Transport for Chennai

1. Transport for Chennai Dr. Gitakrishnan Ramadurai Assistant Professor Transportation Engineering Division Department of Civil Engineering IIT Madras

2. Popular Sentiments • The population density is very high for any transport plan to work • Every one wants to own a car; traffic congestion shall continue to deteriorate • We need multi-level fly-overs and elevated corridors to solve the congestion problem • Impossible to change the attitudes of people; safety and environment will continue to be neglected Or Myths?

3. Myth 1 • The population density is very high for any transport plan to work • Truth: Higher population density is an ideal situation for greater public transit patronage. • Resulting in more safe, efficient, sustainable transportation solution • Bottom-line: Let’s increase population density and provide better public transit facilities

4. Population and Population Density New York City London Source: Wikipedia

5. Population and Population Density TOKYO Source: Wikipedia, City websites

6. Myth 2 • Every one wants to own a car; traffic congestion shall continue to deteriorate • Truth: Every one can own a car… but traffic congestion has already hit rock bottom! Cannot deteriorate any further! • Bottom-line: What use is a car that you cannot drive or park?

7. All Cars! No Road! CMDA Master Plan

8. Mode Shares Thankfully, not everybody is using their cars and bikes for all trips CMDA Master Plan

9. Parking • Supply in T. Nagar is 794 PCE against a demand of 2151 PCE, and • Supply in Parrys is 704 PCE against a demand of 4426 PCE • The haphazard parking has led to loss in the road capacity that ranges between15% to 60% • Vehicles searching for parking spaces can add anywhere between 10 – 40% of traffic on a road (CMDA Master Plan)

10. Myth 3 • We need multi-level fly-overs and elevated corridors to solve the congestion problem • Truth: The quicker we build the quicker it will get congested • Bottom-line: Need an integrated network management plan; build… but operate more efficiently

11. Induced Demand Performance Improves => Demand Increases Urban Transportation Networks, Sheffi

12. Myth 4 • Impossible to change the attitudes of people; safety and environment will continue to be neglected • Truth: On the contrary… e.g. Helmets, Literacy rate in India: 74% / Mobile subscriptions: 890 million • Bottom-line: People are smarter than we give them credit for; right (dis)incentives can not only change attitudes but completely reverse it!

13. Attitudes are not rigid • But need external forces to motivate change • Strict enforcement • Heavy fine for traffic violators; those who cannot pay may be given option to attend defensive driving courses • Insurance rates need to be linked to violations • Better engineering • Pedestrian paths, bicycle paths • Better intersection design • Optimal signal placement and timing

14. My Transport Solutions • Sustainable and Safe transportation system • Pedestrians and bicyclists (non-motorized transportation users) must occupy top of planning pyramid • Public transport must be accessible, affordable, and comfortable • Transportation network design, traffic management, traffic safety require scientific & engineering solutions • Implement Intelligent Transport Systems technology for improving efficiency and safety

15. 1. Pedestrians and Bicyclists • Priorities to non-motorised transport (CMDA Master Plan) • Footpaths are not less than 1.5m in residential streets and 3.0m on major roads • Redeeming the existing footpaths from such encroachments as flag-posts, hoardings, hawkers, shops, places of worship, eat-outs, construction materials, parking of vehicles, PCOs, telephone boxes, electrical transformers / junction boxes, traffic umbrellas, waste bins, milk booths etc. • Demarcating stretches of roads or areas exclusively for movement by pedestrians and cyclists and • Providing safe passage of pedestrian / cyclists by sub-ways • To the above list we can add: elevated bicycle paths, skywalks for pedestrians • If space is a constraint at road level, let us use the space above

16. NMT traveller safety • 42% of road accidents involve pedestrians and 10% cyclists (CMDA Master plan) • Minor accidents are the seeds for major accidents

17. 2. Public Transport • No one should walk more than 500m within city limits to a bus stop; 1km to a metro/lrt station • Charge full-fare to all; provide credit coupons to lower income strata • Basic minimum standards need to be maintained • People travelling on foot-boards or getting crushed inside are not dignified/civilized ways to travel • Why cannot all buses be temperature controlled?

18. 2. Public Transport • Metro and mono-rail are great • But need a tighter network instead of few lines • Buses can play a major role • Need to carefully plan and operate intermodal transfers EMBARQ Report: Bus-Karo

19. 3. Traffic Network Science and Engineering • Would we visit an amateur physician to treat a tumor? • Would you get your 12 floor corporate office designed and built by a mason? • Why do we not leave traffic engineering and network planning to experts? • There are no quick fix solutions • Every situation is unique and needs to be completely and thoroughly studied before prescribing solutions • Local, ad-hoc solutions lead to more problems!

20. Braess’ paradox Equilibrium Travel Time Is 83 seconds for all travellers Urban Transportation Networks, Sheffi

21. Braess’ paradox Travel Time Changes from To the one below Equilibrium Travel Time is 92 seconds for all travellers (increase of 9 seconds!!) Adding more capacity leads to more congestion

22. 4. Intelligent Transport Systems technology • Application of advanced technologies to the transportation sectorto improve the efficiency or safety of a surface transportation system. • ITS applies well-established technologies of communications, control, electronics and computer hardware and software to the surface transportation system. • ITS provides the ability to gather, organize, analyze, use, and share information about transportation systems. • Benefits: • Partial resolution of traffic problems, including traffic congestion, air pollution, and traffic accidents. • Improved services for users • Increased efficiency of the transportation system for the operators.

23. Applications • Incident detection and management

24. Route guidance

25. Demand management

26. Parking management

27. Electronic toll collection

28. Advanced traveler Information

29. Advanced traveler Information

30. Vehicle Control • GPS Navigation system • Cruise control • Collision alert warning • Collision avoidance control • Automated highway systems

31. Public Transportation • Electronic payment • Prediction of arrivals • Signal preemption

32. Problem: Major incident on Freeway Time is of the essence ….

33. Solution: Detection Equipment

34. Solution: Detection Equipment Traffic Management Center

35. Dispatch

36. Changeable Message Signs Internet In-vehicle

38. Issues Specific to Indian Traffic Conditions • We do not have a technology for real time data collection which suits our requirements of: • Heterogeneous/mixed traffic – varying from bullock carts to trucks • No lane discipline – vehicles occupy the entire road space

39. Mixed Traffic

40. Lane Discipline

41. Summary Myths • The population density is very high for any transport plan to work • Every one wants to own a car; traffic congestion shall continue to deteriorate • We need multi-level fly-overs and elevated corridors • Impossible to change the attitudes of people Solutions • Pedestrians and bicyclists must occupy top of planning pyramid • Public transport must be accessible, affordable, and comfortable • Require scientific & engineering solutions • Implement ITS for improving efficiency and safety

42. E-mail: gitakrishnan@iitm.ac.in Phone: 2257-4298 Thank you!