[carmayogi]

Originally Posted by Impala59

• Do you think the sea-link really makes sense in peak hour traffic?
  
• Also, do you feel that Mumbai badly needs a similar project (Coastal road etc.) to ease out the traffic?
  
• Is there any solution to the terrible bottleneck that is created every morning on the sea-link?

Do share your views on the same.

Regards,

A Mumbaikar frustrated with the traffic.

As far as coastal road goes - no we do not need it. We need to understand how to EXIT junctions, flyovers, etc. If you drive north on the sealink - the exit is towards a 6 lane highway and hence congestion is not as bad. On the other side, 4 becomes 2 and then a 90 degree turn to slow it down further. The Sea Link should be extended till Haji Ali so that it ends 4 lanes into 4. Traffic will always be there no matter how many roads you build. Look at the US for that.

The real solution is to create a working public transport system with multiple lines and options. We should be spending our bullet train cooperation with the Japanese on understanding how Tokyo metro and trains work. We have Indian Railways, BEST and Metro - all owned by different agencies with minimal planning as to how to make things better. Instead, we need a joint agency and we need multiple new metro lines.

I live in NYC now - the subway is horribly dirty and crowded but it is fast and moves millions who can then avoid cars. There are many problems here as well, but we have commuter trains, subway, buses and express buses. I used to own a car in India - I don't need one here.

Europe is a good example where personal car ownership is being discouraged. We should learn from this and implement pooling, express luxury buses and everything we can to reduce road usage rather than increase the number of roads.

[Vj13]

Originally Posted by Rahul Bhalgat

IMO, more infrastructure will just attract more people to cities like Mumbai, Pune making that infrastructure insufficient, very quickly.

Long term solution IMO is to create good employment opportunities and good educational facilities in smaller towns. This will improve the quality of life and also save cost.

And let us think: how much more infrastructure will we be able to create in towns in the budget of one sealink?

Unless we do this, there can be no end to our traffic frustration.

Well you just gave the best idea. Cannot disagree with you. Unless governments look into this, problems in Metro's like Mumbai can never be solved.

[navin]

Originally Posted by iamahunter

[/list]What Mumbai really needs is:

• Better traffic Management System.
• Wider roads.
• Most Important : Roads without potholes.

.

Originally Posted by carmayogi

The real solution is to create a working public transport system with multiple lines and options...We have Indian Railways, BEST and Metro - all owned by different agencies with minimal planning as to how to make things better. Instead, we need a joint agency and we need multiple new metro lines.

I live in NYC now - the subway is horribly dirty and crowded but it is fast and moves millions who can then avoid cars...I used to own a car in India - I don't need one here.

You will never have too many roads or too many lanes of road. The more roads you build the more traffic they will attract. Every single traffic management study supports this.

What Mumbai (as well as every metropolis with a population of 1 million+) really needs is a good public transport system. In NYC (since that example was stated above) you have several agencies (LIRR, MTA, PATH, Metro-North etc..) but they are well coordinated. The commuters can often move between systems without even seeing daylight. (OT trivia: A big chunk of what is now called the NYC Subway was at one time owned by 3 private companies - the IND, BMT, and IRT but this is a topic for a whole different discussion).

The same can be said about Singapore, London, Hong Kong, Seoul, Berlin, Paris, Madrid and even smaller cities like Frankfurt, Barcelona, Zurich, etc.

I travel often and these public transport systems are a boon. Seoul is undisputedly the best. I mean in which generation will the Indian Railways have a website like this? http://www.seoulmetro.co.kr/en/index.do?device=PC and oh yeah I forgot it is cheap and has free high speed internet (I mean really fast).

[alpha1]

Originally Posted by Rahul Bhalgat

IMO, more infrastructure will just attract more people to cities like Mumbai, Pune making that infrastructure insufficient, very quickly.

Long term solution IMO is to create good employment opportunities and good educational facilities in smaller towns. This will improve the quality of life and also save cost.

And let us think: how much more infrastructure will we be able to create in towns in the budget of one sealink?

