Traffic rule violations add to difficulties on city roads

Amritsar, January 30

Given no let-up in the traffic situation in the city, experts have come up with various measures like land acquisition for road widening, separate lanes for slow and fast-moving vehicles and other remedies.

Traffic is becoming unmanageable because of the constant rise in the number of vehicles. To manage this effectively, the conventional approach of deploying traffic police personnel on roads would not help much.

Prof Ashwani Luthra, head of Guru Ramdas School of Planning of Guru Nanak Dev University, said the need of the hour was to adopt applications of Intelligent Transportation System (ITS). It is vital to control and regulate traffic. For instance, nearly 6.5 lakh people were challaned in the past year in Chandigarh, where about 12 lakh people reside.

Under the ITS, special cameras were installed which automatically issue challans for overspeeding, jumping the red light and other traffic violations.

Unlike Chandigarh, which has a grid iron pattern where traffic can be diverted in case of traffic blockade, it is not possible here. So, a traffic jam lasts longer and needs external intervention to guide the vehicles, he says.

People do not use public transport keeping in view short to medium trip length, falling between 5 km to 8 km. Such a short travel trip does not cost much fuel expenditure, so people prefer personal transport, not public transport. During peak hours, traffic congestion rises.

Professor Sakshi said there were several infrastructural gaps concerning the road network in the city. For instance, ring roads around bypasses were to be constructed, but only one was partially raised. Arterial roads in the city are narrow which can be addressed through compulsory acquisition.

Anti-encroachment drives should be made regular and unauthorised commercial developments like parking of handcarts on roadsides in new areas should be checked.