[amitwlele]

Last night at around 8 PM the traffic was stopped on the bypass towards Mumbai side near Wakad. Could see policemen but as it was dark was not able to make out if there was an accident. This caused huge pile up all the way till Hotel Sadanand. Folks any idea what was the reason?

I passed the hold up thanking my stars that traffic towards Chandni Chowk was smooth. But my joy was shortlived and there was a massive jam near Praj Industries. Took the service road and joined the bypass again near the underpass construction. Again not sure what was the issue.

[noopster]

The jam on the bypass near Praj was on almost all day or what? I was there around 5 pm, thankfully on the service lane, and it was chock a block. Don't know what was wrong!

[ironshark]

Originally Posted by amitwlele

Last night at around 8 PM the traffic was stopped on the bypass towards Mumbai side near Wakad. Could see policemen but as it was dark was not able to make out if there was an accident. This caused huge pile up all the way till Hotel Sadanand. Folks any idea what was the reason?

I passed the hold up thanking my stars that traffic towards Chandni Chowk was smooth. But my joy was shortlived and there was a massive jam near Praj Industries. Took the service road and joined the bypass again near the underpass construction. Again not sure what was the issue.

Originally Posted by noopster

The jam on the bypass near Praj was on almost all day or what? I was there around 5 pm, thankfully on the service lane, and it was chock a block. Don't know what was wrong!

The entire lane was blocked off as there was a suspected object that was found on the highway and police checking was underway as a precautionary measure.

Source - Pune Traffic Police's Facebook status.

[akashnagrani]

My rant is about the work currently going on to create the BRTS on Nagar road. I don't understand why such a wide lane needs to be specially made for only buses. The buses might consist of 5% of the number of vehicles that use that road. The work has lead to traffic jams every day making it a nuisance.

The BRTS might make sense if it was meant for all heavy vehicle traffic. And that too only if implemenred and supervised.

[moralfibre]

Originally Posted by akashnagrani

The BRTS might make sense if it was meant for all heavy vehicle traffic. And that too only if implemenred and supervised.

I studied in a boarding school in Panchgani till 1999. Back then, our commute from Bombay to school after vacations used to be via Pune since this side of the ghat was better than the Poladpur route.

I remember there was no Bombay - Bangalore bypass. Satara road was a single lane highway with a thick tree cover so much so that you'll barely feel the heat during day time travel. Within 10 years, the highway doubled up. The road from Swargate to Katraj multiplied the lanes. It was as big as the expressway that was put in service. The trees were cut and much of the beauty of this road was sacrificed. I agree development takes some uprooting of trees but what followed next is sheer brilliance of the local civic body.

One fine day, the Pune municipal corporation thought they should match up the world. Some foreign trips and tons of shopping later, they realized that 6 lanes are too much for people to have in Pune. Bus stops on curb side are a thing of the past. The bus stops should move to the middle of the road, two lanes should be barricaded off in such a way that only PMPML buses can fit in those. People should have some adventure in their otherwise boring and safe lives so they should cross 3 lanes each day to reach the bus stop. Whatever remains on the road can be used by other traffic. And thus was born their ambitious BRTS (Bus Rapid transit scheme/service).

Needless to say, it was a flop from day 1 but somewhere in the babudom they rejoiced thinking they had achieved what nobody else could. Only drawback was that despite having dedicated traffic free bus lanes, they continued to rake in losses to the tune of a couple of hundred crores. So they bought an additional fleet of buses that they thought would bring more money. Something like JNNNNNTRUNMUM was pasted on the side to credit the funding body and mission behind the novel idea. Things did not change. The concept and implementation was terrible. Everyone knew that the idea was stupid and the results disastrous.

No one can deter the engineers at traffic / roads division at the municipality. Not even balance sheets that show crores of losses. So, they set out on another mission, this time they thought of the poor chicken that cross the road to reach the bus stop. So the bus stops will now be air-conditioned. They will open directly into the seating area so that you don't have to climb into the bus. You'll just walk in. The buses were custom ordered to have doors on the wrong side (driver side) of the bus. Oh well, the bus stops are also friendly for the handicapped. Needless to say, they are placed right in the middle of places that experience chaotic traffic.

They also thought of extending the courtesy to other parts of the city. Why on earth should residents along the Swargate - Katraj route reap the benefits of their foreign studies? Let us spread the novel idea around Pune. And thus they began implementing their brilliant scheme across the city. Very soon, you'll be lucky to find yourself space to cram in your vehicle between the footpath and the dedicated bus lane. And this will happen on almost all of the roads in the city. Yes that includes F.C. Road and J.M. Road as well.

[selfdrive]

Originally Posted by moralfibre

Very soon, you'll be lucky to find yourself space to cram in your vehicle between the footpath and the dedicated bus lane. And this will happen on almost all of the roads in the city. Yes that includes F.C. Road and J.M. Road as well.

Apparently PMPML has demanded for two way BRTS on JM road instead of one way BRTS on FC & JM roads. It will fun to see the mess multiply manifold near Garware bridge/ deccan bus stand!

As for the tree lined roads, if they had enough foresight they would ave built the extra lanes on either side of the trees than chop them and keep widening the road once in a while. But then where is the earning in that?

[amitwlele]

Originally Posted by moralfibre

And thus was born their ambitious BRTS (Bus Rapid transit scheme/service).

Originally Posted by selfdrive

Apparently PMPML has demanded for two way BRTS on JM road instead of one way BRTS on FC & JM roads.

I have heard that BRTS has been successfully implemented in Ahmedabad. Not sure whether it is true as have not been there.

