Revision as of 09:22, 25 June 2021

Congestion (of traffic): economic costs

1980-2016 (India); 2018 (4 metros)

Dipak Dash, , ‘Congestion costs four metros ₹1.5L cr a year’, April 26, 2018: The Times of India

i) Travel demand in India and other major Asia-Pacific countries, 1980-2016;
ii) Congestion during peak hours in the Indian metros and other major Asia-Pacific cities, 2018; and
iii) Mode of commute in the Indian metros, presumably as in 2018
From: Dipak Dash, , ‘Congestion costs four metros ₹1.5L cr a year’, April 26, 2018: The Times of India

Good Road Network Eases Life For Delhiites: Report

Traffic congestion during peak hours in four major cities — Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Kolkata — costs the economy Rs 1.47 lakh crore annually, according to a study conducted by global consultancy firm.

The peak hours for this survey were 7-9 am and 6-8 pm during which commuters spent one-and-a-half times longer to travel a given distance as compared to non-peak hours, said the report by Boston Consulting Group (BCG).

The study across the four cities in January has found Kolkata is the worst among them so far as congestion is concerned followed by Bengaluru. Delhi despite having maximum number of registered vehicles (little over 10 million) seems to be better because of its good road network, which is about 12% the capital’s total area. On the contrary, Kolkata has barely 6% of its total area under road network. The survey covered 300 persons from each city.

According to the report, Delhi has the highest share of 45% of people using their private cars for commuting while in Bengaluru their share is 38%. Mumbai tops the list when it comes to using public transport for commuting followed by Kolkata and it’s worst in Bengaluru.

“In Kolkata, private minibuses are are main mode of transport. Despite having high share of people using public transport, Kolkata is congested for reasons like low share of road network, poor geometrics and huge flow of vehicles in core part of the city,” said urban transport expert Prof N Ranganathan. He added the situation in Bengaluru is alarming as road network planning is obnoxious, traffic engineering and management is missing and there is blatant misuse of road.

The BCG report prepared for Uber claimed that on average 89% of commuters indicated their plans to purchase a car in the next five years. However, 80% of them also said they would shelve the idea, if rideshare could meet their requirements on “price, timeliness and availability.”

Ride-share is using a mobile app to book a ride in a privately owned vehicle. Uber has been pushing for this.

“Ride-share is a good intervention purely from congestion point of view. But the other issues of safety of passengers and liability in case of road accidents, which are crucial, also need to be addressed. Safety on women passenger is a concern,” Ranganathan pointed out.

Rank in the world

2018: Mumbai worst, Delhi fourth worst

June 5, 2019: India Today

Traffic flow in Mumbai is the worst in the world, while Delhi is close behind at fourth position, according to a new report detailing the traffic situation in 56 countries.

In the financial capital of India, journey during rush-hour takes 65 per cent longer. In Delhi it is 58 per cent longer, the report prepared by location technology specialist TomTom, which also supplies maps for Apple and Uber, said.

It, however, said traffic in the two cities decreased slightly in 2018.

"Mumbai takes the top spot this year with drivers in the Indian city expecting to spend an average of 65 per cent extra travel time stuck in traffic. Next in the global rankings are Bogota (63 per cent), Lima (58 per cent), New Delhi (58 per cent) and Moscow (56 per cent), making up the top five most congested cities in the world," the report said.

In 2018, the average traffic congestion in Mumbai was 65 per cent, a slight decrease from 66 per cent in 2017. While the city's lowest congestion was 16 per cent on March 2, 2018, its worst was 111 per cent on August 21, it said.

Delhi recorded an average of 58 per cent traffic congestion in 2018, a 4 per cent decrease compared to 2017. Like Mumbai, Delhi too experienced its lowest congestion on March 2, 2018, (6 per cent). The city's worst traffic congestion was 83 per cent on August 8, 2018.

