Discussions with Suryakant Patel circa 1995-1996 about Baroda
Problems :
· We have a beautiful city in which we cannot walk; we cannot send our children to school on cycles. We cannot allow them the freedom of running, playfully.
· Workers have to cycle for miles. Every day we have about one fatal accident on the road in our city. The roads are death traps.
· Places of Entertainment, Vegetable Markets, Shopping Centres, Go downs and Ware-houses are grouped in the centre of the city and the transport Centres are also located here which creates a traffic bottleneck.
· Industries are situated on one end of the city and workers staying on the other end of the city have to cycle down to distant places through the city with criss cross movement.
· On account of expansion of the city, Railway Station and S.T.Depot has come in the centre of the city, bottle necking the traffic at these places. New areas and industries are thus cut off.
· River crossing is mainly done from the Tilak road which caters 80% of the criss-cross traffic load.
· Air strip is badly connected to the areas outside. One has to enter and cross the city to go to Air port.
· Through heavy loaded traffic passes through the city, jamming the roads.
· Rural bus stops are situated in the city are creating unnecessary traffic bottle neck.
We must plan for the entire traffic in a comprehensive way.
Possible Solutions
· Using the bus where it can move fast and where it can work efficiently.
· Plan the circular routes with fewer stoppages. Let people walk to reach their destination.
· Treat buses like railways and not like cars. Let not buses pass through heavily populated areas.
· Inner city traffic by minibus transport. Evolve other methods to deal with inner city transport.
· Think of electric trams and trolley buses and not polluting mass transport systems in future.
· Use mass media to educate drivers. Insist on minimum qualifications of drivers of heavy vehicles.
· Stop all U-turns, prohibit driving straight from minor streets to major street. Prohibit over-taking on bends and hills. Insist on powerful back lights and reflectors.
Slow Traffic :
* Carts, hand push by animals and human beings should be slowly eliminated if traffic is to be made efficient. The camel cart should be banned immediately. This will generate some strong opinion but politicians should be taken into confidence.
Service to Shops :
· Service to shops and go downs should be staggered and should be banned from 7am. TO 9pm.
· Trucks should have transport go downs on the outer city and merchandise should be brought by smaller vehicles at the appointed time. Trucks should not be allowed in the day time to pass through the city.
Cycles :
· All out efforts should be made to make cycle a major mode of personal transportation, workers, students and children will have a cheap and healthy mode of transport.
Traffic Lights :
Why should we have traffic lights and also a police-man? Can we not have traffic lights operated by a sitting police-man as per the demand of traffic flow? Can we depend on s system which is designed for a continuous and uniform traffic. Now signal lights are necessary for pedestrians crossing also.
Parking :
Long term parking facilities are now necessary. Paid parking must be planned on municipal open lands. Open land should be prescribed for parking. Cars must pay for occupying the valuable and expensive road space.
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Apoorva Pathak
+973 36796998 | +91 9033441833
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