Any first hand information about what is being done differently there?

[zalaps]

Originally Posted by amitwlele

I have heard that BRTS has been successfully implemented in Ahmedabad. Not sure whether it is true as have not been there.

Any first hand information about what is being done differently there?

I'm no expert of planning civic transport. Here is what I can see as a difference in Janmarg (A'bad BRT).

- Operations are not managed by municipal transport (Like PMPML in pune). Janmarg is a separate entity of its own.


- Resources are not shared with municipal transport at all, not even repair facility. Here PMPML is not able to repair it's own fleet. close to 35% fleet is always offline in PMPML!!! BRT resources are included in 35% as well. This is Janmarg reair depot. Image credit to Cyrus Mobedji


- Janmarg is planned more like a Metro on roads. Tickets are at bus stops & alignment of bus stoppage are too accurate to measure.


- Role & availibility of CEPT in designing whole system was incredible.


- Handling of Soni ni Chali junction where two BRT corridors cross each other was effective with elevated BRT corridor on another.


- Atleast an effort to conserve tree. Image credit Dainik Bhaskar group


- In old city, due to space issues Janmarg has one directional routes only


The Failure in Janmarg - It has signals for pedestrians to cross general traffic road on their way to BRT bus stop. In peak hours signal are working fine. Problem occurs in odd hours when general traffic tends to ignore signal & invites an accident.

Images credit to gandhi.rushabh1992 & other users of SkyscraperCity forum.

[amitwlele]

Originally Posted by zalaps

I'm no expert of planning civic transport. Here is what I can see as a difference in Janmarg (A'bad BRT).

The attachments do not open for me. I think there was some issue while uploading.

[sajo]

Originally Posted by noopster

The jam on the bypass near Praj was on almost all day or what? I was there around 5 pm, thankfully on the service lane, and it was chock a block. Don't know what was wrong!

If anyone is heading towards Chandani Chowk from Mumbai side , its better to take a left at Praj and drive through Bavdhan towards Chandani chowk.
The service road , starting from Lalani Quantum has deteriorated to just a single lane, and that to with mounds of mud in the middle. Traffic chokes up for this short distance and causes really long queues , starting much before Pashan lake at times.
Better to take the longer but relatively free Bavdhan-NDA route instead.

PS : The severity of the Monsoons is predicted better by the PMC than the Met dept. Volume of dug up roads is directly proportional to the rainfall.

[S_U_N]

Nice pictures by zalaps, thought I think they can be moved to a separate thread by itself. There is enough to write about the Ahmedabad implementation I believe.
While I have not used BRTS during my visits to Ahmedabad, I must say that driving a car in congested Ahmedabad roads is a lot more difficult than in Pune.
At least in Pune there is still some traffic sense, but in Ahmedabad, there is 'counter-sense.'
If you slow down at a crossing, you will probably never reach your destination. The other side always believes that they need to reach home first.

The parts where BRTS is implemented have really big/ broad roads mostly.
Pune has very few broad roads now-a-days (e.g. Nagar road).

[radek]

Originally Posted by sajo

If anyone is heading towards Chandani Chowk from Mumbai side , its better to take a left at Praj and drive through Bavdhan towards Chandani chowk.

I did just that yesterday. And there was even bigger traffic jam at junction where you take right turn to Chandani chowk. This jam was piled up back till Praj. Finally some local residents (I think) took up job of controlling traffic at the junction. After that traffic was much better.

[ninjatalli]

Originally Posted by S_U_N

While I have not used BRTS during my visits to Ahmedabad, I must say that driving a car in congested Ahmedabad roads is a lot more difficult than in Pune.
At least in Pune there is still some traffic sense, but in Ahmedabad, there is 'counter-sense.'
If you slow down at a crossing, you will probably never reach your destination. The other side always believes that they need to reach home first.

Have to strongly disagree on this. Unless you are in the bylanes of the old city area, I have found traffic sense to be far more subdued there. And this is based on very recent driving done for long period(s) of stay in that city.

The parts where BRTS is implemented have really big/ broad roads mostly.

Err - not sure if you have driven in Ahmedabad a decade back, you need to have been to some of these BRTS roads of Ahmedabad before the BRTS was created to understand that the opposite is true

Roads were widened - additional lanes were created, shops/etc were moved. Not all of these roads were that wide before. Unfortunately (contrary to one of @zalaps' pictures) trees were also felled.

[selfdrive]

Originally Posted by S_U_N

The parts where BRTS is implemented have really big/ broad roads mostly.
Pune has very few broad roads now-a-days (e.g. Nagar road).

Where is Nagar road broad? In Ahmednagar?!
Its been a royal mess with all the BRTS segregation going on and I have no idea why this season is chosen for all this work.
Even worse is to have BRTS lanes on the Sangamwadi road, totally defeats common sense.

Originally Posted by radek

I did just that yesterday. And there was even bigger traffic jam at junction where you take right turn to Chandani chowk. This jam was piled up back till Praj. Finally some local residents (I think) took up job of controlling traffic at the junction. After that traffic was much better.

I agree that right turn on Bavdhan road is usually blocked till some good samaritan takes pity and helps out. I find it better to stick to NH4 but then I only use that road on weekends if at all.

[voodoochild]

The Pashan-NDA road has a turnoff to HEMRL which quickly degenerates into mayhem every evening. Footpath riders, wrong-way drivers, cows, paan-spitters and of course now the rains and muck. I've been stuck there for 45 minutes almost every evening on my way home. Refusal to ride on footpath and wrong side just means I look like a drowned rat by the time I get home, but atleast I make it home to live (and repeat the process ) another day!