Road Improvement Programme

The Road Improvement Programme (RIP) was originally a policy of Star Trup, mayor of Kien-k'ang from 1955 – 60, and later enhanced by subsequent mayors.

The number of privately-owned motor vehicles increased in Kien-k'ang by a factor of about 20 between 1925 and 1955, and complaints about the city's road infrastructure surfaced during the mayorship of Lord Te-rit (1947 – 1955). The policy consisted of several components aiming to allow pedestrians and vehicles to travel efficiently and safely in the city by widening and reinforcing roads and bridges, covering storm drains, and installing traffic lights and lamps.

The RIP was implemented by the Road Improvement Board (RIB). The policy was never formally dropped, but its content has shifted from time to time reflecting the city's concerns and emphasis on transit priorities. While the initial focus was on improving roads for motor vehicles to mitigate the danger they posed to other traffic, the specific needs of pedestrians and cyclists have been more systematically taken into account by the RIB since the 1990s.

RIP 1

New and improved roads

Old Kien-k'ang, the region within the city walls, had a number of thoroughfares corresponding to medieval highways or new roads built in the 1800s that subdivided the city into multiple geographic districts. Within the districts delimited by highways, streets mostly formed organically, and as such they were short, crooked, narrow, and difficult to navigate if travelling a long distance. Many streets permitted travel in one direction or terminated in cul-de-sacs, or they were so narrow to accommodate only pedestrians. This means a driver usually must use a thoroughfare to travel any great distance, but in Trup's time the thoroughfares had extremely heavy traffic, ofting grinding to a complete halt in busy hours.

The Road Improvement Board took the view that heavy traffic on the thoroughfares was conditioned first by their narrowness and by frequent stops for various reasons. The Royal Road (a major street going through the city from southwest to northeast) had four lanes of vehicular traffic in total, but the peripheral lanes were usually occupied by trucks making deliveries, stopped cars, etc. Further, the road had many crossings and mergers where vehicles turned in and out of the street. The Royal Road has historically been arguably the most important road in the city, and its sides were lined with buildings of great historical significance, including several important temples and churches. While some parties began a petition to widen the road, the city rightly feared outrage and took no action.

Roundabouts

Kien-k'ang has many large roundabouts, mostly built prior to the PSW, with impressive landscaping at their centres; the largest is on New West Road, measuring 650 feet across. But these circular junctions came under a considerable degree of criticism by some motor lobbies as prone to accidents and as sources of congestion. Despite calls for their removal, other lobbies demanded their preservation as beautifying and iconic elements of the city; they also questioned if removing the traffic circles would decongest traffic, since a signalled intersection would necessarily impose waiting time on all but the one direction permitted to travel. The preservation of roundabouts was also heavily advocated by shops facing the roundabout, and their removal could mean the loss of valuable street frontage.

The debate on roundabouts continued into the 1960s and 70s, and the focal point shifted to the "double" or "nested" roundabouts, which were roundabouts nested in a circular road. This type of roundabout was built mainly for streets that had separate internal and peripheral carriageways; the central roundabout was used for passing traffic, while the external circular road was used mostly to provide access to shops and side alleys not directly entering the central roundabout. Vehicles both entering and exiting the central roundabout had priority over the traffic from one part of the circular road to another, as though the circular road were a separate road outside of the roundabout. This rule was apparently unfamiliar to drivers visiting the city.

At one time the side favouring removal seemed to prevail. It was supposed that large roundabouts confused unfamiliar drivers with complex internal traffic paths. Thus the three roundabouts on Sram-tang Road were removed in 1971 – 75, having stood there since 1910.

Pavements

The traffic rules in Kien-k'ang were also an area of major change in Trup's mayorship. Originally, where the road was triple or quadruple carriageway, vehicles had priority in the central section and may drive at speed, but they must yield to pedestrians in the peripheral carriageways and only move at a speed agreeable to foot traffic. Prior to the advent of motor vehicles, horses may gallop in the centre of the road but not on its sides. The Royal Boulevard and New West Road were examples of this design. However, the central carriageway proved too narrow by the 1950s, and so vehicles travelling at speed in the peripheral carriageways rushed pedestrians.

