In what appears to be an act of aping big bad brother BBMP, Mysore City Corporation is building subways of pedestrians at not so feasible locations and with no involvement of public. Am posting my letter sent to the local English daily.
Less than a month (Feb 19, Indian Express) after the Union Home Minster Mr.P Chidambaram said that the tendency to move pedestrians into subterranean subways to allow vehicles to use the road surface as a retrograde move, MCC has announced ped subways at KR Circle and other places.
MCC, before starting should come clear on few things –
- Why is the haste in going with this project?
- What is the pedestrian density study?
- Can the elders or differently abled citizens use them with ease?
- How big are these subways in terms of height and width? Will they be able to handle the unprecedented movements during Dasara?
- How will this gel with the environs of K R Circle?
- While BBMP is inserting these subways at Rs.60-70 lakhs a piece, what extra will MCC’s subways provide at Rs.1 crore a piece?
- If vehicles are anyway going to be stopped at KR circle by traffic lights, why cant pedestrian crossings be synchronized
Many subways in Delhi are underutilised and we may soon see few in Bangalore getting wasted. Many doubts can be clarified if MCC calls for a public consultation, which is the right way. Better ideas may emerge from the public.
The trend now is to move vehicles underground and leave the surface as it is for pedestrians. Cities in the West, especially many European cities are now dismantling pro-motor infrastructure. London’s Trafalgar Square is now a closed for traffic.
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Exact locations?
Possible to mark the exact locations? Are they all coming up as part of some signal elimination plan, or are they all coming up right near traffic lights (you mentioned one near KR Circle traffic light) ?
The only justification for building magic box subway on traffic lights (that I can think of) could be that the pedestrian volume is so heavy that timed traffic lights can't provide enough pedestrian throughput. Is this the case with these planned pedestrian subways?
Some details...
• These are not going to eliminate the signals as KR Circle has traffic from four directions.
• These should include entry and exit to the new KSRTC terminal that is being built (terminal should have been shifted out)
• 3 mts of width is of no use given the normal pedestrian density; this simply multiplies to large numbers during Dasara
• Existing wide and clean pavements will be spoilt as lots of space will be taken for construction of stairs, shelter, etc.
• The others planned in front of Palace, connecting the Exhibition grounds and one on Sayyaji Rao Road near Bata (less than half a KM from KR Circle)
• Am sure people will soon abandon these and start crossing a little distance away from these subways and the road width is not even 50ft.
• Also doubtful if these can be used by differently abled and the elders