Now this is going to be a bit difficult to explain without graphics...but anyways...I will give it a try.
Roads in cities have road-dividers or medians in between. Onward vehicles on one side and backwards on the other side. While driving to office...I find that the road on my side is always full of traffic, while the other side is completely empty. In the morning, the side of the road going towards the city is completely jammed and the other is just the reverse. In the evening, its exactly the opposite.
Transport planners would understand that its the trend in all cities and if I remember that there is a concept in Population Geography about mobile population. City centres having the maximum population during day time and almost nil during evenings. Its just the same concept reflected on the roads.
The idea which I am proposing is that why dont we swap lanes during peak hours. Borrow a lane or two from the 'leaner side' or the side which is empty. The result is extra lanes to the jammed side. Now, i know this is not the sustainable solution. Sustainable solution is perhaps to have better public transport...but nevertheless its a solution.
Its not that an easy solution to implement, though.
The problem in implementation is that most of our road dividers are permanent in nature. If only they could be movable then we could do this swapping easily. This cannot be done in places where road dividers have street lights or house trees (I am not in favour of cutting trees). But on raods where they dont exist, some sort of an electrical device could demarcate the lanes by small pegs which come out of the road surface. Just like the jammers at five star hotels these days. Pegs which go up and down at the press of a button. These could be just one foot in height and no more.
I think at many places the Delhi Police is using such methods...but it may work. I also think if transport planners sit together...something more workable could be created through lane swapping.
Roads in cities have road-dividers or medians in between. Onward vehicles on one side and backwards on the other side. While driving to office...I find that the road on my side is always full of traffic, while the other side is completely empty. In the morning, the side of the road going towards the city is completely jammed and the other is just the reverse. In the evening, its exactly the opposite.
Transport planners would understand that its the trend in all cities and if I remember that there is a concept in Population Geography about mobile population. City centres having the maximum population during day time and almost nil during evenings. Its just the same concept reflected on the roads.
The idea which I am proposing is that why dont we swap lanes during peak hours. Borrow a lane or two from the 'leaner side' or the side which is empty. The result is extra lanes to the jammed side. Now, i know this is not the sustainable solution. Sustainable solution is perhaps to have better public transport...but nevertheless its a solution.
Its not that an easy solution to implement, though.
The problem in implementation is that most of our road dividers are permanent in nature. If only they could be movable then we could do this swapping easily. This cannot be done in places where road dividers have street lights or house trees (I am not in favour of cutting trees). But on raods where they dont exist, some sort of an electrical device could demarcate the lanes by small pegs which come out of the road surface. Just like the jammers at five star hotels these days. Pegs which go up and down at the press of a button. These could be just one foot in height and no more.
I think at many places the Delhi Police is using such methods...but it may work. I also think if transport planners sit together...something more workable could be created through lane swapping.
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