Covered drains and sewers

The major medieval highways and 19th-century boulevards were flanked by open storm drains of considerable depth and width, so that a small bridge was necessary to provide access to the side of the road and for transverse streets. These bridges, unless connecting transverse streets, were usually pedestrian-only, even if they appeared wide enough to accommodate a vehicle. Such deceptively weak bridges were common because they led to grand properties, before which a narrow bridge would appear bizarre. If a house along the road possessed a motor vehicle, the bridge over the drain could be reinforced to allow the car to pass; however, this is usually only done to the extent an intended car could pass over it, as it was an improvement made at private expense. There were not-infrequent reports of heavy vehicles causing such bridges to give way and falling into the sewers.

During Trup's mayorship, it became an imperative from the City Council to erect permanent covers over the storm drains not so much for the convenience of vehicles but because of an increasing awareness of public safety. This occurred after lobbies cultivated a concern for persons, often children, reported drowned or missing after falling into drains. Such accidents were infrequent but far from unknown, since such drains usually faced a private home directly, and bridges over them rarely had railings. With narrow roads, this was less of a concern as the storm drains were not deep enough to wash a person away, but on the major boulevards the drains could reach 1.5 m wide by 2.5 m deep, and the confluence of other drains and natural water created a consistent and powerful water current, even on sunny days, to prevent the accumulation of refuse.

Between 1957 and 1962, most of the major water drains in Kien-k'ang were covered by cement blocks or metal grates. The cement blocks were the preferred solution, but under an existing bridge a metal grate (at a lower level) was used to preserve the scenery of a bridge passing over the drain, which was part of the landscaping of the house to which the bridge connected. Where a cover was not practical, railings were installed to alert pedestrians of the danger of the drain, and street lights were installed further to make the presence of the drain obvious.

Improved bridges

Bridges were a source of consternation for road users, particularly in the suburbs, which were converted from farmland to housing in the early 20th century. As the local land required irrigation, water channels criss-crossed many suburbs. Though no longer used for irrigation, some waterways were still used as source of fresh water up to the 1920s, and others were used as storm drains or sewers. To connect streets on either side of the waterway, a large number of bridges were thus built with pedestrian traffic in mind. For this reason Kien-k'ang was known as the city of bridges, there being over 6,000 bridges in the metropolitan area, many serving as local landmarks and toponyms. The name Pran-rang, which occurs in 23 places in Kien-k'ang alone, means "plank bridge".

Many bridges were not passable for motor vehicles but led from roads that were passable, and collapsing bridges were a common hazard in suburban Kien-k'ang since the 1920s. Local boards under the city usually had the responsibility to erect signs cautioning drivers, but the signs were often unheeded. Trup's RIP required local authorities to erect physical barriers such as bollards or steps so that darkness alone would not permit drivers to pass over a timber bridge. The longer-term goal, however, was to convert the bridges to masonry or iron bridges so that vehicles could pass over them, rather than seek a passable bridge along the waterway and negotiate with concomitant delay.

By Trup's mayorship, 21 bridges existed over the River Kaung, connecting Kien-k'ang to the west of the river, which had become the city's suburb. Aside from 5 used by railways, 13 were passable to motor vehicles, but 10 of them were one-directional bridges due to their limited width. These bridges were unfriendly to visitors since the roads that led up to them were bi-directional, which meant it is possible to travel up to a bridge and only to turn back. Locals, however, usually had little issue memorizing which bridges travelled which way, and this was without order. Facing a lack of funds to widen all bridges as a permanent solution, Trup instead changed the traffic direction of several bridges so they alternated. Thus, if one had to turn back at one bridge, the next bridge up or down stream would allow one to travel over the river. Further improvements were made after 1966 to reinforce pedestrian bridges for motor traffic.