Unless we do this, there can be no end to our traffic frustration.

You are right about the way to tackle this problem.
However, I think it may not be feasible.
The problem is that until we find a mechanism to replace the face to face human interaction, people will always agglomerate as densely as possible (in places like congested cities).

Come to think of it - what exactly is economic activity?

[ruzbehxyz]

Hi friends
I agree with most of the guys who say and prove that the sea link is marginally faster than the actual road. But please bear in mind that the actual plan was Bandra - Worli - Haji Ali - Nariman point. So the 2 lanes that exit at WorlI are actually part of the main plan and is just a exit point. And therefore there is always a jam at the Worli end.
The bad part is after the sea link was built they decided to scrap the idea of the remaining part of the sea link and build a coastal road. However there is no feasibility of a coastal road to Nariman point due to various restrictions. There was also going to be a coastal road from Bandra towards Versova and beyond which is yet to shape up.
This is a typical example of poor planning.

[ravi_xx]

Addressing only a limited perspective, what you must remember is that the original post almost by default takes the Sealink for granted. The fact that the Sealink has absorbed a fair bit of traffic and therefore reduced the commuting time in absolute terms, even on the other routes mentioned, is ignored. If the Sealink had never been built, the timeline to travel in a North-South direction would have been significantly longer, and one would not have add an alternative to even compare it to.

I was a commuter who used to drive from Nariman Point to Juhu everyday and have done it both before and after the introduction of the Sealink. From around 1.05 hours in around 2000, this had gone up well past the 1.30-1.40 hours mark before the introduction of the Sealink, and worse still - did not offer any consistency. The Sealink - at the time of its introduction - did reduce commuting time between Nariman Point and Juhu, and most importantly, offered a degree of certainty.

Providing yet another option to traverse this city will always be welcome, to cater to both existing as well as future grown traffic. All the points about exit points, state of roads and others, remain absolutely valid.

[His Highness]

I'm a train user as well, and its a nightmare ( The elphinstone road station stampede ).

That incident forced me to rethink my commuting methods.

If you leave early enough, Tulsi pipe road is a good option. But the digging for the Metro is making matters worse.

I firmly believe that once the Metro ( Seepz to Colaba ) is functional , we will have better options and traffic will reduce as well.

[Dieseltuned]

Not to hijack the topic or any disrespect to the OP...

Many of you know that sometime last year I had started a thread on Team-Bhp for usage of Public transportation.

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/street...nitiative.html

Its been a long time now (almost an year) and I have completely stopped usage of my car for my daily commute. My WagonR stands pretty in my society parking while I have taken to public transportation. My daily commute is from Borivali to Powai and it was becoming a big pain in you know where to drive through the ever congested WEH and JVLR.

I have started using public transportation and now my route stands as ::

Home -> Borivali Station (Walk - 7 mins)
Borivali -> Andheri (Local train - 20 mins)
Andheri -> Saki Naka (Metro train - 10 mins)
Saki Naka -> Powai (Rick/Ola/Uber whatever - 20 mins)

I have dropped the BEST buses from the equation as they also tend to get stuck in traffic.

So, even if we consider some traffic and hold times at railway stations, I am pretty much covering the whole distance in 60-70 mins, which via WEH-JVLR takes anywhere between 90-120 mins depending on traffic movement.

I work in the non-peak hours so that helps ease up my train commute.

Above itinerary has multiple hops but once you get used to the routine , its a breeze.

I certainly feel that the government needs to move fast in improving the infrastructure and the current ongoing 3 metro projects (Dahisar-Andheri, Dahisar- DN Nagar, Colaba - SEEPZ) are the steps in the right direction

I would also like to take this opportunity to urge other members to give a try to public transportation. Trust me, after 4 years of driving the car switching over to public transport was not easy, but over a period of time I have found out that, Its really not that bad as it is made out to be.

Regards
Dieseltuned

[carmayogi]

Originally Posted by navin

You will never have too many roads or too many lanes of road. The more roads you build the more traffic they will attract. Every single traffic management study supports this.

