Managing traffic on highways
By Mohinder Singh

WE were looking forward to an agreeable road trip to Jaipur. There was the new Cielo, a cool sunny day, countryside aglow with the yellow of mustard flowers, and a packed lunch of parathas, kebabs and coffee. We also had information that a 100-km stretch towards Jaipur was now the country’s first 4-lane dual-carriageway (not an expressway) to be declared a toll road.

But the 250-km journey actually took us 8 hours of tension-ridden driving. At one stage we were even left wondering whether we would be spending the New Year Eve in our car, instead of joining the invitational party. We had obviously hit an unlucky day. Yet the experience is some indidcation of the missing traffic management on our highways.

Trouble started soon after we rounded the Gurgaon circle. Four laning work was in progress, spread over miles in broken patches. Understandably the lanes under construction were not available for use. But at places the original road itself stood squeezed by this construction activity, leaving no shoulders or room for off-the-tarmac manoeuvrability.

Now this was a recipe for disaster on a road with an exceptionally heavy 2-way traffic. One accident between two of those overloaded trucks (often a consequence of faulty overtaking), and the road stood blocked for hours. That day a couple of such accidents had occurred. At one site the line of stalled trucks stretched endlessly over miles.

Impatient drivers of cars and vans made matters worse by jumping queues and bunching haphazardly in front. So even when an obstruction eventually got cleared, it look a lot of time and nerve-raking manoeuvres to untangle the whole mess. Some drivers were seen employing brazen tactics or amazing ingenuity to push ahead of others through forays into fields and ditches. Others occassionally ploughed over the area under construction, giving a fright to workers thereat and raising clouds of dust.

And then came a point where we were told that the highway right up to Bhiwadi, the industrial township, stood blocked, with no early prospects of a breakthrough. Car drivers were advised to take a 30 km detour through country roads.

Now, we hadn’t been on such roads for a long time. But it was a revelation to see how poorly these were made and maintained. Horrendous potholes, narrow culverts that bumped the undercarriage, and road encroachments around bastis, created chaotic traffic conditions. You then realised how much remained unbuilt in India.

Back on the main road, negotiating townships such as Behror or Kotputli presented its own problems. A badly halted bus, a wrongly parked truck, a poorly-driven tractor-trailer, or an improperly positioned hawking cart could quickly create a jam on this intensively-trafficked road.

One particular feature of congestion that struck me was the unusually high numbers of multi-axle, long-bodied tankers carrying petroleum and gas products northwards. An evident indication that the country has still to put in place the requisite pipeline network, while the consumption of petroleum products was rising sharply.

The toll-road part, in comparison, was a luxury at Rs 35 for a car. We made good time, though here again it was scary to see an occasional truck or cart coming from the front-just to save a little extra distance.

We have clearly reached a stage where our major roads are grossly unequal to the traffic flowing on them. Obviously a result of under-investment in roads over decades, coupled with accelerated economic activity and population pressure. Roads weren’t a priority for planners; traffic, they imagined, would somehow blunder through bottlenecks without creating crises.

Only of late it has dawned on policy makers that an inadequate road network can prove horrendously expensive interms of higher transport costs, delays, wastage of fuel, extra wear of vehicles, loss of driver and vehicle time and greater incidence of accidents. Highways are admittedly attracting more attention and funds. But it will take years to make up for the past neglect as well as to equip them for the escalating future requirements. And that again if the needed massive investment, both public and private, is forthcoming, and we equip ourselves, technically and organisationally, to build quality roads fast and to step up maintenance standards.

In the short run, perhaps the best bet is to boost traffic management. Most of our highways ( a highway is a misnomer; more of a slightly wider road going through towns and villages, with short-distance traffic of tractor-trailers, carts, and cycles clogging the tarmac) can be enabled to carry 50 per cent more traffic, at least 20 per cent faster through measures of competent traffic management. The cost involved in operating the system will be a tiny fraction of the possible savings in vehicle time and fuel, let alone driver fatigue and accidents.

Traffic management is all the more important when a road is being upgraded. You need someone not only to direct traffic to avoid snarls, you need an authority to oversee that various signs to direct traffic are put up by the construction companies. For example, builders could be enjoined that the crucial road signs and markers are visible at night and lighted signs or adequate reflectors are put up (they surely have the cushion to absorb the extra cost involved. And to avoid other activity that hampers traffic flow. For example, much delay and risky overtaking was being caused by slow-moving tractor-trolleys carting clay for earthwork. A tough traffic management would insist on contractors using trucks; the little lowered contractor costs in using tractor-trolleys do not justify all the complications these trolleys are inflicting.

Indeed, for a traffic management authority to function adequately, it must have some say on the engineering side. Highway traffic police should have an active liaison with the related road engineering staff. It should be able to order within its jurisdiction minor engineering works which promote traffic flow and road safety, say around crossings, within bastis, on bridges, and elsewhere. For instance, there is a strong case to erect a narrow barrier between opposing lanes on some bridges to thwart overtaking, a major cause of accidents.

What is needed is a check on roadside parking especially at corners, some control on slow-moving vehicles like tractors and carts, test for breathalyzer drivers involved in night accidents, hauling up vehicles driven on the wrong side of one-way streets, the design and visibility of check barriers, and arranging smooth flow of traffic through roadside settlements. And coming hard on road encroachments. Unlike the west, speeding itself isn’t yet a major problem with us. Most buses overtake irjudiciously and this calls for control.

India is too big and varied a country to have a central force for traffic management. It has to be a state force, mainly concentrating on national highways and highly-trafficked state roads.

As to the actual set-up, we could emulate the model that obtains in advanced countries. Each patrolling vehicle should have not more than two officers, one driving and the other sitting beside him. Both should be trained in advanced driving; in fact nobody can really mange traffic without being well conversant with the imperatives of driving. And you don’t require drivers or other police personnel to crowd a highway patrol jeep. In our conditions, the two crew members should be of the level of inspectors. A better strategy is to have fewer but properly manned vehicles.

One can think of many refinements to the scheme. Putting in place an effective traffic management system can make a significant contribution towards traffic flow and road safety. Currently far too many users of our highways are functioning in an undisciplined fashion. And roads are in want of many minor improvements that could make them safer and improve the flow of traffic.