Improving Traffic Flow at Busy Kolkata Intersections

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“IMPROVING TRANSIT SYSTEM AND ITS
MEASURES TO IMPROVE TRAFFIC FLOW
AT A STREET”
Dissertation Report Submitted to the University of
Calcutta In Partial Fulfillment for the Award of Master of
Public Systems Management (With Specialization in
transportation and logistics Management)
By
MANIDEEPA BAIDYA
ROLL NO.: 107/MPS/110052
SESSION: 2011-2013
INDIAN INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL WELFARE AND BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
COLLEGE SQUARE WEST, KOLKATA 700 073
May, 2013

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The dissertation was done in partial fulfilment of the requirements for
the degree of MPSM.
The three things which go on to make a successful endeavour are
dedication, hard work and correct guidance. Able and timely guidance
not only helps in making an effort fruitful, but also transforms the
whole process of learning into an learning and enjoyable experience.
I am extremely thankful and pay my gratitude to Mr. Swapan Kr.
Choudhuri, professor, IISWBM and Mrs. Jayanti De, course
coordinator (transportation and logistics department), IISWBM
for their expert guidance assistance in the successful completion of
my dissertation.
Finally, yet importantly, I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to
my beloved parents for their blessings, my friends/classmates for their
help and wishes for the successful completion of this project.
Thank you everyone.

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INDEX
CHAPTER 1: OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY 4
CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 5
CHAPTER 3: STUDY AREA 6
CHAPTER 3.1: PRIMARY DATA 7
CHAPTER 3.2: SECONDARY DATA 12
CHAPTER 3.3: FINDINGS 15
CHAPTER 3.4: DEFINITION 16
CHAPTER 3.5: DIAGNOSIS 22
CHAPTER 3.6: PROJECTION 24
CHAPTER 3.7: OPTIONS & FORMUATIONS 25
CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSIONS 36
BIBLIOGRAPHY 37

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Chapter 1
OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
As a student of Transportation and logistics management of MPSM in
I.I.S.W.B.M, I was provided all the opportunities to learn the various
aspects of transit systems and its characteristics of different measures.
My project area was concerned with ‘improving transit system and its
measures at a street’.
My objective was to select a study area which is an important location
due to which the traffic of that area becomes very much busy and
congested, so that problem areas can be found and feasible proposals
and recommendations can be made to improve the existing transit
systems and its measures.

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Chapter 2
METHODOLOGY
Apart from keen observation of the various processes and practices carried out
for this dissertation, various methods of data collections were also adopted to
get true and detailed findings.
 Selection of the study area
For study the topic of my dissertation I chose two junctions (Surya Sen
and M. G. road crossing & College Street and M. G. road crossing), and
the stretch between two junctions.
 Primary data collection
Data regarded the study is collected first hand from the direct observation
of the traffic movement at the both Surya Sen and College Street
junctions.
Data are also collected by consultation with the transport users and traffic
police.
Data are collected for both peak and off peak hour for three consecutive
days.
 Secondary data collection
Different websites, journals and books were viewed on the transport
system in Kolkata, different measures that are taken to control traffic
congestion in Kolkata.
 Presentation of data
Tables, line charts, clustered column charts are used to present the data
collected from direct observation.
 Findings the problem areas
 Proposals and recommendations

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Chapter 3
STUDY AREA
College Street (name derived from the presence of many colleges) is a
1.5 km long street in central Kolkata in the Indian state of West
Bengal. It stretches (approximately) from Ganesh Chandra Avenue
Crossing in Bowbazar area to Mahatma Gandhi Road crossing. It
houses many centres of intellectual activity specially Indian Coffee
House, a cafe that has attracted the city's intelligentsia for decades
The College Street is most famous for its small and big bookstores,
which gives it the nickname “Boi Para” (Colony of Books).People
from whole city and different parts of the state gathers here for their
book. Many bigwigs of the Bengali publication industry are situated
here. The street is also dotted with countless very small book kiosks
which sell new and old books.

