Online survey to decide Pune’s road hierarchy

October 31, 2013

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PUNE: A group of researchers and urban planners in the city are working to define road hierarchy for better roads and traffic management with an online survey available on the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and the group’s websites.The civic body has mooted the initiative to get the roads in the city designed by architects and urban designers. The group called Sustainability Initiative (SI) is coordinating the online survey.

“Urban streets are related to urban sustainability. We are working with the civic body on developing the ‘Urban Street Design Guidelines’. These guidelines will serve as the base document for designers and decision makers,” said Shraddha Zende, programme coordinator, on Wednesday.

The guidelines will consider technical and physical aspects of the city. Many codes and case studies are being referred to. The road department, traffic police, Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited, NGOs and related authorities are being consulted to recommend street designs.

Team member Nikhil Mijar said the group has decided to involve people in the consultation process to understand their opinions and expectations. “A well-designed street is where small children and the old people feel safe to walk, where all road users get equitable rights of use. To bring about this change, it is important to know what people want and expect from the streets,” he said.

Dwaipayan Chakravarty, another team member for the project, said the group will also work on defining the road hierarchy according to usage and utility. “The city lacks planned development. So the group will try to categorise the roads as per the hierarchy based on its size, traffic movement, location and width. The categories like arterial roads, feeder corridors, local streets and special streets will help manage traffic and other activities on the road.”

What is road hierarchy?

It makes a difference between roads according to their function

At the top of the rung are arterial routes that carry high volumes of through traffic

Roads at the lower rung of the road hierarchy have importance at the local level, like access to local places and may have lesser vehicles

Source-http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com