles can turn to any side across a painted bus-lane even if it is not contra-flow (when there are no buses).

Exclusive ROWs may not be possible in many of the narrow roads of London, Rome, Antwerp, Istanbul & similar old cities but there are a whole lot of cities with exclusive lanes, including Paris, Toulouse & Amsterdam in Europe & several in USA, China & Australia.

In Berlin, Munich & other German cities, buses get priority merely by signal indicators & there are no special bus markings or lanes on roads, none whatsoever, other than at bus stops. Even in Vienna, bus markings were unseen. This is because traffic is far more disciplined there, perhaps even more than London, where bus signage is necessary. Compared to Europe & USA, the levels of discipline are far lower in Asia, though Japan is an exception.

India perhaps, stands at the bottom at present, with heavy urban congestion & no proper transport system/s in our large cities. Though exclusive /physically segregated lanes may not be needed in London, & merely marking bus lanes would do to ensure buses move faster, it does not neccessarily mean that such will work any place, at any time - it will depend on how much traffic there is, how disciplined or indisciplined the traffic is, how wide the road is, etc. & only from these can we deduce how large the problem of intrusion would be.

We have already debated this before. At present, with excessive traffic & very poor road discipline, narrow widths, etc. intrusion by mixed traffic onto bus lanes & obstruction of passage will be a major problem, if lanes are merely painted.

Abt Pune BRT - are there not signal sensors being fitted for buses to go through signalized intersections ? If this is not the case & buses have to wait through the signal phases, I think the BRT experiment may fail. There is no real priority with only lanes segregated for buses & jazzy looking bus stops in the middle, whilst neglecting priority at signals - this is actually the main thing, given traffic conditions in present-day India.

I agree with your theory generally about peripheral lanes being better, but if a road already has many intersections with cross roads or gates for offices /commercial buildings, this will not be possible, & will be opposed by all effected. How can entries be arranged for them ? Peripheral lanes (segregated) are only possible when there is a service road adjacent to the main carriageways.

I think you should take a look at the drawings for Ahmadabad BRT - the best effort in India so far. They are building elevated bus roads, etc. Thus, buses will be using a lot of infrastructure exclusively being built for them, though there are certain sections where they operate in mixed conditions.

Also, Indore's BRT has been a success - made handsome profits last year.

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Nitin,

Hi! What you say about cycle lane can be easily done. In fact one option which I will prefer but I did not detail in the proposal is to go for the widest possible footpaths and create a cycle lane on the footpath (very commonly done in UK).

Until August 07, this road did not even have footpaths, the ones you see are result of my submitting over 100 pictures of young and old having to walk on the road. I made repeated requests for using IRC norms for footpaths to no avail. This road has one of Asia's biggest convention centres, massive shopping malls and major academic Institutes and footpaths should be 2.5 meters. Right now, I am not very enthusiastic of the response to this proposal.

The PMC is more keen on an elevated road and two tunnels. They have not shown the need for these mega projects on paper at all. In Aug 07 when I visited my parents who live along this road, in the 3 weeks I did not witness a single traffic jam (unless waiting at traffic lights is called a jam).

Murali Sir, you have as usual been kind and generous in your appreciation of the proposal but sadly I am doubtful the proposal will even be read in detail. I will keep chipping away at this though and soon try to cover some additional points I have not covered (stuff like rickshaw stands, hawking and provision of limited but paid parking in the viscinity of this major road).

ASJ

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ASJ,

Went thro' yr ideas on the links posted. I have two requests. Grateful if you could advise :

1) I need links to IRC guidelines for road designs wrt sidewalk /footpath widths, cycle track designs & pedestrian facilities.

2) I am not certain if contra-flows will be beneficial with BRT. Please elaborate. Do you know of any BRT system that has been implemented & uses flows in opposite directions ? if so, what were the reasons for planning them in this way.

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