10/21/2019

URBAN FUTURES OCT 09 2019

Off track BRTS: Is Intelligent Traffic Monitoring an

answer?
AMRUTA PONKSHE

BRTS recently received its first major setback in India, with the city of Pune abandoning its BRTS
project by allowing private vehicles to enter the BRT lanes on certain routes. However, this may not be
the end of BRTS just yet.

BRTS DELHI ITMS MUMBAI TRAFFIC

The upcoming decade will see an investment of ₹700 billion by Indian government at the national,
state and city levels in providing sustainable transport access to over 58% of its urban population. A
significant portion of these funds are earmarked to building over 1,000 kilometers of Bus Rapid
Transport System (BRTS) network in 28 cities, with dedicated lanes and infrastructure.

A BRTS uses buses on city lanes dedicated only for bus transit. As BRTS provides buses exclusive
right of way, commuters reach their destinations quickly. Dedicated bus lanes and unique bus station
infrastructure have made public transport receive iconic status in cities like Curitiba (Brazil), Istanbul
(Turkey) and Ahmedabad (India). Despite this, BRTS recently received its first major setback in India,

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with the city of Pune abandoning its BRTS project by allowing private vehicles to enter the BRT lanes
on certain routes. However, this may not be the end of BRTS just yet.

According to urban experts, the problem with BRTS implementation in India lies in the design,
discipline and in its struggle to meet passenger demands. Here, we analyse the current broken links in
the BRTS system and see how upcoming digital mobility solutions may provide a complete answer to
the challenge of BRTS implementation.

The upcoming decade will see an investment of ₹700 billion by Indian government at the
national, state and city levels in providing sustainable transport access to over 58% of its urban
population.

Let us look at few major issues that crop up for the implementation of BRTS:

1. Lane enforcement
Ever since the start of BRTS operations in India, cities have witnessed rampant encroachment by non-
BRTS vehicles on exclusive bus lanes to move faster than the rest of the traffic on mixed-traffic lanes.
The major reasons for these offences are often that traffic fines are not large enough to deter offenders.
Manual fine collection introduces the human factor, leading to malpractices in enforcement.

2. Design
A typical cross section of a BRT lane looks like this.

Figure 1: Road cross section with BRT at median, Curtiba, Brazil.

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Source: C40 Cities

BRT systems were started in Curitiba, Brazil, where the then architect-mayor Jaime Lerner was
focused on the design of stations and making public transport affordable and appealing to all. As seen
in the picture, pedestrian access to the BRT station is maintained at grade, i.e. the pedestrian will not
have to climb up or down to access the bus station. This focus on station and lane design, which was
the hallmark of Lerner’s work, was rarely replicated in later efforts in other countries, especially in
India.

The picture below provides an example of a BRTS in India. As seen in the picture, the bus stop has
restricted access as the pedestrians have to climb down into the subway tunnel to reach the bus stop
and back. At several BRTS in India, poor station design and broken footpath connectivity at
intersections makes getting to the BRTS stations difficult. Lack of traffic signal enforcement and
pedestrian oversight at intersections makes crossing to the BRTS stations dangerous and may lead to
casualties.

Figure 2: Grade separated access to BRTS, Pune, India.

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Source: Hindustan Times

3. Volume of BRT traffic:

Though financial difficulties of urban local bodies make maintaining fleet size tough, predicting the
number of vehicles required on a particular route is also a factor of ever-changing city dynamics. In
Indian cities, commuter patterns vary by time of the day, festivals and physical obstructions, and road
diversions for construction or upgradation of infrastructure. Static routes don’t factor in these changes
to the cityscape and may keep plying buses on obsolete routes decreasing BRT revenues further.

However, there is still hope for a fully functioning BRTS due to recent policy changes such as the
Cities such as Delhi and Mumbai have recently also proposed the implementation of Intelligent Traffic
Management Systems (ITMS). The recent amendments to the Motor Vehicle Act have enforced hefty
fines on traffic violators. With mandatory FASTags, enforcement of these fines will become possible
as each vehicle will be connected to the national traffic system through a series of RFID-enabled
gantries and trackers. These two changes will help to maintain traffic discipline in cities, especially in
BRTS corridors. With the passage and implementation of the Motor Vehicle Amendment Act and the
impending enforcement of FASTag technologies in all vehicles by 1 December, the year 2020 may just
see marked improvements in the functioning of BRTS in the country.

There is still hope for a fully functioning BRTS due to recent policy changes such as the Cities
such as Delhi and Mumbai have recently also proposed the implementation of Intelligent
Traffic Management Systems (ITMS).

While ITMS are being used the world over for applications like intersection control, traffic
monitoring, revenue collection and providing users data about public transit services, the few instances
of ITMS implemented in India have given mixed results.

According to a group of researchers at IIT Bombay, to increase the efficiency of ITMS systems in the
Indian context, ITMS should be adapted to Indian road situations. The issues of lane crossing, chaotic
pile up of vehicles near intersections and road obstructions are unique to developing countries.

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Figure 3: Typical ITMS system.

Source: MDPI

Recent advancement in tracking and sensor technologies make ITMS better adopted to Indian roads.
These techniques use radio frequency identification (RFID), motion detection and GPS tracking to
keep tabs on lane discipline and traffic control. The RFID scanner seamlessly scans each vehicle’s
FASTag and its rear number plate. If the vehicle is a non-BRTS vehicle, a hefty fine will be deducted
as soon as it enters the BRTS lane, and for each subsequent lane entrance. Emergency vehicles may be
exempted from this charge.

Alternatives for BRTS solutions may be explored by cities with ITMS, such as creation of
dynamic and dedicated bus lanes. A dedicated bus lane, if enforced using an ITMS system, will
require only minor tactical changes to existing city streets.

Going further, the ITMS also have real-time traffic applications for the entire transport network in the
city:

1. ITMS will capture data from moving vehicles, send this data to sedentary gantries to collect and
process information – for the FASTag technology, this time interval is less than 10 minutes. The
gantries capture details linked to the vehicle such as registration, axle length, class of vehicle,
insurance details, etc. Once this information is analysed by a web-linked database, then the
subsequent charges or taxes are collected from the vehicle.

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2. The ITMS situated at several key junctions across the city will provide real-time traffic data for road
closures, obstructions and collisions. The ITMS does this through a coordinated system of traffic
cameras, motion and infrared sensors connected to a central control system. Users connected to the
ITMS via traffic apps like Google Maps on their mobiles, through a car GPS or through apps like M-
Indicator and Ridlr will get these real-time updates on their preferred routes and will use diversions
suggested by the app. This will provide options to users to avoid congested routes and will ease
congestion in the city.

3. Alternatives for BRTS solutions may be explored by cities with ITMS, such as creation of dynamic
and dedicated bus lanes. A dedicated bus lane, if enforced using an ITMS system, will require only
minor tactical changes to existing city streets.

These upcoming changes in the transportation sector, if implemented effectively, will prove to be a
boon for the revival of BRTS in India’s cities. This will help to realise the promise of BRTS to provide
accessible and affordable public transport to people, at the same time decongesting Indian roads.

The views expressed above belong to the author(s).

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