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Chapter 3.1
PRIMARY DATA
The primary data has been collected from both the Surya Sen crossing
and the College Street crossing.
PLACE: SURYA SEN CROSSING
DATE: 16TH MAY, 2013
TIME: 10:30 AM – 11:30 AM
VEHICLE TYPE NO. OF VEHICLES
Bus 60
4 wheelers (both private cars & taxis) 574
2 wheelers (motorised) 96
Auto 185
Heavy Vehicles 8
Bi-cycle 34
Hand-pulled Rickshaws 25
Van Rickshaws 30
TOTAL 1012
MOTORISED
VEHICLES
NON
MOTORISED
VEHICLES
PUBLIC
VEHICLES
PRIVATE
VEHICLES
923 89 245 406
Motorisedvehicles:Non-Motorisedvehicles = 923:89 (approx 10:1)
Public vehicles:private vehicles = 245:406 (approx1:1.7 ratio)

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PLACE: SURYA SEN CROSSING
DATE: 16TH MAY, 2013
TIME: 3:30 PM – 4:30 PM
TRAFFIC NO. OF VEHICLES
Bus 45
Auto 160
Heavy Vehicles 6
Bi-cycle 12
Van Rickshaws 46
TOTAL 684
MOTORISED
VEHICLES
NON
MOTORISED
VEHICLES
PUBLIC
VEHICLES
PRIVATE
VEHICLES
596 88 205 185
Public vehicles:private vehicles = 205:185 (approx1.1:1 ratio)

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PLACE: COLLEGE STREET CROSSING
DATE: 17TH MAY
TIME: 10:45 AM – 11:30 AM
Bus 198
4 wheelers (both private cars &
taxis) 580
Auto 210
Heavy Vehicles 12
Bi-cycle 60
Van Rickshaws 21
TOTAL 1172
MOTORISED
VEHICLES
NON-
MOTORISED
VEHICLES
PUBLIC
VEHICLES
PRIVATE
VEHICLES
1056 116 408 98
Public vehicles:private vehicles = 408:98 (approx 4:1 ratio)

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PLACE: COLLEGE STREET CROSSING
DATE: 17TH MAY
TIME: 2:30 PM – 3:30 PM
Bus 210
Auto 198
Heavy Vehicles 18
Bi-cycle 43
Van Rickshaws 34
TOTAL 988
MOTORISED
VEHICLES
NON-
MOTORISED
VEHICLES
PUBLIC
VEHICLES
PRIVATE
VEHICLES
873 115 408 55
Public vehicles:private vehicles = 408:55 (approx 7:1 ratio)

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LANE AND VEHICLE WIDTH DATA
PLACE: SURYA SEN INTERSECTIONS
STREET WIDTH: approximately 18 feet (TOWARDS SEALDAH)
STREET WIDTH: approximately 25 feet (TOWARDS COLLEGE
STREET CROSSING)
PLACE: COLLEGE STREET INTERSECTIONS
STREET WIDTH: 18 feet (TOWARDS SHYAMBAZAR)
STREET WIDTH: 18 feet (HOWRAH TO SEALDAH AND VICE
VERSA)
BUS WIDTH: approximately 5 feet
TAXI/PRIVATE CARS WIDTH: approximately 4 feet
AUTO WIDTH: approximately 3.5 feet
RICKSHAW WIDTH: approximately 3.5 feet
TWO WHEELERS
(MOTORISED & NON-MOTORISED): approximately 2.5 feet

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CHAPTER 3.2
SECONDARY DATA
Growth Trends of Motor Vehicles- KOLKATA
(in ‘000)
YEAR KOLKATA
1981 -
1986 339
1991 475
1996 588
1998 664
2002 1051
Source: http://www.ccsindia.org/ccsindia/pdf/Ch11_Review%20of%20Road%20Network%20and%20Transport%20System.pdf
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
1981 1986 1991 1996 1998 2002
vehicle(in'000)
YEAR
KOLKATA