RIP 2

Unlike RIP 1, which was aimed towards making the city friendlier to vehicles, RIP 2 was drawn up in 1957 in response to pedestrian needs. It

RIP 1 preserved the pre-war rule that vehicles in "ordinary streets" must abide by the speed of foot traffic where present, which is to say the pedestrian had status as the main road user in most side streets and alleys, entitled to the full width of the street. Vehicles were prohibited to press pedestrians by tailgating or honking at them. Though backed by a hefty fine, there were still many complaints in the 40s and 50s that pedestrians were often still pressed into yielding simply because they were wider and almost always in a position to overtake or at least skirt around pedestrians. Yielding pushed pedestrians closer to the roadside gutter, many of which were still not covered in the 50s.

The core of RIP 2 was therefore to transform the roadside gutter into a pedestrian pavement where they may move unmolested and unobstructed. Kien-k'ang's roadside gutters, some dating from the Middle Ages, were of varying sizes and constructions. Some had masonry structure, while others were ceramic-lined. The main drains were mostly unlined, as their size and consistent waterflow made linings unnecessary. Constructing a paved surface above the gutter thus required a range of techniques and in some cases rebuilding the gutter itself.

On residential alleys, the gutter was usually no wider than 1′-3″, which was too narrow for a usable pavement. In such cases, the standard width was established as 2′-6″, on the assumption that an adult's width was around 15″ at the shoulders. Actual statistics obtained from the army in 1952, however, puts the average Themiclesian man's shoulder width at 15.98″ measured between the acromia; this discounts fleshy projection outside the shoulder bones. It seems the idea was that pedestrians could pass each other at an oblique angle on the pavement, or rub their shoulders slightly.

The standard width was further adjusted by the remaining width of the street. Under RIP 1, the statutory minimum width for a road permitting vehicular use was 9′ of clear space. The pre-modern standard street width was set at 10′, but with the installation of the gutter it would have been reduced to less than 9′. A further pavement would reduce it still more, so it was decided that if the road's clear width would be made less than 9′, the pavement would also be reduced to 2′. Conversely, if the street width permitted it, the pavement was also widened to 3′.

On roads with main drains, which were covered under RIP 1, the pavement was built not over the drain, which were up to 6′ wide at the mouth, but over the Drain Easement. The Drain Easement was a strip of space left unused on either side of the drain for fear the walls of the drain might subside; over time, this space was usually overgrown with vegetation. This vegetation formed a natural barrier on either side of the drain which served to warn pedestrians of the drain (whose current could drown adults).

RIP 3

While RIP 2 had made pedestrian facilities a basic feature on new roads with vehicular traffic, the issue of traffic congestion came to public attention in the late 50s. Themiclesia had been somewhat slower in adopting the private motor vehicle compared to other states of similar wealth, and a punitive tariff limited their importation until 1952. Once lifted, however, vehicles (especially from subsidized Maracaibean marques) flooded the market and within a decade made road traffic unrecognizable.

In 1960, the city hired the consultancy Eriko to identify the cause and solution of worsening congestion. It had previously expected motor vehicles to solve congestion because they were faster than animal-drawn vehicles, trams, and tricycles, but it was rapidly becoming clear the opposite was happening. In its 1961 report, Eriko blamed Kien-k'ang's lack of convenient roads and shortage of adequate road surface on the few it had. In other words, most of Kien-k'ang's roads were useless to motor traffic, which then funneled into the few that were useful and exceed the road capacity. Moreover, the slum clearances of the 40s to the 50s had generated suburban neighbourhoods whose only access to the city was by car, which meant their inhabitants created a daily influx of cars as a matter of course.

Some segments of the Council were skeptical of Eriko's report, given the city's increased expenditure on road maintenance, which was 600% of 1910 levels. It was asserted that Kien-k'ang had some of the widest streets of any city in the world, such as more than 18 avenues measuring at least 60 meters across. Other councillors pointed out that it was one thing the city spent money on maintaining roads to safety standards (building pavements, covering drains, reinforcing bridges, etc.) and beautifying them with gardening, and it was another thing entirely to have a road network that met contemporary transportation demands. Eriko held a private conference for city leaders explaining that most of Kien-k'ang's "very wide roads" were ill-placed and very inefficient concerning traffic volume.

