Traffic Conundrum

As indicated in some of my previous posts …, I have always believed there is a strong case for a Nobel Prize in waiting for a dissertation on the topic of Indian Traffic Congestion. So let me cut to the chase…

Hello World …Listen…The Problem is this :

To determine the time of arrival (t) to a location at a distance (x) using delay and travel time as Factors…

Now you could laugh at the Problem statement and state that Google Maps already provides the time of commute between given Points A and B. All I can tell you is that I am going to laugh back at you. If you would take offense at my Laughter, may I request you to  type “Indian traffic” in YouTube to catch the glory  of an Indian traffic congestion. I would run out of space of this blog post and before that my limited English vocabulary to explain the cacophony.

Anyway, It seems nobody has listened to my previous advice on the proposal of my Dissertation on traffic flow and since the last post I decided to embark on a research on my own. My premise is this :   

“Traffic flow is like a fluid flow”. 

 This hypothesis was formed not due to my Applied physics skills, rather it was due to my "applied mind" skills due to my capability to squeeze myself & my motorcycle between the Footpath(or whatever is left on my Left) and the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) bus on my right !

As it happens in the Scientific world, I started from the simplest  postulate (obviously the most useless one from  application standpoint because of its ideal state…the classic example being the Carnot Cycle in Thermodynamics)

First  Theory :

Indian traffic behaves like the one-dimensional Compressible fluid flow. 

The assumptions being :-)))) (Sorry ..I could not resist my laughter at the dumbness of the assumptions)…

• ·         The traffic flow is conserved, or in other words vehicles are not created or destroyed. The continuity or conservation equation can be applied...Now this is not true…because for every 5 minutes I wait on the Millers Road at Bangalore ,there are 5 new  two-wheelers and 2 new  cars rolling on to the road from the Vehicle showrooms. Vehicles are indeed created. Now for destruction, I know there is a long standing plan to honor that Bangalore citizen  who has driven without a single scratch on his/her vehicle not withstanding how many dents they created on other vehicles.

• ·         There is one to one relationship between speed and density as well as flow and density…Now if the previous postulate is Falsehood, this is absolute crap..because For a given Density People tend to drive at different velocities and some even at a negative velocity…like the one driving in the wrong direction at breakneck speed on the “One-way” . If you wonder how ,I would reiterate to watch more YouTube videos on Indian traffic.

So the final nail on the coffin for this theory is that Indian traffic is not one-dimensional by any imagination. My theory stands rejected

Second Theory:

Indian traffic behaves like Incompressible fluid flow.
By definition “incompressible flow refers to a flow in which the material density is constant within a fluid parcel ”

Now this theory seems more plausible …It is typical to see at a peak hour on any Indian road worth its salt to have a bumper-bumper traffic spread over a length of ½  Kilometer. I have seen first time visitors from the West describe the Indian traffic this way :

“Indian traffic is like a giant Anaconda trying to unwind itself to find its way”

“Indian traffic is  like a swarm of fish in the Ocean ”

So, to quote Aristotle “The Whole is greater than sum of its Parts” is entirely true of the Indian traffic. You cannot really  track the movement of each vehicle to describe the whole situation because the roads are crammed so much once I had circled the same turnaround almost three times thinking that I am on a straight road!

I almost believed I had almost nailed the “Indian Traffic Conundrum” with this Theory until I heard one recent first time visitor to India who said …

“Indian traffic is like an African mammal herd migration crossing an Interstate highway”…Now I had to cry “Holy Cow”…because the Cows are an integral part of Indian road and they are never alone ( I have coined an Indian Idiom “As stubborn as the Indian cows on an Highway”). My latest theory cracked out because of the inability to address the cross current movement of the Mammalian herd.

Third Theory; (Dropped out even before starting )

Now with my inability to use Classical theory of Fluid mechanics to apply to the Indian traffic, I googled to see if there is any area called “Quantum Fluid Mechanics” with fond hope of becoming the Fluid world’s Max Planck. It seems I missed it by a whisker and the term is coined already in 2013 and MIT is just starting on it. 

Grand Unified Theory: (Theory of Everything)

Nowadays  I am researching on the Brownian Motion. If you checked this link, I am sure you would have experienced a sense of Chaos in your inner self that would require at least half-an-hour of Yoga for a recovery. I am however hopeful because, if at all something is close enough to describe the Indian traffic it is the Brownian motion which is defined as “the random motion of particles (read Vehicle)  suspended in a fluid  (Road) resulting from their collision with the quick atoms or molecules(read Other Vehicles)  in the Fluid”. I am going to be humble this time around on claiming any victory. It is because Brownian motion has to be coupled with Stochastic methods ultimately requiring Contour Integration for a solution!

I would like to end this fairly long post with a Call for action….World !..Let us unite to address the Indian traffic flow conundrum to solve for the arrival time for a given distance  …If you do so, this single problem is going to fetch you two Nobel prizes in the same year…One for Physics, another for World Peace…the second one for preventing  the Indian driver from  honking simply because he had nothing else to do caught in the Traffic  swarm...