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PEDESTRIAN VOLUME SURVEY by KMA, 2008
One of the heaviest pedestrian traffic movements in the KMA occurs
between Sealdah station and B. B. D. Bag. In order to measure the
volume of traffic quantitatively a 12 hour survey was carried out at
different locations. The pedestrian volume was counted at following
locations
1. East of Amherst Street Crossing
2. West of College Street Crossing
3. East of Rabindra Sarani
The pedestrian volume was also counted on M. G. Road, East of
Suryasen Street i.e. Near Purabi Cinema at the following locations:
1. Surya Sen Street immediately to the east of the College Square
2. Prem Chand Boral Street immediately east of the College Square
3. Eden Hospital Road
OBSERVATIONS
2, 90,000 pedestrians were observed from Sealdah Stations via. B.B.
Ganguly Street and Surya Sen Street. The results of the survey
highlight three distinct patterns of pedestrian movements:
• There is continuous flow of pedestrians between Sealdah Stations
and B. B. Bag via B. B. Ganguly Street, though in a tapered
proportion.
• Major pedestrian movement was also observed between Amherst
Street and Prem Chand Boral Street towards Eden Hospital Road.
• A concentrated pedestrian movement was observed via Surya Sen
Street and M. G. Road to Sealdah Station which was 20 per cent of
the total pedestrian volume.

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• In the KMA, almost 65 per cent of the trips per day are undertaken
by foot and therefore, facilitating pedestrian movement is a priority of
the Comprehensive Mobility Plan.
• The pedestrian mobility environment, in absence of proper
maintenance and improvement of infrastructure over time has become
very poor.
• Pedestrian fatalities are ranked at the top with 64 per cent share. The
main reason for this high rate of pedestrian fatalities is lack of
enforcement of traffic regulations and poor condition or absence of
footpaths.
• Wherever sidewalks are present they are encroached by street
hawkers thus pushing the pedestrians on to the main carriageway of
the roads.
• Crossing roads is a dangerous proposition as 89 per cent of the
carriageways are undivided. The lack of traffic enforcement adds to
the misery of the pedestrians.

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Chapter 3.3
FINDINGS
I personally travelled many a times in this area and felt that the traffic
movement is not smooth at all at any of these two junctions.
After taking all the data at two junctions I tried to find out the
problem areas for which the traffic is getting congested at the two
junctions day by day.
I divided my research process in the following manner:
 Definition: What are the problems?
 Diagnosis: What are the causes of the problem?
 Projection: How it will develop in the future if not taken care?
 Options & Formulations: What are the possible ways to tackle
the problems? & what are the pros and cons of each suggestion?

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Chapter 3.4
DEFINITION
“Definition” basically defines the problem areas in my dissertation.
The areas I have chosen for my dissertation are the college street
crossing and Surya Sen crossing. There are many positive points in
respect with the traffic movement on these junctions, like the road
infrastructure, pavements for pedestrians, signal systems, one way
traffic movement etc.
But according to my study I found the traffic movement efficiency is
not up to the mark. There are some serious problems which become
the hindrance of the traffic movement causes traffic congestion. So
here I would like to define the particular problems on those above
mentioned crossings.
Problem areas are:
 Mixed traffic:
Based on my observation I found that there are no traffic
restrictions for any particular vehicles. The traffic is mixed road
traffic that is traffic includes each and every possible vehicles
that can run on the road surface, like Trams, Buses, Taxis, Cars
(private), Autos, heavy goods vehicles, 2 wheelers (motorised
and non motorised both), hand-pulled Rickshaws, Van-
rickshaws, etc. so it becomes very difficult to manage all these
types of vehicles together specially in a one way traffic
movement.

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 Parking system:
The parking system is one of the major problem I found for
which the traffic movement gets slower, thus reducing the
efficiency and resulting traffic congestion.
There is no separate parking space used in between these two
crossings. The vehicles (especially cars and taxis) are parked on
the right side of the road. It almost takes 2/9th of the total road
space.
Land is valuable in all urban areas. Parking places occupy large
portions of such land. This fact should be recognized in
determining the principles for allocation of parking space.
 Problems of Tramline in the particular study area :
The tramlines in Kolkata have been running with lots of
advantages like,
 Clean and green – enhances the environment; no emissions at
street level
 Safe – less prone to accidents
 Smooth and comfortable
 Pedestrian-friendly
 Acceptable and accepted – only rail-borne modes of transport
can actually get people out of cars
 High capacity – only metro systems have higher carrying
capacity
 Affordable – the cheapest form of comfortable mass transit
 Adaptable – can cope with steep grades and tight curves
 Inspiring – modern trams can be aesthetically pleasing
 Heritage – Tramcars are a part of history.

