Traffic mess on roads despite huge investment

LAHORE

During the past one decade, city planners spent billions to resolve traffic related problems, including the latest signal-free roads and elevated U-turns but still citizens seem to be trapped in traffic clogged roads during peak travel hours at various points.

Citizens are of the view that continuous traffic jams are a regular feature on almost every city road, which speaks volume of the incompetence of our town planners and road traffic engineers. They said the ongoing construction of mega projects have put an extra fuel to the prevailing situation.

The situation is worst on important roads such as The Mall, Ferozepur Road, Allama Iqbal Road (Garhi Shahu) Wahdat Road, Canal Bank Road, Davis Road, Hall Road, Multan Road, Circular Road, Shalimar link road, Main Boulevard Allama Iqbal Town, Jinnah Hospital Road, College Road Township, Model Town Link Road, Bahawalsher Road, Lyton Road, Queen’s Road, Temple Road, Mozang Road and Lawrence Road.

As there is not enough public transport, majority of citizens have no other option except to take out their cars and bikes on the roads to perform daily routine chores. This also results in causing air and noise pollution in the provincial capital.

Crawling vehicles on busy roads can be seen the whole day even at the newly-modified Ferozepur Road, which was turned into a signal-free corridor. On this road, the main points where traffic congestions took place, including Muslim Town Morr, Ichhara, Shama Chowk, Mozang Chungi, Janazgah and Jain Mandir. On Multan Road, one can witness severe traffic jams at Thokar Niaz Baig, Mansoora, Shahnoor, Sabzazar, Kharak, Scheme Morr, Yateem Khana, Bastami Road, Morr Samanabad, Bank Stop, Chauburji, Civil Secretariat and Data Darbar. All the link roads on these two major roads are also clogged and jam-packed especially at peak hours.

Besides wrongly planned cuts and U-turns, there are several other reasons which contribute to traffic jams. These include wrong halting of buses, wagons and motorcycle-rickshaws on roads, inadequate parking, presence of beggars, slow moving traffic, out-of-order traffic signals, same timings of the offices and educational institutions, massive encroachments, violation of traffic rules, presence of famous food spots and increasing number of private vehicles. Chowk Thokar Niaz Baig is a spot where one can found wrongly parked vehicles, wagons and motorcycle rickshaws. Traffic policemen used to disperse these wrongly-parked vehicles but they arrive soon after the cops leave the place. Allah Hu Chowk in Johar Town is also another example where one can witness mad traffic jams at peak hours. Similarly long queues of vehicles can be seen parked on Model Town Link road resulting in traffic clogging.

Switched off or out-of-order traffic signals also play an important role in clogging traffic at various important points while presence of beggars especially at peak hours also contribute to this mess. One can witness women with new-born, handicapped persons and small children begging on big and important crossings especially in the evening and at night.

Though the CDGL has banned the movement of slow moving vehicles on various roads at peak times, the violation of the ban can be witnessed daily especially on Canal Bank Road, Circular Road, Ferozepur Road and Multan Road where one can find eight-wheel trucks, containers, tractor trolleys filled with mud or sand plying on.

Encroachments and parking of vehicles on service roads is also a major issue as there is no much space left on the service roads for the movement of traffic. This can be witnessed on Main Boulevards of Gulberg, Allama Iqbal Town, Gulshan-e-Ravi and Samanabad while the similar situation can be witnessed on The Mall, Ferozepur Road, Circular Road and many other roads as well as near shopping and commercial centres. Parking of private vehicles and cars in front of buildings and commercial plazas on the roads has also become a permanent obstacle in the smooth flow of traffic. Citizens said adequate parking facilities should be provided by business community or the town planners should construct parking plazas at busy commercial centres. Civic experts believe that the government should invest a substantial amount in providing parking facilities in the city. They said the city road network was adequate for present volume of vehicles. They, however, said a better traffic management and provision of parking places can improve the traffic.

Khalid Alvi, a senior official of TEPA while talking with the scribe said that traffic on Ferozepur Road especially outside General hospital has improved a lot. Similarly traffic flow of Model Town and Kalma Chowk junctions have improved after the recent steps of TEPA and LDA.

Talking about the traffic rush on Canal Bank Road and all the joining roads, he said this is because the ongoing construction of Metro project at Multan Road. “Every day about 70,000 extra vehicles are diverted to Ferozepur Road from Chauburji and other points on Multan Road. About traffic congestion on other points, he claimed that roads are enough wide and traffic needs to be regulated and disciplined.

“Several times in past as well as in recent meetings, we have proposed to the government to increase fines for traffic violations. We have also repeatedly requested the traffic police to enforce line and lane rules by ensuring that motorcycles and rickshaws will only use the extreme left lane,” he concluded.