• Current Parking Position
• Parking Management models from across the globe
• Specific case studies and strategies for Mylapore, RK Salai, Purasaiwalkam, Adyar

In the context of Chennai, the ones to immediately be accused when there is a traffic issue is the number of share autos / tata magic vehicles. They are looked more as road occupying entities and not as vehicles that transport people and also increase the capacity of high capacity transit corridors by providing a feeder role to them.

Team Civitas along with City Connect is now working on a Para Transit Report, which intends to statistically give the contribution of these Para-Transit vehicles to the transportation system in Chennai and also would explore and inspect similar best pratices across the globe.

Watch this space for more on the report.

We went into the study, not expecting the results that came! Now that the field data is out, it can help us make more informed policy decisions.

Here is also a presentation of the main points observed during the study:

The Infrastructure Development Finance Company Limited (IDFC) joined CCC and appointed LandTech Engineers Pvt Ltd. to conduct traffic and related studies of the stretch. Topology and traffic surveys were conducted by LandTech.

Based on these surveys, LandTech engineers are studying the traffic problems, not to mention how to provide safe and convenient facilities to pedestrians. Various options are being looked at. We will then present these options to CoC and Chennai Traffic Police for their consideration. We expect this to happen in the next few weeks.

After the solution(s) are approved by the authorities, we will deliver the necessary documents so that CoC can tender and implement them. We hope this will vastly improve the facilities available for pedestrians and also, greatly improve the traffic flow in the stretch.

Just 11 schools in this zone account for nearly 22000 students with around 25% of them currently commuting by bicycle to school! So the process of opting for the right routes to make sure students actually use them is currently being worked on.

As part of the initial survey, schools will be asked about the origin destination of students so that the desire lines are available to our architects to plan accordingly. The first report will be presented on the 14th of August to the corporation.
Watch this space for more updates.

Some of us have gotten so used to waiting at Anna Flyover that we failed to see an obvious simple design modification that would have a huge impact in this intersection. All credits to Mark, for his elegant design, the plans are already submitted to the Corporation, Highways and the Traffic Police and they are in the process of implementing it soon.

The Highways Department will submit a detailed proposal to the Government of Tamil Nadu for consideration.

The challenges and the constraints that Mark had during the course of this design; Statue! Median! Embassy! etc… is probably worth mentioning in a separate blog!

Here is a presentation to give you an idea of what he came up with:

The long-term solution, at this stage is only for illustration.

A snapshot of what is being suggested: By removing the round-about, and making minor changes to the median alignment, the design suggests that 2 right turn movement can happen simultaneously.  The Nungambakkam High Road traffic that moves into Teynampet direction and the Cathedral Road traffic that moves into Anna Salai can happen simultaneously.

About the Transport Consultant

The Lead consultant for this project is Mark Selvaraj who heads LandTech Engineers Pvt Ltd.

Illustrative MTC Logo

MTC is one of largest transport corporations in India , operating almost 3200+ buses carrying around 5.2 million passengers / day! Even minor tweaks to improve passenger ridership experience would have a profound impact.  The MTC operates 600+ GPS enabled buses and many A/C buses, which were introduced in a measure to make more 2&4 wheeler rider switch to this mode. But the schedule of these buses remains largely unavailable to the possible end- user and hence there are few takers in some parts of the day.

One of first logical steps is to make this information available for the public to use. The initial work is to make the schedule data available in General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS)  (more like a a standard for transit data). Once this data is available in the public domain, individual developers can create 3rd party applications. With so many buses running across the city, the possibility of creating useful applications is limitless.

For example, you could select your origin and input “hospitals” and get a list of all the hospitals that are within walking distance, along the bus route. Or input your budget for coffee and the application could tell you the list of all the buses you can take to reach a coffee shop with your budget! You could also know how much eco friendly you have been by taking the public transport system. Further still, you can plan your own ‘Discover Chennai’ trail, you select the historic spots you want to visit and the application would give you the best route along with timings!

This can be shared, stored, mailed, sms’ed for wider distribution. We have currently put up a pilot website to illustrate the possibilities that MTC website can have. For those who want to access the gtfs feed for the 7 pilot routes, click to download. (the routes are D70, A1, M70, 5A, 21G, 21L, G18)

This would also help increase ridership and  reduce traffic delay that is plaguing Chennai, as more would move to public transport systems.

Simple calculate, for those of you who are curious about this – IATA norms are 300 parking slots for every one million passengers per annum (mpa). Initially during the boom time AAI estimated that there would be about 23 mpa in a few years. I guess they may have lowered their estimates. Anyway, Chennai Airport will need a lot of parking slots to accommodate existing and future traffic.

Very happy to see that AAI has invited bids for building parking structures on a PPP model. This will also help bring professional operations to traffic management at the airport since the operator will lose money if passengers park their vehicles anywhere and everywhere, as we the passengers do now. Mostly because we don’t have much of a choice. Check out.

Multi-level car parking at airport to be outsourced

Airport-to-get-more-parking-stands