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Though the Tramline has lots of advantages but I found many
disadvantages f the tramline in the particular area of my study.
Running the trams in the opposite direction of the traffic flow
becomes a problem for other vehicles in the one way traffic
movement.
Moreover the dedicated lines used for the tramlines are shared
with every other vehicles result in traffic congestion.
Due to its slow speed trams cannot attract many passengers
though it has a huge capacity of carrying nearly 130 passengers.
 No separate lane for Buses
No Bus Bay system I found in this particular stretch from Surya
Sen junction to College Street junction.
Even if there was any such Bus Bay system it is completely
ignored. All the vehicles including Buses are come together and
get stuck, which again results in traffic congestion.
 No separate lane for non motorised vehicles
There are no proper rules or regulations I found for the non
motorised vehicles like Rickshaws, Van Rickshaws, Bi-cycles,
etc. these vehicles don’t even follow the direction of the traffic.
There are no separate lanes for these non motorised vehicles.
As the speed of these non motorised vehicles are less than the
motorised vehicles, sharing the space with the motorised
vehicles results slow traffic movement.

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 Inadequate spaces for pedestrians
I have added the space width that is used for the pedestrians in
the PRIMARY DATA (CHAPTER 4.1), where I found the
problem of encroachment which share the maximum spaces of
the footpaths.
Pedestrians have very small spaces to walk on the footpaths but
the actual width of the footpath is wide enough without any
encroachment. So pedestrians are thereby compelled to walk on
the street which creates a huge problem in running the vehicles
smoothly on the street.
 Improper utilisation of road space
The road spaces are wide enough to run the traffic smoothly but
the spaces are not fully dedicated for the running vehicles.
The spaces are shared with parked vehicles, non motorised
vehicles, users walking down on the street etc. so there is a lack
of proper utilisation of the road spaces.
The width details of each street under my study area are
attached in the PRIMARY DATA (CHAPTER 4.1)
 Ratio of public and private car
I took the numbers of both public vehicles and private cars
during peak and off peak hour continuously for 2 days. The data
attached at the end of this report in PRIMARY DATA
(CHAPTER 4.1)
What I found is that the numbers of private cars come almost
two times than the number of public cars at peak hours.

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Public cars include Buses and Autos in terms of transit. And the
private cars include only the cars of the users in terms of
ownership.
That public transport occupies less road space and causes less
pollution per passenger-km than personal vehicles. As such,
public transport is a more sustainable form of transport.
Therefore, the central government would promote investments
in public transport as well as measures that make its use more
attractive than in the past.
 Utilisation of space/persons by both the public and the
private vehicles
Road space gets allocated to whichever vehicle occupies it first.
The focus is, therefore, the vehicle and not people. The result is
that a bus carrying 40 people is allocated only two and a half
times the road space that is allocated to a car carrying only one
or two persons. In this process, the lower income groups have,
effectively, ended up paying, in terms of higher travel time and
higher travel costs, for the disproportionate space allocated to
personal vehicles.
If the focus of the principles of road space allocation were to be
the people, then much more space would need to be allocated to
public transport systems than is allocated at present.
 Freight traffic problem:
The data that I attached at the end of this report about the
number of vehicles in peak and off peak hours shows the
number of freight traffic.

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I found some freight vehicle movement during peak hour though
small in numbers which is not desired. It slows down the
With limited capacity of the transport system, it is essential that
freight traffic and passenger traffic are so staggered as to make
optimum use of the transport infrastructure.
 Role of Para-transit
Para transit (taxi) is normally expected to fulfil a need that
neither public transport or personal vehicles are able to fulfil.
They normally cater to a category of occasional trips such as
trips to airports or rail stations with excessive baggage, or
emergency trips that have to be undertaken immediately and it is
not possible to wait for public transport. Para transit would not
normally be used for regular commute trips to work or school.
However, when the quality of public transport deteriorates,
Para-transit tends to substitute for public transport.
Unfortunately, this has started happening in many Indian cities.
As such, this policy would seek to restore Para-transit to its
normal role by persuading the improvement of public transport.

