Might is right on Mumbai roads

Apr 20, 2010, 07:28 PM IST

1/7 Motorists across the globe spend six months of their lives in traffic jams - most are phantom jams - a study in the UK has revealed. Mumbai motorists, however, end up spending much more than that. DNA visits some of the major traffic bottlenecks in the city to find out reasons for the never-ending snarls. The obvious culprits are narrow roads, heavy traffic volume, ongoing road works, and above all unruly driving and pedestrian indiscipline. Haji Ali junction, 5.00pm

This junction witnesses a daily traffic flow of close of 1.5 lakh vehicles. Traffic moving to and from Pedder Road hits a roadblock here and even though most arms of the junction - it has four arms - are sufficiently wide, the sheer volume of traffic is too much to handle. Vehicles that get off the Bandra-Worli Sea Link at the Worli end have also added to the traffic woes at the junction. To facilitate smooth traffic flow, the traffic cops have now been forced to impose certain restrictions for vehicular movement on some portions of the junction. "Most drivers don’t have any driving culture. Lane discipline is never observed; if one driver cuts a lane, others follow blindly. Also, there is an urgent need to upgrade road infrastructure.”

- Anish Gandhi, motorist





2/7 Cadbury junction, Pedder Road, 5.15pm

This junction, a nightmare for motorists, sees the highest peak hour traffic during morning and evening. Traffic cops blame heavy traffic flow and the narrow road width for the chaotic situation. Undisciplined lane changing by drivers is more often than not the reason for traffic snarls at the junction. Unless the proposed Pedder Road flyover, which has been embroiled in controversy for some time now, is built on priority or additional lanes are created, the problem at the junction will only worsen once the Worli-Haji Ali stretch of the sea link comes up. "It is not possible to penalise each and every person found flouting lane discipline as this would hold up traffic. Unless the road infrastructure is upgraded here, the bottleneck will continue to exist.”

- Traffic cop





3/7 Mahim Church junction, 2.00pm

A junction notorious for traffic snarls has recently seen a plastic divider being put up by the police on Mahim Causeway for northward-bound traffic. The divider instructs motorists travelling to different roads from the junction to keep their vehicles on a particular side of the road. Transport expert Ashok Datar felt the dividers improved traffic flow considerably. Another experiment was tried, which succeeded, but was discontinued later. At the exit of the Western Express Highway on Mahim Causeway, where six lanes merge into three, the police blocked three lanes to the right to redirect traffic flow. "Bad driving skills and dug up roads cause most traffic jams. Motorists and bikers exploit the minutest of free space available, thus causing jams.”

- Sukanya Kulkarni, actress





4/7 Famous studio-Mahalaxmi station, 4.30pm

Post-noon the stretch from King George Memorial Hospital on Dr E Moses Road to the Mahalaxmi station, which is less than a kilometre, takes about 10 minutes to cover due to traffic snarls. During peak hours, the situation worsens drastically as there is bumper-to-bumper traffic on the stretch. The morning peak hours between 10am and 11am are a difficult time for southward-bound traffic, and the evening peak hours between 5.30pm and 6.30pm are a major distress for northward-bound vehicles. Also, haphazardly parked cars and taxis block traffic movement on both sides of the road throughout the day, which adds to the traffic woes. "There’s no traffic sense. Driving licences are given without proper tests. We need driving schools that teach good driving culture.” - Ravinder Kaur, motorist







5/7 SV Road, Borivli Station, 9.30am

It's a task to travel from the Dahisar-end of Borivli station to the other end on SV Road, especially during peak hours. The distance, which is less than 500 metres, takes about 10-12 minutes to travel. Haphazard parking by autorickshaw drivers is the biggest nuisance and causes most traffic jams here. Also, the ongoing skywalk work adds to the woes of the motorists. Since the road is parallel to the station, pedestrians going in and coming out of the station also hinder traffic movement and add to the chaos. Even the presence of a traffic cop at the junction does not deter autorickshaw drivers from taking illegal turns and blocking traffic. "The road is narrow and pedestrians don’t respect traffic flow. The share-rickshaw drivers park in the wrong direction and take illegal turns.” - S Waghela, autorickshaw driver





6/7 Mohd Ali Road, 6.00pm

This is one junction where traffic snarls were a common phenomenon for years, but had come down after the JJ flyover became operational. But now with the traffic department's decision to ban two-wheelers on the flyover, the traffic situation has gone back to square one. Two-wheelers, which would zoom past on the flyover, now crowd the junction, which is already congested due to its proximity to Crawford Market. Various other markets, commercial and public, are also located near the junction and thus unregulated movement of hand carts and trucks adds to the traffic snarls. The traffic jams are extremely chaotic during peak hour traffic. "Two-wheeler ban on JJ flyover is unnecessary. It now takes twice the time it used to for covering the stretch from CST to Byculla due to the traffic snarls.”

- Aslam Khan, advocate



