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 Case Study: Reduce Traffic By ResolvingContradictionsBy KRD Pravin 

Population explosion is a curse as well as a boon for India. It is the second biggest market ofthe world. It is a strength, but at the same time it causes a scarcity of infrastructure and resultsin other infrastructure related issues.

Mumbai is one of the most populated cities in the world. In numbers, Mumbai is roughly onepercent of the Indian market. Residents of Mumbai face many problems on a daily basis suchas housing, costly health facilities, scarcity of open space, water supply, crowded publictransport (local trains as well as busses) and heavy traffic on roads  – especially during rushhours. The main contributing factor to these problems is the growing population.

"We are the problem" and "we struggle ourselves"to find the solution(s). The paradox is that thereare many opportunities available a huge humanresource is needed. But this great resource ofhumans constitutes the underlying problem – animbalance between infrastructure and head count.

A measurement system is needed to gauge theimpact of travel-related problems on "quality oflife" since it is intangible. An approximatemeasurement system for transportation,

therefore, is also recommended for the problem ofovercrowding in trains and traffic congestion onroads. This system calculates the overall impact

of overcrowding and transportation on quality of life.

The ProblemsWhatever infrastructure Bombay Municipal Corporation (BMC) provides (or can provide) seemsto be insufficient within just a few months. Roads cannot be widened beyond a certain width; thenumber of local trains cannot be increased considering in peak hours there are already localtrains every three minutes. Due to these constraints, the problems of crowded trains and traffic

 jams arise and increase. Commuters' productive hours are decreased and result in the loss ofbusiness and personal human hours.

Some observations related to the problems of commuting are:

  In morning peak hours, the commuters travel mostly from various suburban areas tosouth Mumbai and vice versa in the evening peak hours. During these hours, the issuesfaced on road are excessive pollution, reduced mileage of vehicles and a loss of naturalresources due to traffic jams.

Figure 1: The Streets of Mumbai 

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  Other issues faced by the commuters on roads as well as in local trains are delays,stress, discomfort during journeys, intangible professional costs, accidents and thepotential for physical injuries.

  Travel against the flow (away from South Mumbai in the morning and back in theevening) is less, which results in non-utilization of resources.

The problems, therefore, are:

  How to increase the ease of travel forcommuters?

  How to reduce the waste of commutingtime without reducing the population ofcity, restricting people to settle inMumbai or reducing the number of jobs?

  How to reduce the average time ofcommuting for Mumbaikars (those who

work and/or reside in Mumbai) duringrush hours?

Measurement of ProblemsIt has been observed that during peak hours, each train is over filled by 3-4 times its seatingcapacity. And during peak hours on roads, there are frequent long traffic slowdowns or halts.These busy times are measured as follows: for local trains the percent full per train and forroads the minimum speed of traffic. This measurement system can be mapped to measure theeffect of solving transportation problem on the overall quality of life of Mumbaikars.

By maximizing the suggested measurement specifications, a train can be filled up to 1.4-1.6times its seating capacity and on roads, there should not be a complete traffic halt (apart from

exceptional circumstances) and traffic movement should maintain a minimum of 25-35 km/h. Asolution "fails" if it does not meet these specifications a minimum of 95 percent of the time. Forcalculating impact on quality of life in Mumbai, it is assumed that transportation problemscontribute 15 percent to the overall reduction.

If the solution system works within specifications, it improves a person's quality of life by 15percent. If the solution fails to meet specification, it is discarded and even better solutions arelooked for, or if the solution is acceptable then the quality of life will be affected proportionately.A higher penalty, however, for not meeting specifications is appreciated.

Applying TRIZ to Solve Mumbai's Transportation Problem

The Theory of Inventive Problem Solving (TRIZ) requires the identification of contradictingparameters and then converting the problem into a contradiction between correspondinggeneric parameters – one parameter improving vs. another parameter worsening. In this case,they are technical contradictions – the problem is with commuting. In terms of TRIZ, the problemis stated as – the volume of people commuting long distances wastes their time and the volumeof commuters' causing uneasiness to commuters. (Note: the author considers the "crowd as awhole" as the "volume" of travels.) In other words, we would like to improve the movement(change in location, commuting) of people without compromising time and comfort. The problemcan be written in terms of improving and worsening parameters as follows:

Figure 2: Travel on a Local Mumbai Train 

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1. Improve the transportation of the number of people (volume of travelers) withoutcompromising their comfort (i.e., ease of commuting, ease of operation of the system).

2. Improve transportation of the number of people (volume of travelers) withoutcompromising on their wasted time.

3. Reducing the wasted time without compromising the number of people commuting.

On mapping these trade-offs on the contradiction matrix, the following are the mostpopular inventive principles suggested to solve the problem:

1. Principle 1, division2. Principle 2, removing3. Principle 10, working beforehand and pre-arrangement4. Principle 18, synchronization5. Principle 28, substitution6. Principle 30, isolation

Another aspect of the problem is that population growth is a physical contradiction  – we needpeople to work and people are not needed because they create various infrastructure-relatedconstraints. This physical contradiction can be solved using TRIZ separation principles, whichalso can be applied in conjunction with the above suggested solutions principles to reach bettersolutions (such as separation in time, space or conditions).

