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Thursday, July 24, 2008

Delhi learns to live with Bus Rapid Transit

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The long wait at traffic intersections is still there and so are the jaywalkers and lane jumpers but the madness and chaos is now conspicuously missing. Three months after it was made operational, things seem to be finally falling into place at the much-criticised 5.8 km-long Bus Rapid Transit corridor.

The opening of the BRT corridor between Ambedkar Nagar and Moolchand on April 21 had unleashed utter chaos and congestion on the once smooth road. Tempers were frayed and scuffles became common as motorists had to wait up to 40 minutes to cross the Chirag Dilli crossing. The scene was similar at intersections like Archana, Saket and Pushpa Vihar. The traffic signals were not working and the pile-up of cars were a kilometer long and lane jumping was rampant.

Three months down the line, Hindustan Times went back to the stretch and found out traffic on the corridor has finally stabilized and motorists, cursing the new system till sometime ago, have now made their peace with it.

The changes

The first visible change at the corridor is the scrupulous lane discipline being displayed by motorists. In three hours HT spent at the corridor, not even one car or two-wheeler jumped into the nearly empty bus lane. More importantly, the waiting time at the traffic intersections has come down to a good extent. The constantly malfunctioning traffic signaling system of the corridor too is working efficiently now with separate signals for motorized vehicles, cycles and buses.

To read the full article, click here...
To read the ePaper, visit: http://epaper.hindustantimes.com

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Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Who should we blame?

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The Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) system is anything but rapid. Cars crawl, pedestrians are confused, cyclists joust with motorcycles in their lane, and buses stop ahead of their bays. And no one quite knows whom to blame for this mess.

On the first working day since trials began on the 5.8-km BRT corridor: there was complete chaos. The short stretch between Moolchand and Ambedkar Nagar took more than an hour to cross, with the wait time at intersections like Archana and Chirag Dilli between 15 and 20 minutes.

Everyone concerned blamed malfunctioning traffic signals. But deeper issues were at work, and no one could hold out any promise of their resolution, early or delayed. "What was the need to impose this strange project on us? I was satisfied with the way things were, we never had jams like these before on this road," said an exasperated Dheeraj Gupta, who works for an MNC.

To read the full article, click here...
To read the ePaper, visit: http://epaper.hindustantimes.com

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