Mumbai’s unique problems

Nitasha Natu, June 19, 2019: The Times of India

Over 36.4 lakh vehicles ply on city roads, as on March 2019
From: Nitasha Natu, June 19, 2019: The Times of India

Why Mumbai's speedometer is crawling
From: Nitasha Natu, June 19, 2019: The Times of India

Mumbai motorists face the worst traffic jams in the world, according to a recent global study based on statistical analysis of GPS data. The report said commuters in the city spend 65% more time on the roads during peak hours than when the roads are free. It put the city ahead of Bogota, Lima, Delhi, and others as the most congested city on its TomTom Traffic Index 2018. In comparison, a New Yorker spends 36% more time on the roads during peak hours.

So, why did things come to such a pass and will it get any better? Activists point out that the situation may only get worse in monsoon. "If the BMC wants to shut down a particular stretch, then alternative routes have to be planned to be able to bear the extra traffic burden," says a traffic police officer.

"Parked vehicles, encroachments and construction debris have to be cleared from these alternative routes. Also, the BMC should consult the traffic police before finalising a bridge closure. Instead, they inform us after the decision is taken and leave us to deal with the chaos."

The traffic police also point out that in many cases, there is no indication on when the reconstruction of bridges would begin.

Toll plazas

2019: “Fuel, time worth ₹12k cr a year wasted at Toll plazas

Dipak Dash, Nov 29, 2019: The Times of India

5 worst toll plazas, as in Nov 2019
From: Dipak Dash, Nov 29, 2019: The Times of India

India could save up to Rs 12,000 crore every year in terms of fuel and man-hours with the switch to 100% FASTag-based toll collection on national highways (NH) from December 1.

Live monitoring of traffic by a Noida-based startup shows long waiting times at many of the 488 NH toll plazas. At 2pm on Thursday, the average waiting time was 5-10 minutes at 188 plazas and 10-20 minutes at 32 others.

The startup — BullEye Technologies — launched by two IIT-Kanpur alumni estimates 35% of the Rs 12,000-crore loss is on account of wasted fuel while 54-55% is on account of wasted man-hours. Carbon emissions make up the rest of the lost value.

Sources said National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) had evaluated their technology at 50 toll plazas for three months last year and found it reliable in more than 90% of cases. “To tally their claims with the ground situation, we called the officials posted at plazas and also got photos. Their projections were correct,” said an NHAI official.

NHAI officials said more than 72 lakh FASTag have been sold so far and daily sales have crossed 1 lakh for the past three days.

A highway ministry official, however, said they did not get a satisfactory reply from the startup’s representatives when a presentation was made before highways minister Nitin Gadkari.

“We have submitted a proposal. We thought of making this portal public so that people can plan their route to avoid congestion. Government agencies can also use it to prevent revenue leakage,” said Anand Shenoy, co-founder.

Traffic management

Delhi

Traffic congestion points, Delhi; Graphic courtesy: The Times of India, April 27, 2016

Traffic congestion points, Delhi.jpg; Graphic courtesy: The Times of India, April 27, 2016

The Times of India, Feb 21 2016

Dipak Dash

For better traffic management, body issues rules for metros

To monitor over 85 lakh vehicles besides numerous VIP movements, Delhi would require 15,345 traffic police. Mumbai with about 23.33 lakh vehicles would need 4,779 traffic policemen and Lucknow (20.20 lakh registered vehicles) would require 3,852 of them. These are some of the estimates prepared by the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPRD) to manage growing traffic and enforce in cities across the country . Vehicle population of a city has been taken as the prime factor for arriving at the number of traffic personnel required in a city . Other factors, such as total population and special duties related to VIP movements, protests, rallies and festivals have also been taken into consideration.

At present, Delhi has nearly 6,500 traffic personnel while Mumbai has around 3,000 and Uttar Pradesh has about 4,000 traffic cops.

Annually 1.4 lakh lives are lost in crashes on roads.BPRD prepared the norms after a Supreme Court appointed committee on road safety sought a report. The report has recommended at least 10% of traffic police personnel to be women and each department to have traffic engineering, crash research and legal cells with people having domain knowledge.

It has also suggested numbering of all traffic poles, pelican signal for pedestrians, establishing separate traffic police stations for investigation of road crashes and a national level database integrating e-challan and traffic management system of states for better enforcement of traffic violations.

See also

Road accidents: India