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Ideal Street


This is a very interesting graphic published in the Times of India recently, illustrating the "Principles of Road Design". The only detail missing here is the ultimate Right of Way (ROW) or total width of the street to accommodate all these functions. This shows an ideal situation, and may be implemented in a new planned city. But for existing cities, especially older cities, that have grown organically, where the streets were not laid out with the motor car in mind, implementing these strategies becomes a real challenge.

Secondly, for the purpose of road widening, land has to be acquired on either side, which can be a tedious and long drawn out process in India. Lastly, for Indian cities, zone has to be clearly demarcated on streets for legal hawkers and street vendors.

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