[Mustang Sammy]

While our road infrastructure indeed has a long way to go, we certainly don’t make it any easier on ourselves when the roads that we Do have are badly designed, maintained and abused. In particular, many of our roads have at least one lane rendered unusable at least in part for entirely avoidable reasons. If not 100% occupied, there are inevitably obstructions at some point causing traffic to merge onto the remaining lane(s), creating chaos and often putting lives at risk.

1. Most city roads have at least one lane rendered unusable by vehicles (often illegally) parked in the left lanes. Cars are the most common offenders, especially the entitled people who leave their drivers sitting in their cars while illegally parked. Often parking is available a couple hundred meters away, but god forbid our royals should have to walk.

This is in Vashi, Navi Mumbai. In both cases, a proper parking lot exists 200-400m away. What use is decent infrastructure if people continue to behave lawlessly?


Total mess, that too at a turn in the road.

When big vehicles like trucks & buses park illegally in cities, the impact is much more severe thanks to their much bigger size and our narrow roads.

This truck is parked next to a paan shop. Coincidence? I think not.

Trucks also engage in this behavior on highways, parking in the left lane instead of pulling out on to the service roads.

Common sight on our highways.

2. There is often trash or construction/road debris piled up in the (usually) left lane, making it dangerous if not impossible to drive.

This debris has become a permanent fixture on many roads in Mumbai/Navi Mumbai, and gets progressively harder to remove the longer it is allowed to stay.

Double whammy. Trucks blocking the left lane on NH48, AND road construction debris.

3. Badly designed roads without proper storm drainage result in water accumulation during rains on one of the side lanes, creating traffic jams as people navigate around the often deep water logging. Many many roads become jammed during the monsoons thanks to poor drainage.

This particular example on the Thane-Belapur road gets much much worse during periods of heavy rain, with the spray from vehicles making it to the other side of the highway.

4. Buses, taxis and private vehicles stopping to pick up and drop off passengers on main roads creates traffic snarls as well, especially during holidays. Passengers also stand on the road creating hazards for themselves and traffic.
What is to prevent authorities from creating proper bus stands on service roads?

This is the Wakad Area outside Pune, heading towards Mumbai. The crowding gets extremely bad as the day progresses, and on public holidays. The other side is even worse.

So much space can be freed up And lives saved on EXISTING roads by ensuring:
1. Parking rules enforcement in cities
2. Keeping side lanes clean & clear of debris
3. Creating rest stops for truck drivers or mandating that they pull over into service lanes
4. Proper bus stops away from the main road

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[jjp@chn]

On the one side we have irresponsible drivers/owners who park the cars or two wheelers in the left most lane(s) of the road and on the other hand, we have roadside hawkers or shops that encroach the pavements or roads that triggers the opportunity for illegal parking rendering the lanes unusable.

Another major root cause for illegal parking on the roads is the inadequate/substandard planning in construction of commercial (and even residential) buildings on main roads that do not provide adequate parking spaces for their customers/residents and the lack of enforcement from the concerned officials in this regard. These buildings are constructed to occupy the entirety of the plot area and often extend beyond the edge over to the road/pavement. Many commercial buildings rent out the underground parking spaces into illegal basement shops and even encroach the public spaces in front of them (like pavements or service roads).

[Mustang Sammy]

Originally Posted by Mustang Sammy

3. Badly designed roads without proper storm drainage result in water accumulation during rains on one of the side lanes, creating traffic jams as people navigate around the often deep water logging. Many many roads become jammed during the monsoons thanks to poor drainage.


So much space can be freed up And lives saved on EXISTING roads by ensuring:
1. Parking rules enforcement in cities
2. Keeping side lanes clean & clear of debris
3. Creating rest stops for truck drivers or mandating that they pull over into service lanes
4. Proper bus stops away from the main road

5. PROPER drainage. Most new neighborhoods I have seen in Mumbai & Pune completely lack storm drains. Those that do exist are clogged and otherwise unusable, or (Mankhurd, I am looking at you) have drain holes a couple inches ABOVE ground level, guaranteeing a pool of water throughout the rainy season.

