Sunday, February 09, 2014

I wish 7. Sloped toll-booth roads

I wish the roads leading to toll-booths at toll-plazas would by design be inclined at say 15 degrees. The slope (and suitable awareness drives) would enable folks to just switch off their engines and use their brakes to cruise in to the toll booths, pay up, fire their engines and zoom off!

Now, I know a few toll-plazas in India are pretty crowded and some people get stuck for upto half an hour, in bumper to bumper traffic, just to reach the booth and pay the toll. In a toll booth close to where I am, there are 16 lanes each in either direction and at peak traffic time, atleast 20 cars crawling in each. On an average, lets assume 15 minutes queue time. That's 32 cars x 15 mins worth fuel wasted every minute. Not getting into the exact math here (it would be great if someone could fill in here :), but I guess that would result in significant fuel savings, not to mention the value of time saved, headaches avoided and pollution reduced!


I know the ideal solution would be to not have the toll-booth itself or to be able to bill cars as they simply travel, but that's some time off in the future. Till then?

The 'I wish' series will be short posts highlighting simple, interesting, innovative and useful twists to daily random routines and objects. 

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