Roads in India: Unusable lanes in cities and on highways

When big vehicles like trucks & buses park illegally in cities, the impact is much more severe thanks to their much bigger size and our narrow roads.

BHPian Mustang Sammy recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

While our road infrastructure indeed has a long way to go, we certainly don’t make it any easier on ourselves when the roads that we do have are badly designed, maintained and abused. In particular, many of our roads have at least one lane rendered unusable at least in part for entirely avoidable reasons. If not 100% occupied, there are inevitably obstructions at some point causing traffic to merge onto the remaining lane(s), creating chaos and often putting lives at risk.

1. Most city roads have at least one lane rendered unusable by vehicles (often illegally) parked in the left lanes. Cars are the most common offenders, especially the entitled people who leave their drivers sitting in their cars while illegally parked. Often parking is available a couple hundred meters away, but god forbid our royals should have to walk.

This is in Vashi, Navi Mumbai. In both cases, a proper parking lot exists 200-400m away. What use is decent infrastructure if people continue to behave lawlessly?

Total mess, that too at a turn in the road.

When big vehicles like trucks & buses park illegally in cities, the impact is much more severe thanks to their much bigger size and our narrow roads.

This truck is parked next to a paan shop. Coincidence? I think not.

Trucks also engage in this behavior on highways, parking in the left lane instead of pulling out on to the service roads.

Common sight on our highways.

2. There is often trash or construction/road debris piled up in the (usually) left lane, making it dangerous if not impossible to drive.

This debris has become a permanent fixture on many roads in Mumbai/Navi Mumbai, and gets progressively harder to remove the longer it is allowed to stay.

Double whammy. Trucks blocking the left lane on NH48, AND road construction debris.

3. Badly designed roads without proper storm drainage result in water accumulation during rains on one of the side lanes, creating traffic jams as people navigate around the often deep water logging. Many many roads become jammed during the monsoons thanks to poor drainage.

This particular example on the Thane-Belapur road gets much much worse during periods of heavy rain, with the spray from vehicles making it to the other side of the highway.

4. Buses, taxis and private vehicles stopping to pick up and drop off passengers on main roads creates traffic snarls as well, especially during holidays. Passengers also stand on the road creating hazards for themselves and traffic.

What is to prevent authorities from creating proper bus stands on service roads?

This is the Wakad Area outside Pune, heading towards Mumbai. The crowding gets extremely bad as the day progresses, and on public holidays. The other side is even worse.

So much space can be freed up and lives saved on EXISTING roads by ensuring:

• Parking rules enforcement in cities
• Keeping side lanes clean & clear of debris
• Creating rest stops for truck drivers or mandating that they pull over into service lanes
• Proper bus stops away from the main road

Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.