[am1m]

Originally Posted by Mustang Sammy

In particular, many of our roads have at least one lane rendered unusable at least in part for entirely avoidable reasons.

And of course the solution is not to enforce the already existing illegal parking rules, but to cut down whatever trees are left, to widen the road. So that cars can be parked there, and occupy one whole lane. Of course, with 'Save Environment' stickers on them!

[plutonium]

The amount of stationary hazards, even on MDRs and semi-urban divided ‘highways’ is astounding. No wonder lorry drivers tend to drive on the right side of the road, there's no way they would could drive a kilometre without causing an accident otherwise.

[AsphaltNomad]

Originally Posted by Mustang Sammy

So much space can be freed up And lives saved on EXISTING roads by ensuring:
1. Parking rules enforcement in cities
2. Keeping side lanes clean & clear of debris
3. Creating rest stops for truck drivers or mandating that they pull over into service lanes
4. Proper bus stops away from the main road

Originally Posted by Mustang Sammy

5. PROPER drainage. Most new neighborhoods I have seen in Mumbai & Pune completely lack storm drains. Those that do exist are clogged and otherwise unusable, or (Mankhurd, I am looking at you) have drain holes a couple inches ABOVE ground level, guaranteeing a pool of water throughout the rainy season.

6. Simple behavioural change in the way we use common/community/public facilities would go a long way in enabling stress free driving. A little effort from everyone to make sure others are not inconvenienced would help make the roads safer, ease traffic congestion and eventually reduce the travel time.

[dust-n-bones]

Thanks for a great thread. The focus these days is on building high profile, multi million dollar (yes, nobody counts in rupees anymore) infrastructure. That yields the required shock and awe with the media and voters, and oils the long gravy train that Indian infra and real estate has become.

Taking care of, and improving existing roadways and cities is for losers.

Originally Posted by Mustang Sammy

1. Most city roads have at least one lane rendered unusable by vehicles (often illegally) parked in the left lanes. Cars are the most common offenders, especially the entitled people who leave their drivers sitting in their cars while illegally parked. Often parking is available a couple hundred meters away, but god forbid our royals should have to walk.

This 'double parking' menace exists in every Indian city. But its not because people are too lazy to park appropriately. Well of course they are, but so are people everywhere else.

The menace exists because there is no consistent traffic enforcement. If I see a whole lane blocked by casual parking, I too would do as the romans do and save my legs. If, on the other hand, my registration number flashes on a traffic board when I stop in a 'no waiting area' signaling that I'm going to get a ticket, I would be 'encouraged' to do the right thing.

The other thing is that people will implicitly follow the leaders and people in authority. Our police cars think nothing of blocking a lane for an errand or some gossip.

Meanwhile, on another planet:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0hf...BjeWNsZQ%3D%3D

[saket77]

This is actually very true. The left lane is hardly usable at most places.
Another menace to add are the rickshaws, auto and electric rickshaws. This is especially true for a tier-II city. They stop anywhere on the road to pick and drop passengers, turn without any signal any side if they notice a prospective passenger. Electric rickshaws have strange structures at the front (factory or fabricated?) which extend much beyond their normal foot prints making it prone to hit others. Manual rickshaws keep overtaking each other slowly while holding up traffic in the middle of the road. Left side is perpetually filled with either parked vehicles or those coming from opposite direction.

Most of the above culprits, especially the commercial vehicles are hand in glove with the traffic police and I haven't seen even one of them being fined over any traffic offense ever. You can actually see many buses of city transport here in such shabby condition with not a single light/ lamps or even windows/ windshield in place. In the same RTO, I have seen private cars being refused fitness certificate because of a small scratch and dent on a door.
Tells much about the underlying reasons.

