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Posted on 17 February 2012 |
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When right is not right at all
Sushil Bhan examines how no-right turns on the road can ease traffic and cut fuel use
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Illustration: Tanmaya Tyagi
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RIGHT TURNS account for 80 per cent of road traffic mayhem in India. This is not just waste of time but it costs dearly. Delhi alone, according to a recent data by Petroleum Conservation Research Association (PCRA) of India, burns petrol/diesel worth Rs 994 crore per annum at traffic signals. Linear extrapolation of the PCRA logic would place India’s annual aggregate fuel saving potential at Rs 28630 crore. As per the data, New Delhi has 25.48 lakh vehicles, while India all put together has 7.27 crore automobile units. The data could help calculate India’s total fuel consumption. This fuel consumption should be cut. The solution is simple and does not need an act of parliament to deliver.
A road layout without right turns is the single strategy of traffic management that needs to be adhered to in India. The right turn option has to be erased from the road designers’ dictionary. Can you imagine how orderly road traffic would become without right turns. The expensive flyover solution to road planning is not bad. But it simply gets you to the traffic jam a little faster. We bolt out from flyovers like raging bulls to get stuck at the next intersection. In India, we are forced to go from 50 to zero in six seconds. Things can be changed by removing the right turn option.
The extra minutes in traffic are not something we should get used to accepting because it can mean difference between life and death for road users. There are ambulances trying to get patients to medical care for instance; fire tenders rushing to put out fires; emergency services like police that need to make it in time. Traffic streamlining is a serious issue. Everybody on the road is out to accomplish some purpose. Therefore, travel time is important to everyone. India’s road planners should incorporate the no-right turn concept. It would improve our lives on the road. The
U-turn concept to replace right turns is the most inexpensive and effective solution to reduce travel time.
The road design mantra of going left even when you need to go right is simple and can save us enormous amounts of time. The number of stoppages per kilometre in metropolitan India stands at around two. You would spend at least one minute at each such stoppage on an average. This adds an extra twenty minutes to the average daily journey of each Indian. India does not need to live with this wastage of man-hours. By comparison, the no-right turn road principle promises to save our time. It would not only improve the quality of travel but reduce the stress of travel and driving.
The free-for-all system that we follow today makes lane changing an imperative. The stress of getting to the destination faster makes the Indian driver restlessly swing from one lane to the other looking for the gap to get ahead. How can you expect accidents, road rage, delays and pile ups not to happen on the free-for-all our roads. If we could go only straight or left, U-turning to make our right turns, life on the road would become more organised. This would drastically reduce the options our drivers currently explore to try and beat traffic. Our current system is programmed to give us a jam a minute. This onslaught on the public can easily be ended by removing right turns.
The average speed of traffic in urban India is pegged at around 20 kilometre per hour. Road users know that this statistic cannot be taken as a guiding rule. If you are 20 kilometre away and trying to get to an airport, you may want to plan with a 10 kilometre average speed figure. Traffic snarls in India are no joke. It takes at least 20 minutes to cover the last kilometer near the Old Delhi Railway Station. The no-right turn approach would have tremendous streamlining effect to improve the average traffic speed.
INDIA IS the fifth largest emitter of CO2 in the world. The environmental savings potential of a no-right turn based urban planning system is an important CSR that city managements need to look at. They can flood intersections with traffic police. However the root cause of traffic delays is the free-for-all road design. The police laid over a faulty road design can only add to traffic delays. Thus, the prospect of environmental savings from low fuel consumption makes a strong case for a no-right turn road design approach. Environmental saving is a universal obligation. India’s green road design strategy could lead the way for other countries.
India spends a bulk of its foreign earnings to pay for import of crude oil, while its citizens cough up for the country’s bloated fuel bill. Tragically, India finds itself powerless to optimise its fuel consumption. It is something that can easily be accomplished through this simple road layout strategy. The cash-strapped public works departments conjure expensive flyover project, but find it difficult to implement the no-right turn concept. The lack of perspective is an ill that city planners need to overcome. Delhi alone can save a bulk of the Rs 994 crore of fuel it wastes at traffic signals with the new road model. It would come as a great relief for people on the road. For the government to collect more taxes, more fuel must get sold. However, the Indian government is run by people’s representatives. Therefore, the government cannot have vested interest in selling the earth’s dwindling resource to collect tax revenue. Green strategies would soon become central to politics. What would be better than making road experience chaos-free? Politicians take note.
Removal of right turns would require more U-turns. This would cost money. The public works departments live off government’s tax revenue. They already have substantial amount of infrastructure money available for the U-turn incorporation to existing road systems. No further fund infusion would be needed to finance a majority of the U-turn building. In case, the government does not have enough funds in its kitty for the project, it can quite easily be funded privately. To bring in revenue, advertising bill boards could be placed around the U-turns. The billboard revenue can make each U-turn a no-profit no-loss asset. This is the easiest way to overcome the financing issue. India has the power to make its citizens travel faster and safer. We can get it right by going left. Bon voyage.
Sushil Bhan, a strategy and technical operations veteran of 25 years, is an FW Oped columnist.
captbhan@yahoo.com
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