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Chapter 3.5
DIAGNOSIS
The problems are already discussed in the previous chapter. Here I
would like to discuss: what are the main causes for which the above
problems (some of them) prevail in this particular area.
 Causes for Mixed traffic problem:
 No rules and regulations for certain vehicle type like freight
traffic, non motorised vehicles.
 No separate lane for Buses, Non-motorised vehicles.
 No physical separation for the Tramlines.
 Causes for parking problem:
 No proper planning for dedicated parking place
 Users who are not even work in this particular area park their
cars in the stretch between Surya Sen crossing and College Street
crossing.
 Each and every local house, educational buildings, offices or
other institutions should have parking facility in their own
premises which is not common in this area; rather streets are used
for parking purpose.
 Causes for the tramline issues:
 Trams are not very attractive to the users due to its slower speed
than the other motorised vehicles especially in the peak hour.

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 Lack of proper maintenance
 Technology not upgraded
 Chances of derailment
 Discontinued tram service for load-shedding
 Causes for which people walks on the street
 Less spaces in the footpaths
 Encroachment
 Random plantation on the footpath
 Causes for the improper utilisation of road spaces
 Road spaces are allotted for the vehicles not for the users
 Road spaces are shared by the parking cars
 Road space/passenger is maxi-mum for the public transport
whereas it is very less for the private cars, but study shows that
the number of private cars is twice than that of the number of
public cars.
 People walk down on the street due to lack of spaces in
footpaths
 Causes for freight traffic movement problem:
No strict regulation on the time of such heavy vehicle
movements
 No by-passes for heavy vehicles around the study area that
enable through traffic to go around the city and not add to the
city traffic.

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Chapter 3.6
PROJECTION
The future of this traffic movement in this particular area will have to
face huge problems if the above mentioned areas are not taken care.
Unless the above problems are remedied, poor mobility can become a
major dampener to economic growth and cause the quality of life to
deteriorate. In near future the traffic of this area may have to face
problems like:
 Roads will almost reach to its Jam density
 Speed of the vehicles may become lower day by day
 Air pollution, Noise pollution may increase more than the
present
 The Roads may get damaged due to heavy vehicles
movements
 No separate spaces will be there in near future for the
pedestrians if no action taken over the encroachment
 Public vehicles may get hampered due to increasing private
cars in respect to increasing income level.
 Accidents can happen due to no separate lanes for non
motorised vehicles
 Trams, the heritage of Kolkata. Soon may become extinct if
no proper maintenances are taken care.

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Chapter 3.7
OPTIONS & FORMULATIONS
India’s urban population is currently around 30% of its total
population. Experience across the world has been that as economies
grow, rapid urbanization takes this proportion to over 60% before it
begins to stabilize. As such, it is projected that India’s urban
population would grow to about 473 million in 2021 and 820 million
by 2051, as against only 285 million in 2001. Hence, cities must not
only meet the mobility needs of the current population but also
provide for the needs of those yet to join the urban population.
For urban areas to be able to support the required level of economic
activity, they must provide for the easy and sustainable flow of
goods and people.
on an average, while the population of India’s six major metropolises
increased by about 1.9 times during 1981 to 2001, the number of
motor vehicles went up by over 7.75 times during the same period.
“Prevention is better than cure”.
Before reaching to the projected future as stated in the previous
chapter some useful measures can be taken which are going to be
suggested below.
Though I have taken a small segment of the total area of Kolkata, the
measures that are going to be suggested, some of them can be
applicable in general.

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SUGGESTIONS:
 Separate lanes for
 Buses:
A bus lane or bus only lane is a lane restricted to buses on
certain days and times, and generally used to speed
up public transport that would be otherwise held up by
traffic congestion. Often restrictions should be applied to
certain other vehicles, which may include taxis, high
occupancy vehicles, motorcycles, and bicycles. Bus lanes
are a central part of bus rapid transit.
In this area the bus lane is not necessarily has to be very
long, as it may only be used to bypass a single congestion
point such as the college street junction and the Surya
Sen junction.
Strict rules and regulations should be there to maintain
the bus lanes so that no other vehicles can share the
dedicated lane. Even Buses should follow their own bay.
For that one suggestion can be the use of electric buses
with rubber tyres.
Pros:
1. Bus lanes give priority to buses and cut down on
journey times where roads are congested with other
traffic.
2. The introduction of bus lanes can significantly assist in
the reduction of pollutants.