[maddy42]

Was watching a Vlog of a rider and one thing which stands out is the number of cars which are parked in the side of the road haphazardly. Unless our cities enforce a rule stating you can buy a car only if you have parking we will see this situation balloon into a bigger issue.

Each new highway is supposed to have road side amenities and rest area where trucks can park which is not present, atleast in karnataka. The mysore blr highway has become a Golden goose for the cops to ënforce" speeding but nothing is done to random eateries and bad parking at each exit. We also see a beeline of vehicles in the first and last exits post the toll - Everyone wants to avoid the toll.

Heck there is no rest rooms facility in between that everyone is out with their pee pee peeing on the side of the road.


Similarly was walking through the famed streets of Mumbai Town - The courts were in session so each lawyers cars were blocking the street with their drivers dozing off with AC on full blast.

Can we not plan our cities with better parking facility like a multi level car parking which can be a revenue source?

Before we point the fingers at everyone but us, do take a minute and look in the mirror. Do we do the same what we blame others for?

[Quatro]

This is one of pet peeves - one we don't plan and design well and second we are undisciplined. Our solution to traffic in cities is to widen the roads and if that is not possible then construct flyovers, peripheral road, etc. However, if you go to international cities like London or New York, the road width is similar - however, they do not have unnecessary parking by the side of the road. No city can keep on widening roads to meet to the increasing number of cars. We will have to reduce illegal parking, have vehicles that move at similar speed, etc, to remove / reduce the logjam.

[asingh1977]

None of this will happen if people just stop being selfish on roads. And a wee bit of patience. We all succumb to it at times. Illegal parking is a mess riot.

[saket77]

Another problem are the private car owners who think that the road in front of the shop they just went in is owned by that shop. Some car owners, even in my circle, I have seen that they simply don't expect themselves to walk from a proper parking to the shop which is less than 50 metres. There is definitely a mentality that if I am travelling by a car, I am not supposed to walk. They must understand that their 'royalty' was given away quite a few generations ago.

[am1m]

Originally Posted by dust-n-bones

The menace exists because there is no consistent traffic enforcement.

Originally Posted by maddy42

Before we point the fingers at everyone but us, do take a minute and look in the mirror. Do we do the same what we blame others for?

Originally Posted by saket77

Some car owners, even in my circle, I have seen that they simply don't expect themselves to walk from a proper parking to the shop which is less than 50 metres.

All so true! On one of the main roads I take to and from work, there is a line of fruit vendors who have already occupied the footpath and a quarter lane of one side of the road. On top of that so many of our great fellow private car owners stop right next to the fruit vendors to buy fruits every evening! In peak traffic times. Forcing all the vehicles to go around them and of course cause a jam.

And we are the people who will complain about the bad traffic situation! We really should examine our driving and parking habits on a daily basis and see if we are the reason.

I was wondering if a series of drone videos would be good to educate people about this. I'm thinking a 10 sec drone video showing the traffic flow from above, and how the flow gets diverted around any parked vehicle, causing a bottleneck will make at least some people realize the effect of random parking.

But ultimately, there needs to be zero-tolerance enforcement. On the same road I've described, the cops often are standing just a few meters away from the fruit vendors and double parked cars. But they don't do anything to them, they are focused on catching bikers without helmets!

[megazoid]

Extremely valid points and the nuisance and danger is very real. Begs the question that if it is so obvious, why dont the authorities do the right thing. Punish or confiscate and discipline road users appropriately. Unfortunately, every solution we come up with has our overwhelming numbers to account for. The dilution in the same discipline when there is a festival. Suddenly everything is alright when it is elections or a festival or a sunday. Building many lanes and trying to ease traffic wont work as we have enough material to swamp all the infrastructure. It has be very strict enforcement with no leeway and better town planning. For example, no point making a beautiful park in the middle of a congested metropoils with no parking options and minimal public transport.