Question

What is the meaning of road density? Describe any four major problems faced by road transport in India.

Answer 1

Road density is the ratio of the length of the country's total road network to the country's land area. The roadnetwork includes all roads in the country: motorways, highways, main or national roads, secondary or regionalroads, and other urban and ruralroads. Four major problems are as follows - :
Road network is inadequate in India.
(ii) About half of the roads are unmetalled and this limits their usage during the rainy season.
(iii) The roadways are highly congested in cities.
(iv) Most of the bridges are old and narrow.
-HOPE THIS WILL HELP U <3

Answer 2

India has a road network of over 5,472,144 kilometres (3,400,233 mi) as on 31 March 2015, the second largest road network in the world. At 1.66 km of roads per square kilometre of land, the quantitative density of India's road network is higher than that of Japan (0.91) and the United States (0.67), and far higher than that of China (0.46), Brazil (0.18) or Russia (0.08).[1] However, qualitatively India's roads are a mix of modern highways and narrow, unpaved roads, and are being improved.[2] As on 31 March 2015, 61.05% of Indian roads were paved.[3]

Adjusted for its large population, India has less than 3.8 kilometres of roads per 1000 people, including all its paved and unpaved roads. In terms of quality, all season, 4 or more lane highways, India has less than 0.07 kilometres of highways per 1000 people, as of 2010. These are some of the lowest road and highway densities in the world. For context, United States has 21 kilometres of roads per 1000 people, while France about 15 kilometres per 1000 people – predominantly paved and high quality in both cases. In terms of all season, 4 or more lane highways, developed countries such as United States and France have a highway density per 1000 people that is over 15 times as India.

India in its past did not allocate enough resources to build or maintain its road network.[2] This has changed since 1995, with major efforts currently underway to modernize the country's road infrastructure

major problems faced by road transport
The main roads in India are under huge pressure and in great need of modernisation in order to handle the increased requirements of the Indian economy. In addition to maintenance, the expansion of the network and widening of existing roads is becoming increasingly important. This would then enable the roads to handle increased traffic, and also allow for a corresponding increase in the average movement speed on India's roads.{ Visit : solutionabouttech}

In 2009, lane capacity was low and only about 16% of India's roads were four lanes or above.[10] A 2007 study found that the congestion on India's highways reduced average truck and bus speeds to 30–40 km/h (19–25 mph); road maintenance was under-funded, and some 40 percent of villages in India lacked access to all-weather roads.[2]While the PMGSY rural road program mentioned above has, by 2011, connected 90 percent of villages identified in 2005 as without access,[33] many remote villages in India were still without access to a single lane, paved road as of May 2011.

The World Health Organization compilation of road network safety data for major economies found India to have the highest number of road fatalities in the World, with 105,000 road-accident caused deaths in 2006.[37] However, adjusted for India's larger population, the accident and fatalities rates are similar to major economies. Over 2004–2007, India had a road fatality rate of 132 deaths per million citizens, compared to 131 deaths per million citizens in the United States. Non-fatal accident rates reported on Indian roads was 429 accidents per million citizens, compared to 412 accidents per million citizens in China, and 1101 accidents per million citizens in the United States. The report notes that not all accidents in India and China are reported and recorded.

The low road densities per 1000 people has created significant congestion and slow speeds on existing roads inside cities. Because of the congestion, the fuel efficiency of the vehicles in India is very low. This increases the overall fuel consumption per equivalent kilometer travelled, besides resulting in heavy pollution since the engines run very inefficiently at such low speeds.[38]Pollutants from poor road network and resultant poor fuel efficiencies include hydrocarbons, NOx, SOx, methane, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide – all of which cause health problems, adverse climate effects and related environmental damage.

Due to rising prices of petroleum, a non-renewable resource, some have urged the Indian government to focus instead on improving public transport like the Indian Railways and rapid transit systems.[39] Many cities have proposed, or are implementing metros and mass transit systems.