#TIL: Delhi’s Roundaboutery: Not letting the dust settle
By Yash Narain
Roundabouts are universally acknowledged as safer alternatives to traffic light intersections. They force the driver to adjust their speed, pay attention to incoming traffic and merge with caution. That is probably why New Delhi is full of them, right? Apparently not.
In the early 1910s when the initial plans for the city were being compiled, the pre-eminent architect for the city Edwin Lutyens envisioned a grid line pattern intersecting at right angles, much like New York. Lord Hardinge, the Viceroy and Governor-General at the time, however, informed him of the intense dust storms that frequent the region and insisted that he provision for roundabouts, hedges and trees to break their force. He even gave him the plans of Paris and Washington to work with. Constructions such as fences, special hedges, and small architectural forms restrict the flow of the storm winds. Additionally, the radial spread disperses and dissipates the energy rather than channeling it in one direction.
We usually associate a city’s road infrastructure choices as decisions primarily geared towards enhancing traffic efficiency. Guess local climate and physics are important considerations too!
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