Kien-k’ang’s notorious boulevards were, according to Eriko’s assessment, mostly small roads enlarged without increased ability of cars to flow into and out of them effectively. There was also no limit on access from side streets, which required frequent and long signals or caused cars to be trapped frequently in the road span and sometimes to block it that way. Furthermore, inconsistent road geometries, as occasioned by the configuration of gardens, often required traffic to split or merge mid-way or even across intersections.

All such features, according to Eriko, made Kien-k’ang’s large roads inefficient for the space they occupied.

While Eriko worked for the city, they were also retained in 1961 by the Ministry of Transport to integrate the new motorways with the city’s road network. Taking the highways system into consideration, Eriko produced the Scientific Road Network Plan, done according to the concept of road hierarchy. The plan foresaw a network of arterial roads, radiating from the Ring Road and forming a grid within. Eriko estimated traffic intensity in detail and tailored the capacity of roads accordingly, both in terms of road width and design speed.

To reduce the aesthetic impact of his network of limited-access roads, Eriko made sure to include large gardened medians on the arterial roads and specified the gardening to preclude impedance of fast traffic or limits on visibility when turning at a signal light was possible. Eriko emphasized that, even though cars may travel 40, 50, or even 60 MPH on his roads, all roadusers will be at less risk of accident than the current configuration of roads with unregulated access, poor geometry, and impaired visibility.

Unfortunately, the SRNP would require more than 30,000 houses be razed if completely implemented. While some parts of the SRNP may have been feasible during the reconstruction phase, into the 1960s rising property values in central Kien-k’ang made the plan fiscally impracticable in that part of the city. Nevertheless, some NRNP were roads were built in the suburbs after the report was shelved.

RIP 4

After RIP 3 was declared complete in 1986, no road improvement policies were announced generally, though road maintenance continued. RIP 4 was announced in 2003, and its main vision was "equity for all classes of road-users". This was an abstract goals compared to previous RIPs which addressed issues that have caused complaint or known dangers. RIP 4 is still in progress 20 years after its initiation.

RIP 4's introduction was accelerated by the advocacy of two lobbies that have gained prominence in recent years—the bicycle lobby and the disabled lobby. The two groups had a common complaint: most roads, except for vehicles, had grade differences that made travel by these groups less pleasant than desired. Most pedestrian pavements in Kien-k'ang were raised off the vehicle road surface by 6 – 9 inches, or more. In the interface between the pavement and open-access roadways maintained by private proprietors, there could be further grade differences. For the ordinary foot pedestrian, such grade differences are not difficult to overcome, but it was argued by the bicycle and disabled lobbies that such grade differences could made travel unsafe or unnecessarily restrictive for them, which also impaired the city's goal of reducing motor traffic and congestion.

Lobbies

The bicycle lobby was, for its part, heavily criticized by other groups, which claimed that bicycles should obey the pedestrian speed. Martin characterized the most aggressive bicycle lobbyists' arguments "that bicycles should be permitted to zip on pedestrian pavements are conceptually indistinguishable to the idea that cars should be allowed to travel at their mechanical top speeds of 120, 150, or 200 MPH on the road, just because they can, and that allowances should be made to that end".

But such arguments were more difficult to make against the disabled lobby, which argued that having to descend and ascend ramps to cross every street corner was exhausting, and some ramps were too steep for the wheelchair user to scale independently. Such ramps were installed during RIP 2, often not for the benefit of wheelchairs but deliveries, though the need of wheelchair users was often cited subsequently to add them. Old ramps had no standard grade, and some were as steep as 1:1 as they were not made for wheelchairs.

Pavements

Kien-k'ang pedestrian spaces were often uniquely difficult to make accessible

See also

• Themiclesia