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This is to give the reader a good idea of how the LB Road Pilot (LB for short) was done. The set of engineering diagrams, landscape designs, signage and related documents are attached.

We are happy to inform you that our designs for LB have been enthusiastically accepted by the Corporation of Chennai (CoC) which is in the process of implementing. The budgets are being prepared for tendering after the elections.

The LB was done under the MOU Chennai City Connect (CCC) signed with the CoC. The idea of a formal MoU received very good support from the Mayor of Chennai, the Commissioner and their team.

The following are salient features of LB and MOU.
- Help understand the ground conditions and design pedestrian facilities on a stretch on LB.
- Consider various elements of pedestrian facilities in the design like footpath, landscaping with appropriate native trees and shrubs, bus bay, road crossings, cycle track if possible, proper place for utilities, street signage, etc.
- Using the learning and international standards as template, compile standards and guidelines for Chennai
- Redesign junctions to improve traffic flow, provide right turn/u-turn lanes, left turn lanes and other mechanisms as and when possible
- Improve traffic flow using modern software and practices to virtually test turning radius, lane width, location of median etc. using accurate survey data.

As a practical approach to our work we also decided to accommodate existing encroachments, hawkers, trees and other realities of Indian roads. We did this in order to assure the proposed designs and ideas are implementable and to protect livelihood of stakeholders as best as we could. Our focus was recovery of enough space for pedestrians. Additionally, improve traffic flow and design of facilities by optimising the existing space.

To study the existing conditions a team from CCC comprising of traffic and transport experts, urban planners, student volunteers etc. walked along LB, took photographs, detailed measurements, notes on problem areas that require special considerations and so on.
Dr Murthy Bondada, Fulbright Scholar at IIT was one of the enthusiastic leaders of the team. He gave us valuable guidance and constantly encouraged us to keep the pedestrian in mind.
LB was sponsored by CREDAI (Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India) which is a member of CCC. Since CREDAI members are experts at construction we were very happy to receive technical and process advice from the CREDAI team.
The data, photographs and other information were carefully documented and discussed. Our student volunteers conducted a stakeholder survey of police, hawkers, pedestrians, bus drivers, car and bike users, etc. We also interacted with other experts from IIT and such institutions for their valuable help and advice.

A detailed survey of the road was conducted. We took special care to note the location of trees, existing storm water inlets, road width, existing footpath, driveways of shops and houses, etc. Accurate information about these were very essential for proper design of bus bays; proper turning radius for big and small vehicles; islands for pedestrians; curb and gutter of appropriate dimensions in alignment with storm water drains; utility strip for accommodating utility boxes, lampposts, garbage bins, bus stops; driveways that do not inconvenience the pedestrian (even in a wheelchair) etc.

We interacted with nodal officers, engineering team and other officials from the CoC to take their suggestions. Since many of our recommendations would have a big impact on the traffic we extensively interacted with the Traffic Police. They even gave us permissions to experiment with cones and barricades at appropriate locations and paint lanes to study the effect of our recommendations before the “concrete is poured”.

For example, we have proposed a right lane at Shastri Nagar junction. When implemented this would require slight change in the location of the median, etc. But we were allowed to place cones and test the behaviour of vehicle users, self disciplining of drivers, etc. This generated a lot of excitement among the Traffic Constables manning LB and we received utmost cooperation from them.

Using data and observations from similar experiments we checked and rechecked our assumptions and design. We made extensive presentation to the officials at the CoC. The ensuing discussions and interaction with officials were extremely motivating to the CCC team. One additional output of this pilot is the positive attitude and interaction among CCC team and officials.

After the final designs were generated, a list of material was prepared for budgeting. The documents given to the CoC include:
- Road and footpath geometry and details. These are extensively detailed engineering diagrams and dimensions that include construction details of driveways with proper angles and degrees, pedestrian islands. Also, we have given diagrams of current and proposed location of utility boxes among other things.
- Utility strip and details of components and their locations.
- Signage details with dimensions, fonts, pole construction dimensions
- Bus stop design taking into consideration various factors as pedestrian entry, advertisements maximization, safety, lighting, etc.

Overall we have received nothing but enthusiastic response from CoC and other relevant departments and agencies. We believe, one of the reasons for this is, our designs are practical and have taken as many details and concerns into account as possible. We have not recommended cutting of a single tree; we have accommodated almost all the stakeholder we could; we have not taken a biased approach towards any stakeholder including car drivers, pedestrians, etc. We have made every effort to optimise what already exist, taking the dynamics of LB into account.

CoC is in the process of preparing tenders for LB. CoC has subsequently requested our help in redesigning other areas in the city. We are finalizing the standards and guideline documents for CoC’s consideration and adoption.