Every weekday morning, Rishi Kumar finds himself caught in what he calls ‘a slow-motion whirlpool of traffic’ on his way to the office in central Delhi.
“These roundabouts in Lutyens’ Delhi really test my patience and my driving skills, and cause unexpected delays in reaching office,” he says. “They are beautiful, but they are also big traffic bottlenecks now.”
Five roundabouts were identified as the worst affected: Teen Murti Haifa, Tughlak Road, Sunehri Bagh, Jaswant Singh (Panchmukhi Chowk), and Q-Point near India Gate. If Mathur points to changing urban form, Sewa Ram, professor of transport planning at the School of Planning and Architecture (SPA), Delhi, argues that driver behaviour is equally important. Expanding public transport, higher parking fees and introducing congestion pricing to divert through-traffic away from city centres can help reduce peak volumes on roundabouts in places like Lutyens’ Delhi.
Last year, a survey of 39 roundabouts by traffic police in the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) area found that disproportionate road widths, misaligned footpaths, oversized plantation spaces, and narrow roundabout diameters were squeezing traffic flow and creating bottlenecks at these colonial-era circles.
“Even a 10 to 15% reduction in traffic can dramatically improve network performance,” she says.
