Can Hyderabad’s U-turns be made more user-friendly?

However, transport engineering experts note that these menacing U-turns can actually be made much more user friendly and less riskier than they are at present. 
Image for representation (Photo| Pandarinath B)
Image for representation (Photo| Pandarinath B)

HYDERABAD: It increases chances of collisions with incoming vehicles, slows one down and adds to the menace of wrong-side driving, but looks like U-turns would be here to stay in Hyderabad, ever since they were introduced in 2016.

However, transport engineering experts note that these menacing U-turns can actually be made much more user-friendly and less risky than they are at present. 

Stating that U-turns, on geometrically unfit roads are causing an unpleasant user experience to commuters and encouraging traffic violations, Professor Lakshmana Rao of JNTUH’s Centre of Excellence in Disaster Management noted, “Our roads have several obstructions to smooth traffic and are not geometrically aligned.”

In Hyderabad, almost all junctions have been converted into U-turns to avoid manning the traffic signal and avoid conflict areas in the same. The few junctions that exist are converted into roundabouts or have traffic signals.

By this, the expert means that before every U-turn, the civic body could set up a transition zone where the lane interchanges could take place, ie., those going to left from right and vice-versa can navigate by the time they reach here. Once here, those taking U-turns could possibly have a wait time of 10-15 seconds, before making a seamless curve. This could be of 100 metres length for a sufficient curving space.

Adding to this, Rao notes that a flare must be designed on the left edges of roads where U-turns are, so that in case a vehicle takes more than the designated lanes to turn, the free left traffic can occupy the space in the flare with no obstructions to the flow. The flare would appear as a bulge to the existing road space.

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