[simplyself]

Originally Posted by sreepy

Marking of speed breakers would help us all night time drivers. I have traveled on numerous SH's in A.P. Most of them have unmarked speed breakers when you approach a small village. The suspension takes a heavy beating when you cannot slow down in time.

These speed breakers are most probably laid by villagers. They are generally rough, uneven, with rocks/stones jutting out. Also, they are generally at very steep angles.

When an accident occurs, the villagers put a speed breaker. R & B removes it. After a few days the speed breaker reappears. It goes on for a few times, then one of the parties loses interest.

Swerving into opposite lane to avoid is a dangerous thing but people tend to do so. Even more dangerous is a sudden appearance of a pot hole. Natural, instantaneous reaction of drivers is to swerve to avoid the pot hole even before they realize there are vehicles/people on that lane. I have seen many lives lost due to this.

International/bigger companies pay more to politicians !! What generally happens is, contractors quote less than the estimated price in order to get the work. Even then, he has to pay 2% of the ECV (Estimated Contract Value) as "agreement charges". Has to satisfy the inspecting authority's every
whim and fancy. Get the measurements recorded in time. This itself is an episode in its own right. At the time of sanction of bills ( part bills are given) 10% goes to the staff, Superintending Engineer, Executive Engineer have to be paid.

On an average, out of Rs.100.00, contractor is left with about Rs.65 - 70 to do work. Then he too has to eat.

And you fellows expect quality?

[the.city]

There are some great suggestions here. But, there's one item missing that I would like to add.

Do you know what is a road's biggest enemy is, anyone?? Water! Yes water!!

Appropriate water drainage is key. Else the road will decay. It will form those small depressions (which are quite dangerous at high speeds) and the outer edges of the road will become unusable with time. Water disturbs the pressed sub-pavement and loosens the sub-soil, creating these depressions. These is irreversible damage. You can lay additional layers of tar (I think it's called resurfacing), but that will only hide the issue for some time and the depressions will appear again.


Full disclosure: My rant on this issue is mainly because my wife had a terrible accident because a speeding auto toppled over one such depression leaving her with a severe flesh wound and a casting in her leg for few months.

[singhsid]

1) To continue on the speed breaker theme - well marked speed breakers please rather than something which you can only spot from 5ft away!

2) Directional spikes so that anyone driving the wrong way will get 2/3/4 deflated tyres as a reward (lets see them taking the wrong way to save Rs. 0.50 worth of petrol now!)

3) Barricades on the highways so bullock carts, bicycles, pedestrians don't use them as and when they see fit.

4) Better usage of signs and not have them there just for the sake of it.

5) Better milestones on the highways, perhaps even digital signboards which can tell you which fork to take, traffic conditions etc.

[mmxylorider]

Also it's about time the signages related to destination distances are also updated. A standard format should be used and all earlier sign-boards should be removed. I have seen numerous cases where there are different numbers for the same destination within a span of a km.
The earlier system of using yellow/while or green/while milestones were pretty accurate. With road re-alignment to bypass towns, these should be updated or replaced.

[simplyself]

Originally Posted by the.city

There are some great suggestions here. But, there's one item missing that I would like to add.

Do you know what is a road's biggest enemy is, anyone?? Water! Yes water!!

True.

Also, water hides the pot holes or the depth of pot holes. That too makes the driver apprehensive of what is underneath the water.

[bbops1]

Great topic.

Most of us have highlighted all the problems and suggested workable solutions.

What I see the biggest problem for our roads are the proximity of commercial / residential establishments. There should be a total ban on these especially of main arteries / highways etc. Due to these we have people / animals / parked vehicles etc on what are supposed to be main roads / highways.

Why do villagers put road humps - simply because there is something on the other side that needs their attention so they need to cross. So how can they cross a highway of speeding vehicles safely ? Construct a road hump - simple solution. So why blame them ?

We need to have by passes/flyovers on existing highways which pass thru villages / small towns . Upcoming New roads to be designed in a way as to keep villages towns atleast a kilometer away. No establishment what so ever to be allowed to come up anywhere close to the roads. Of course we need eateries/petrol pumps etc on highways. These to be planned at proper places with a planned entry and exit.

In cities for example.
One needs to look at the intermediate ring road ( connecting indiranagar to koramangala ) in Bangalore. This road starts at Domlur where there are residential apartments, shops, auto showrooms restaurants, IT parks etc. Midway there is Army land on both sides and this stretches till Eijipura. This stretch has nothing but greenery on both sides. Now traffic moves slowly till it reaches the army part of the road and then it moves smoothly till eijipura. Only hiccup is due to a U turn provided midway. Then from Eijipura it slows down as it is same situation like in Domlur.
Members using this road would have noticed the amount of pedestrians / jay walkers etc on the army stretch of this road. Most I have found are morning / exercise walkers, joggers sticking to the footpaths.


This clearly demonstrates if we keep commercial / residential / business districts away from main arteries of a city, commuting can be a pleasure between places. These roads would be devoid of people / unwanted parking / irresponsible road crossing , also we will need lesser traffic signals.


Once a locality is planned as a residential / business / commercial that area should be allowed to remain as such. In Bangalore most old residential areas have turned into offices/shops etc which is causing and contributing a lot for the problems of this city.

[SupratikDebnath]

I truly admire the road designs in Bhubaneswar. 6 laned major roads with additional two-wheeler tracks on either sides and pedestrian walk-ways, again both sides!
There are also presence of service roads and the shops / hotels / vendors etc are all situated along the service road. :-)
These arrangements take care of smooth flow of traffic.
But still due to our driving habits, every kind of infrastructure fail.

Anyways, I believe these are simple to follow road design features. Agree?

[ecenandu]

How about a 3D Zebra crossing.

Two ladies from Gujarat have designed a 3D zebra crossing which gives the illusion of being a road block, thus succeding in slowing down speeding vehicles.

The concept is being put in to effect around various schools in Gujarat. This Women's Day we honour these women whose efforts make our roads a safer place for children!

Do you have ideas that can be implemented for safer roads and to minimise head injury in India? Write in to us using the hashtag

Source

[sparky@home]

This concept which originated in India seems to have been taken up in Iceland.

https://www.boredpanda.com/3d-pedest...gn=truththeory

Town in Iceland Paints 3D Zebra Crosswalk To Slow Down Speeding Cars
In the small fishing town of Ísafjörður, Iceland, an exciting development in road safety has just popped up – almost literally. A new pedestrian crossing has been painted that appears to be 3D by way of a cleverly-detailed optical illusion. Not only does the innovative design give foot-travelers the feeling of walking on air, it also gets the attention of drivers, who will be sure to slow down their speed once they spot the seemingly floating ‘zebra stripes.’ Icelandic environmental commissioner Ralf Trylla called for its placement in Ísafjörður after seeing a similar project being carried out in New Delhi, India. With the help of street painting company Vegmálun GÍH, his vision became a reality.

[arun_josie]

With too many vehicles jumping over the divider and going to the other side during accidents, I felt the divider on this road is safer as it is at a decent height and can avoid vehicles jumping over the divider.