Possible SolutionsUsing the aforementioned six principles for solving this problem, a few solutions can besuggestion and developed depending on the need.

1. Synchronization and segmentation (principles 1, 10 and 18)1. Divide or relocate offices for employee convenience. It is easy to set up virtual

offices using existing IT facilities.

2. Develop other parts of Mumbai so that companies can shift from SouthernMumbai to these other places. This also may initiate cost savings as SouthernMumbai is costliest location in India.

3. Offices can be asked to decide on shift-wise start and end office-timing such as – 8:30 a.m. –5:00 p.m., 9:00 a.m. –5:30 p.m., 9:30 a.m. –6:00 p.m., 10:00 a.m. –6:30p.m., 10:30 a.m. –7:00 p.m. (Los Angeles began to use this strategy during the1984 Olympics in order to reduce congestion.)

4. Synchronize personal vehicle travelers – car pooling or provide incentives foremployees to use company busses.

5. Use the above options together to reduce traffic congestion. For example,different shifts with offices at different parts of Mumbai and company bussesgoing among them.

2. Isolation, removing and substitution (principles 2, 28 and 30)1. Let employees work from home.2. Travel to office by convenience; for example, people can plan appointments so

that they can avoid crowds and arrive late to the office.3. Telemarketers and those with similar jobs can use home offices so they do not

need to travel4. Substitution – make home the office, office the home5. Separate people who need to be in office at a given time and change their

working hours accordingly.

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3. Provide special trains and busses with outlets and Internet-access as on-the-movefacilities so that people with laptops can work during their travel (principles 10 and 28).(This is happening in San Francisco.)

4. If a larger solution is sought (considering all of India), relocate offices to other parts ofIndia – tier two and three cities (principles 1, 2 and 30).

1. The solution can help in the development of the country as a whole.

2. Create more jobs in other areas that would reduce the migration of people fromone place to other.

3. Companies can relocate to the most suitable locations for their operations. Forexample – companies with business related to mines and ores can be relocatedto areas with the most mines. Faster as well as cheaper communication results,aside from a growth of employment opportunities in those areas. IT companiescan work from smaller cities also, since they require people to sit and work inoffice, reducing the taxation on infrastructure in and around cities.

4. Decentralize offices throughout various parts of India.

Taking solutions 1 and 2 in conjunction, traffic jams and train overcrowding can be reduced further. Ifthese solutions are tried, the target measurement specifications set forth can be achieved. These

solutions will increase the flow of people in both directions, toward and away from South Mumbai, dilutingthe overcrowding in trains and increasing the average speed on roads. 

Consider solution 1.5. If offices shift across the train stations from Churchgate to Borivali and Chhatrapati-Shivaji-Terminus to Thane with shift-wise office timings, trains occupancy will lessen and traffic will not beunidirectional, reducing the commuting problem. Borivali is situated in the northwestern section ofMumbai, at a distance of 33.4 km from Churchgate Railway Station; there are 20 intermediate stationsbetween these two stations. There is a similar distance between Chhatrapati-Shivaji-Terminus to Thane(34 km) and there are 16 intermediate stations. People travel toward Churchgate or Chhatrapati-Shivaji-Terminus from all 36 stations. If various offices are shifted along the lines, the crowd movement willbecome bi-directional. 

ConclusionTRIZ is a powerful tool for inventive problem solving and it can help to eliminate contradictions.The author used TRIZ to develop solutions for improving the quality of life for people in andaround Mumbai by examining one specific problem – overcrowding in local trains and trafficcongestion on roads. If these suggested solutions are strategically implemented, the problem ofovercrowding in can be solved to a large extent. The solutions can be refined and fine-tunedwith further studies and feasibility tests. Depending on the requirements, these solutions can bescaled to implement in other cities such as Bangalore. In an extreme case, if solution numberfour is desired, a larger political-will and significant public participation will be necessary. Theauthor expects every part of India can catch-up with the thriving Indian economy.

About the Author: 

KRD Pravin received his engineering degree in Electronics form Madhav Institute of Technologyand Science, Gwalior (MP) India. His major interests include learning and implementing newconcepts. His work ethic does not come as a sense of obligation, but from the satisfaction hegains from completing a project successfully. He worked on artificial intelligence during hisundergraduate studies and was published in the national level conference. At present, Pravin’s

focus is applying TRIZ to problems irrespective of their field, simplicity or complexity. Hisexperience includes networks development, teaching game theory, queuing theory and modelsin a management school and drafting/searching patent specifications and technology

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forecasting. Pravin is a registered patent agent with the Patent Office of India. Presently, Pravinis a working as a consultant with Breakthrough Management Group, India. His major areas ofinterest are TRIZ and Six Sigma. Contact KRD Pravin at krdpravin (at) gmail.com.