Can Indian Highways Ever Replicate Autobahns?


Can Indian Highways Replicate Foreign Autobahns?

  • Yes

    Votes: 1 5.6%
  • Maybe

    Votes: 4 22.2%
  • No

    Votes: 13 72.2%

  • Total voters
    18
  • Poll closed .
Thread Starter #1

Akash1886

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Team,

Our country is a developing country and the infrastructure is being worked upon in many spheres to make it at par with developed nations. We have achieved accolades for many things in the past and recently India became 1st nation ever to reach the Mars in it's 1st attempt. A proud moment for all of us.

As we are moving forward, our road network is being worked upon as well. The highways are being enhanced to 4 and 6 lanes at many places. Now, my question is, with this rapid growth and renovation, can our highways ever replicate the state of art foreign Autobahns?

Can our highway authorities make these highways as secure as the Autobahns?

Those of us who have traveled on national highways, will it be difficult to drive in Autobahns when introduced in India?

Apart from the infrastructure, what sort of pattern and reflexes should be inculcated to drive safely in a autobahn?

Please share your insights!

Regards

Akash
 
Thread Starter #2

Akash1886

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Buddies, An important update, Our union minister Shri Nitin Gadkari has unveiled a plan to revamp the highway network of India with an investment of 5 Lakh Crore in the present 5 year tenure i.e by 2019.

"My endeavour is to do work worth over Rs 5 lakh crore in highways sector during my present tenure. Another Rs 5 lakh crore will be invested in the shipping sector taking the investments in both the crucial infrastructure ministries to Rs 10 lakh crore," Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Minister Gadkari said.
Link

Regards

Akash
 
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I voted with "May Be" option. As per me, making more lanes on road will not help till lane discipline comes in picture. The highways will be safe only when each vehicle joining it respects highway rules till it exists on it.

Take an example of Mumbai-Pune expressway. Authorities have created ample space and lanes on it, but the drivers driving their vehicles on it don't follow lane rules, this makes this highway highly dangerous and unsafe.

All in all one should follow rules when driving on highways then only they will be replica of Autobahns.
 

bhvm

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I also had to vote for MAYBE option.
I've done some very nice speeds on Indian roads but thats all subjective. Most of the Public is utter foolish, Never follows lanes and tends to randomly jump around from nowhere. And I am not even talking about the cows, Dogs and beggars plying around.

Even though we could have a Autobahn made, the official speed limits will be ridiculously low and tolls way to high. I've seen cars do 150 in areas where'as it was marked as '50' and BOTH the officials and users are at a mistake. Please make it some reasonable number and we shall obey.
 
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I voted NO even though I wanted and wished to vote YES. Guess I'm too realistic person. GranRK and bhvm have already highlighted major reason why this cant become reality. Here's couple more reasons:
- we have to share the same road with slow moving traffic (two/three wheelers, old lorries)
- training existing drivers on lane discipline, entry/exit rules etc. is next to impossible due to sheer volume and more importantly, willingness from the public to learn
 
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Its easy to say yes, but difficult to execute until we and thew Indian public change ourselves. Have driven lots of kilometres on the highways, and you never know at what step you face the risk and from what angle. Even if its a yamuna e-way or the Delhi-Shimla highway.
Like many have described, the list is endless. Mere spending money won't do any good if the basic education, driving etiquettes and changing of mentality is not brought back in focus.
 
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We cannot have Autobahns anyway because they are German.

These controlled access highways are generally known as Freeways or Motorways or sometimes known as Expressways; Autobahns in Germany; Autocesta in France; Autopista in Spain; Autoestrada in Portugal and Autostrada in Italy.
They are controlled access highways and by definition termed as
A road, specially designed and built for motor traffic which does not serve properties bordering on it, and which:

  • is provided, except at special points or temporarily, with separate carriageways for the two directions of traffic, separated from each other, either by a dividing strip not intended for traffic, or exceptionally by other means;
  • does not cross at level with any road, railway or tramway track, or footpath;
  • is specially signposted as a motorway and is reserved for specific categories of road motor vehicles.
Going by this definition we are on an intended schedule to have a network of Expressways like the NE 1 - National Expressway 1 - between Ahmedabad and Vadodara.
Then there are other by-pass/link roads like Yamuna Eway or the Mumbai-Pune Eway.

However after seeing Highways in Germany, France, some other European countries, South Korea etc, I would say that in terms of Infrastructure, our roads like NE 1 and Yamuna E ways are 70 to 75% of an International Freeway.