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Cons:
1. Bus lane must give-way to all the other road-users
resulting in long queues of buses.
 Non-motorised vehicles
Like the Buses the non motorised vehicles should have
their own lane for movement.
Non-motorized modes are environmentally friendly and
have to be given their due share in the transport system of
a city. The problems being faced by them would
have to be mitigated.
In the college street area there should have paths in
between the book markets and the main street for the Van
Rickshaws, Hand-pulled Rickshaws so that they don’t
share the traffic with motorised vehicles thus reducing
traffic congestions. Restrictions are to be made strictly for
the motorised vehicles (especially 4-wheelers) for those
paths.
The safety concerns of cyclists and pedestrians have to be
addressed by encouraging the construction of segregated
rights of way for bicycles and pedestrians.
Pros:
1. Safety can be improved for the non-motorised vehicles
2. The segregation of vehicles moving at different speeds
would help improve traffic flow, increase the average
speed of traffic and reduce emissions resulting from
sub-optimal speeds.

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3. This approach will encourage the use of non motorised
vehicles for short trips resulting in reduced pollution.
Cons:
1. If not properly maintained then the dedicated path
would be also congested.
 Heavy freight traffic
As economic activities in cities expand and city
population grows, a substantial amount of freight traffic
would be generated. The timely and smooth movement of
such freight is crucial to the well being of the people and
the viability of the economic activities they undertake.
However, with limited capacity of the transport system, it
is essential that freight traffic and passenger traffic are so
staggered as to make optimum use of the transport
infrastructure.
One solution is the practice to use off-peak passenger
travel times to move freight. Many cities have earmarked
late night hours for the movement of freight and restricted
the entry of heavy vehicles into cities during day time.
Further, several cities have by-passes that enable through
traffic to go around the city and not add to city traffic.
These practices are sound and would be encouraged in
this area.
 Proper maintenance, Physical separation for tram
lines
The tramlines are shared by every other road vehicles
(motorised and non-motorised) resulting in traffic

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congestion. Trams cannot run smoothly which reduces its
efficiency as well as speed.
If any temporary physical separation can be made like
plastic cons, movable railings both sides of the line then
the tram can run more smoothly than its present situation.
The tram should be maintained properly in terms of
speed, looks to have more passengers because the
passenger capacity is huge than the other road vehicles,
nearly 120 passengers at a time.
In the stretch from Surya Sen junction to the College
Street junction the traffic flow is unidirectional but the
tram movement is bi-directional. This creates traffic
congestion. If the opposite direction can be by-passed on
a parallel lane then this problem can be solved.
Pros:
1. Reduction of peak hour congestion
2. Lower the chances of the road to get damaged.
3. Smooth traffic flow.
4. Tramline traffic would become more organised as well
as attractive for the users
 Encourage the use of carpooling system
Carpooling (also known as car-sharing, ride-sharing, lift-
sharing), is the sharing of car journeys so that more than one
person travels in a car.

30
Especially the educational institutions, offices in this area
should have carpooling systems and if possible it should be
mandatory for a fixed distance.
Pros:
1. Reduces each person's travel costs such as fuel costs, tolls,
and the stress of driving.
2. Environmentally friendly and sustainable way to travel as
sharing journeys reduces carbon emissions.
3. Reduces traffic congestion on the roads, and the need
for parking spaces.
4. Reduces the use of private cars.
5. Proper utilisation of road space/passenger.
 Price discrimination
Price discrimination can be defined as ‘different prices are
charged from different users or customers or different
groups for the same kind of goods or services’.
The traffic can be divided into two different zones depending
on the volume of the traffic. One is peak hour traffic and
another is off peak hour traffic.
If we can charge more prices during off peak hour and charge
less price in peak hour for the same kind of transport service
then we can experience a shift of elasticity of demand.

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Pros:
1. The congestion will be less during peak hour as people who
travel for amusement will try to avoid the peak hour traffic.
2. There will be a balance between peak and non peak hour
traffic movement and congestion may go down.
Cons:
1. If there is no existence of consumer who will be willing to
pay the extra price during peak hour then there will be no
change in congestion.
2. The segregation of market should be strong unless user may
simply replace the higher priced traffic hours by lower
priced traffic hour.
 Proper parking facility
A good share of roads in this area has been taken by the
parking cars ignoring the value of land use.
Levy of a high parking fee, that truly represents the value of the
land occupied.
A land should be used away from the streets for parking the
cars; moreover the parking should be restricted for this college
street area only, not for other areas as it will increase the traffic
volume.
Preference in the allocation of parking space for public
transport vehicles and non-motorized modes as well as easier
access of work places to and from such spaces would go a long
way in encouraging the use of sustainable transport systems.