Nail on the head, sir.

As much as us Bhpians love cars - we all love them on nice twisty roads, not in congested city driving. We should all support shared mobility and public transport to make things better. As you have said, instead of trying to be car-centric, we need to follow the examples of the best cities in the world.

Furthermore, studies have also shown that adoption rates of new public transport projects are significantly higher when traffic is a problem. Hence, we should use congestion as a way to coerce people to change their habits. Said people are often unlikely to change back to cars even when the situation improves.

[His Highness]

Originally Posted by Dieseltuned

I would also like to take this opportunity to urge other members to give a try to public transportation. Trust me, after 4 years of driving the car switching over to public transport was not easy, but over a period of time I have found out that, Its really not that bad as it is made out to be.

Regards
Dieseltuned

Oh, I agree completely. I too walk to and from the station and what its done is to also help me complete my daily 12k step target.

I also have some more freedom because I dont have to worry about parking when going places.

Uber/Ola have also changed my late night traditions. Gone are the days when I had to plead with the driver to stay late so that I could have a drink. Now its Uber/Ola all the way when going out at night.

[Dieseltuned]

Originally Posted by His Highness

Oh, I agree completely. I too walk to and from the station and what its done is to also help me complete my daily 12k step target.

.

Agree, that's another beautiful way of looking at things. Since I have started using public transport, I have to mandatorily climb stairs and walk. This also contributes to my overall fitness.

Regards
Dieseltuned

[navin]

It is quite refreshing to see quite a few BHPians agree that instead of adding more roads and more lanes of roads the same money would be more efficiently utilized in improving the quality of public transport. Currently we are very far away from the service offered in cities like Singapore, New York, etc. That is not to say that steps should not be made to close this gap.

If the quality of service reaches a level of London or Paris I don't see why Mumbaikars or Bangaloreans would continue to struggle with traffic and parking problems. Heck if the same person (aka me) can take a train in Manhattan why not in Mumbai?

[artrocious]

While we are on this topic here is a question for everyone in a purely urban scenario like a city and not for NH.

Is there a rule that prohibits a toll road user to by pass a toll by taking an alternate route around the toll after using a toll road?
Also is this enforceable by toll owners by literally blocking alternate routes and forcing users to pay a toll?

I can explain where this is coming from. The toll road in question is OMR, Chennai.

[Impala59]

Originally Posted by GTO

- I think the sealink is shorter, so maybe you saved fuel as well?

Funnily, I checked the distance on Google Maps and the distance covered by avoiding the sea-link is actually a little less than by taking it. But for places further down, that definitely makes sense.

Originally Posted by PPS

Sealink during peak hours is pointless. I do not know how the traffic is via Cadell rd/Annie Besant rd, its been ages i took that route.

I have tried both the roads - Tulsi Pipe & Cadell. While the Tulsi pipe road gets a lot of traffic at the Dadar market and also near Kamala Mills, the Cadell route is relatively smoother.

Originally Posted by Saanil

I know you have tried traveling by trains and given up. I too would have done the same but for me, minimizing travel time is essential that too at low cost.

For me, the travelling time is almost the same, but yes the cost of travelling has substantially increased. While I was thinking of giving train travel a second thought, the Elphinstone incident happened. So...

Originally Posted by carmayogi

The real solution is to create a working public transport system with multiple lines and options.

I absolutely agree with this. Hopefully the newer metro lines will make the situation better than what it is, and most importantly take a chunk of load off the local trains.

[Biohazard]

Originally Posted by varunsangal

When it comes to rush hour in Bombay, I always say choose the jam you want to sit in. Roll up your windows, turn on the AC, get some good beats and relax. Nothing is going to go faster than that pedestrian.

I couldn't agree more. I have to travel from Andheri West to Fort 2-3 times a week and there is pretty much nothing that can be done to avoid the traffic. I always make sure I've got a good playlist to accompany me during my commute. Plus checking Google Maps prior to leaving definitely helps!