Things which degrade our Expressways are - Entry and Exits are not designed and built properly, crossings are not eliminated fully, dividers have some abrupt gaps which is a big risk, Speed restrictors are not scientifically designed, Toll booths act as a major chocking point and spoil the very purpose of saving time.
Then the facilities for rest, refreshment and fuelling - These points are not planned, designed and constructed properly, so is the exit to these spots and entry back to the highway.

Even if the Government could invest or facilitate the Infrastructure development through PPP route, then the big question is about our Civic sense and road sense and this is one area where the difference is huge and we are not even 10% of those countries where excellent highways are available.

In South Korea, where there is a network of 10 lane National Highways which they proudly say is the backbone of their development (For them Highways came first and then came Industry, development and then only those vehicles and traffic - similar cases could be seen in US and Germany), 2 lanes are kept free - The first lane (or the fast lane as we call it here) is reserved for buses. Cars or other vehicles do not take this lane even if it is free and no buses are visible in the horizon. They don't take the first lane even for overtaking. Last lane is kept free for emergency services.

It is the road users who decide the standard of a highway and help to make it world class. We road users need to respect and follow rules, respect other road users, show civic and road sense and above all show commonsense and rest assured we can make our highways world class.

Note: An undivided 2 lane highway in Germany with heavy traffic felt much more free, safe and uncluttered than our six lane highways.
 
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Pumping in thousands of crores of rupees is not enough to create Autobahn equivalent highways here in India, you can always build infrastructure using state of art technology but driving habit inherited in our drivers DNA (>90%) can not be changed. >90% of the people do not respect rules of the road and that is the roadblock for us to enter into autobahn era.
With heavy heart, voted "NO"
 
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Big NO.
Basically a beginner's LOW SPEED abilities are evaluated to award him/her a Learner's license. 30 days later, without testing his/her capabilities at DANGEROUS SPEEDS (see my definition of at the bottom), the license is made permanent. Also, Traffic RULES and ROAD SAFETY are perceived differently by different people. There's this enormous load on the under staffed Law enforcement agencies. Then, there's intervention by VIPs/VVIPS. Result is the huge number of "not-qualified-to-drive-anything-on-wheels" people driving their vehicles all over India.

That's WHY people:
  • don't like to yield
  • are soooooo selfish,
  • use mobile phones while driving
  • end up clogging the roads,
  • are forced to overtake from LEFT,
  • waste fuel at free left turns,
  • are getting irritated;
  • are forced to MAKE mistakes and
  • what not.

Educated or Not, Rich or Poor, there's NO WAY these drivers will understand the seriousness of their acts. They will NEVER change. Indian Highways Can Never Replicate Autobahns. Also, City traffic will always be chaotic. Mera Bharat Mahan.

PS: What is dangerous speed ?
1. Even 30kph, when the traffic permits 25kph.
2. ANY SPEED that cannot be safely handled by the driver or the vehicle.
3. 20kph when traffic permits 40kph (an irritated driver behind might make a mistake trying to overtake the snail and someone might get hurt).
 
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I voted "No" because the attitude of Indian drivers in not going to change in a generation. The disparity between road users is too much in India as is the diversity of vehicles on our roads. This coupled with the general inclination of our fellow citizens to disobey rules and regulations would make autobahns very dangerous in India.
One expensive and probably impractical solution would be to completely fence off the autobahn and make it exclusive for cars and suvs only.
 
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A Big No

The quality of our roads will always be subject to the initiative of the road builder.
Short cuts will be taken since the contractor wants to maximize his money making ability rather than give us a good road. He cannot be blamed since he too has lot of people to take care of.

Another common occurence I find all over the country - The road is concrete but the edges of the road are still "Kachcha". Sometimes the sign boards are in obscure places and easily missed.

We see this everytime - a new road gets built.
It is then dug up again to re-lay some cables or some piping. The original integrity gets compromised.
Our people also do not think twice before digging up the same road to put up pandals and other sundry crap. And no one is bothered to stop them for fear of retaliation or reprecussions.

After that we have to contend with people who have the capacity to buy a vehicle but do not follow proper road sense. This creates too many unfortunate accidents which in turn causes traffic jams.
I have personally encountered Two Wheelers and Cycles on the Mumbai Pune Expressway where they are supposedly banned.

We also pay pittances with regard to Toll. How can a road be maintained with the money we pay as toll. Also there does not seem to be any accounting of how that money is spent.

We may be the only country where we find Potholes on Flyovers. Never seen this in my travels in other countries.

The construction of a good road system like the autobahn or the USA Freeways is very easy. We are extremely competent and very cost conscious. Where we lack is in our will to make this a reality.
 

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