Naveen Adisesha

Everything Under the Sun

Naveen Adisesha

Everything Under the Sun

Space out to reduce congested feeling and avoid constant stress
Traffic Solutions for India

5 Simple ways to De-congest Bengaluru Traffic

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This is an extreme attempt or a crash course to provide guaranteed benefits. This is like a immediate solution to the problem. This is based on a simple concept of Science, Engineering and Psychology to restore order. This works by introducing simple measures on a 5 day correction course. This is going to help people discover what they are missing when they are not willing to follow rules. Why they are not able to simplify the traffic movement because we are not following the best practices from the world over.

Just 5 days can bring peace. This is not a cure all but a fix-it. There is much we can do but there let me cover some generic, easy to implement solutions. Of course once we get the basics right then we can move towards more innovative solutions which are a first in India.

So lets get to Day 1.  

Day 1 – Space Out

How does one see peace. Why sitting in vast hall bigger than your own room or own house bring peace. When does consciousness evolve, when it mixes with a wider area and sees a world bigger than “I”.

Logic

  1. Notice that on a weekend when vehicles are more relaxed and spaced out there is much free flow at intersections
  2. Notice that during emergency situations you are advised to go slow, walk and evacuate, not to panic. This is done because panic and continuous flow creates pressure at narrow roads while a more free streamline flow creates ease.
Space out to reduce congested feeling and avoid constant stress
Day1 – Space out while driving to feel less stressed and enjoy driving.
So day 1 begins by enforcing a simple rule. Keep distance from the vehicle in front of you. Yes this has been a rule for a long time. Today we panic that if we maintain distance the vehicle someone else is going to take it. It could be the person in next lane. OR someone. So this phase is not about debate. This Day 1 is the first step to experience the liberation from crowd mentality. Break out of the pattern.
1. Keep distance during driving.
2. Do not start the vehicle at the same time as your neighbour in a traffic signal.
3. Do not speed up as soon you see someone trying to overtake you.
4. Give way for someone who shows urgency.
5. In the end keep distance. Feel relaxed.

Day 2 – Stop within lane

No matter how difficult it may seem, it is relatively stress free when you drive in a lane. You will experience this only if you follow it. Driving in a straight line is not only safe but also reduces your stress in a daily travel by 50%. Identify lanes which you can stick to in a daily drive to Work and back to home. Stick to such a lane. The intention is not to only reduce time, but avoid switching lanes to and keep it to a minimum.

Stick to a lane is really the easiest way to drive
Day2 – Stick to lane because it is THE WAY forward
So
1. Identify the best lane for daily commute
2. Minimize the switching in lanes. Reduce the lane switching to a minimum.
3. In a road where switching of lane is difficult, try to find a sweet spot to switch lanes. This is a point where you can switch to the other lane because the current lane is going to result in a stop.
4. If you are in a lane where BUS stops, then try to stop the vehicle for few seconds and take a break instead of switching the lane.
5. Just make sure whenever you are stuck or stopped or moving you are within a lane. You are not standing on the line. Neither are you trying to enter the other lane, blocking teh traffic in a lane which is moving.
6. To summarize. Always stop within a lane, drive within a lane. Be safe and stress free.
7. If places of congestion be the first to create a lane by moving at the centre of the lane, not allowing other 4 wheelers to form a second lane. As stupid as it may seem, it puts certain things clear. It will prevent someone from coming close to your vehicle in a single
lane and giving stress to you while driving. Do things that will give comfort to you and also educate others by being the leader about good easy driving.

Day 3 – Best way to park and parking planning

Everyday we see that in roads where we have 2 lanes marked, there is not a single lane where vehicle can commute.

So it is important to ensure that every main road has
1. Minimum 1 lane for commutation in either direction.
2. Vehicles should be either moving or parked.  Vehicles which are slowly moving without a direction, either searching for a destination or doing window shopping should be fined or booked.
3. Vehicles parked in a way that affects smooth flow of traffic on the prescribed lanes must be towed away or fined. This is the role of special task force or the BTP probe vehicle which goes along all roads, just keep driving along with other vehicles and ensure there is nothing blocking this minimum lane!
4. The flow of traffic should not enter the next or opposite lane at any point while flowing. This normally happens due to bad road ( rare 😛 ), or due to parked vehicles(most common) or pedestrians or people standing on bus stop ( most common). This should stop.
5. In the end stick to “minimum 1 lane” in each direction is a must in all main roads.
Best way to Park keeping in mind the flow of traffic
Always ensure there is a free moving lane and all other places can be used as parking.

 

Day 4 – Distribute the traffic

Communicate or educate the people about 10 day programme and request co-operation from people.

1. Going by the huge traffic flow we should be guaranteeing the time it takes to reach a destination and avoid people panicking because they are still stuck near their house when they were supposed to in the city center stuck in a 30 minutes jam.
2. But instead people will wait for longer time close to their house and lesser time in the highways. This is the concept of highways in pure engineering terms.
3. But today all highways are jammed and packed. which can easily be turned around.
4. Since vehicles are spaced out and in lanes the highways are more stream lined to give guaranteed time. Now we need to engineer the input or schedule the side or arterial roads onto highways.
5. So it means that the entry to highways will be for shorter durations when the road that takes the capacity is small. For example if the Hebbal flyover takes just 500 – 4 wheelers per 5 minutes there is no point in letting 5000 vehicles as entry to these roads. This is why there is congestion.
6. Note that it is less fuel consuming, less stressful, less accident prone when people wait in the previous signal spaced out and in lanes than to enter such a junction in 4 lanes and converge to 2 lanes and spend 15 minutes. It is easier to wait for even 5 minutes at the previous signal.
7. That is where this 10 day programme is going to make a difference by bringing pure engineering into traffic. Note that somehow people believe its possible in engineering because the computers follow rules and the irony that people who are more intelligent do not follow basic rules which can simplify their life.
8. In the end, BTP needs to tune the traffic timings for entry to main roads.
9. Note that without Day1, Day2, Day3 such a feat cannot be achieved. If people in the arterial roads are not standing in lanes they will not be able to benefit from this streamlining. They will be frustrated in teh side lanes and will carry their behavior forward to main roads.

Day 5 – Educate During Driving

 As of today, although in Bengaluru there is a significant increase in the educated population, the dissemination of information to public and to all the people on road is a difficult task. For example to educate people on the non-usage of tinted glass the police had to do a great task to get it eventually done.

The proposal is to use Audio guidance systems to educate people. It is best kept under traffic signal posts and important central areas. All in all we have to rely on audio because visual information in hoardings looks like just another advertisement and gives the impression that cops are not serious about enforcing the rules. A audio message will carry much more weight and serve the purpose of educating people right then and there.
  1. To provide corrections in stopping within lanes at signals.
  2. Incessant honking
  3. Maintain distance between vehicles
  4. Switch off high beams
  5. Encourage to switch off ignition of vehicles
  6. Seat belts guidance
  7. New rules introduced
  8. New Procedure Updates related to license, transfer of vehicles, etc.
  9. Traffic updates.
  10. Traffic diversions if any
  11. New traffic hoardings and new speed limits

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