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Not only for the motorised vehicles but Park and ride facilities
for non-motorised vehicles, with convenient inter-change,
would be another useful measure.
Governments would be required to amend building bye laws in
all million plus cities so that adequate parking space is
available for all residents / users of such buildings.
Pros:
1. Road spaces can be freed for the smooth traffic flow only.
2. Proper land use.
Cons:
1. Cost effective solution.
 Encourage the use of public transport
According to my observation, the Buses, taking on an average
50 to 60 passengers at a time, occupy only 1/3rd of the total
road space whereas the private cars, taxis, occupying almost
2/9th of the total road space, carry 1 or 2 passengers on an
average in this area.
The focus of the principles of road space allocation was to be
the people, and then much more space would need to be
allocated to public transport systems.
The Central Government would, therefore, encourage measures
that allocate road space on a more equitable basis, with people
as its focus in this particular area.

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This can be achieved by reserving lanes and corridors
exclusively for public transport and non-motorized modes of
travel.
Similarly lanes could be reserved for vehicles that carry more
than three persons (popularly known as High Occupancy
Vehicle Lanes).
Pros:
1. It helps reduce congestion and air pollution, if users of
personal vehicles can be persuaded to shift to public
transport.
 Facility for the pedestrians
The width of the footpath should be available only for the
pedestrians. Proper action should be taken for illegal
encroachment.
The book shops on the footpath should have left a sufficient
space for the pedestrians if they are legal.
The random plantation also occupies the space for the
pedestrians. It should be in a more planned manner.
Pros:
1. Road spaces will not be used by the pedestrians resulting
in a smooth traffic flow.
2. Reduce the chances of accidents.

34
 Timing variations of educational institutions and offices
Normally the timing of the educational institutions and offices
are same so that during that particular time traffic gets
congested.
If the timing can be changed then there can be a shift of traffic
over a long time period which reduces the traffic congestion.
 Improved signal system
It is observed that the traffic signal is not well organised based
on the volume of the traffic at the Surya Sen and College Street
intersections.
There should have frequent surveys over the traffic volume so
that signal system can be changed accordingly for a fixed
period of time.
The signal should be flexible that is it should be automatic as
well as manual.
But the automatic signal is preferred more than the manual
systems as it can results human error which can lead to
accidents or traffic congestion.
 Improved traffic management by proper traffic police
training.
 Special mobile teams of Kolkata traffic police team for any
sudden traffic congestion due to accidents or any other
reasons.

35
 Need for public awareness and cooperation
Urban transport policies cannot succeed without the fullest co-
operation of all the city residents. Such cooperation can be best
secured if the objective of any initiative is made clearly known
to them. It is, therefore, necessary to launch intensive
awareness campaigns that educate people on the ill effects of
the growing transport problems in urban areas especially on
their health and well being. The campaigns would seek their
support for initiatives like greater use of public transport and
non-motorized vehicles, the proper maintenance of their
vehicles, safer driving practices, etc. Such campaigns would
also encourage individuals, families and communities to adopt
“Green Travel Habits” that would make travel less polluting
and damaging.
 Need student involvement

36
Chapter 4
CONCLUSIONS
I hope that the proposals and the recommendations that are made to
make the dissertation objective successful are feasible enough to
apply at both College Street and Surya Sen intersections and the
stretch between the two junctions.
If the suggestions made in this dissertation paper are properly
implemented then the traffic flow will become smooth and there will
have no congestion.

37
BIBLIOGRAPHY
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carpool
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bus_turnout
http://kolkatainformation.org/2012/06/04/kolkatas-transport-
problems-finding-a-solution/
http://www.kmdaonline.org/pdf/CMP-KMA.pdf
http://mospi.nic.in/Mospi_New/upload/SYB2013/CH-21-
ROADS/ROAD%20-%20WRITEUP.pdf
www.census2011.co.in
http://www.ccsindia.org/ccsindia/pdf/Ch11_Review%20of%20Road%20Netw
ork%20and%20Transport%20System.pdf
http://www.kmdaonline.org/pdf/CMP-KMA.pdf

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