CBD NMT DPR - For your comments

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Infrastructure

Below is the Final Draft Detailed Project Report for provisioning NMT facilities in the MG road area & surroundings.

This is not an official public consultation but I have taken permission from DULT to put up this DPR for review by Praja members. As a part of the Task force Praja has to provide comments by 28th July, (next Thursday).

 

Report

Comments

Last date for inputs 28th July

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The report is 32MB, so will take a while to render/download

Nice Report!

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IDS,

Nice report. Just had a quick view of it. Will revert after reading through the report ind detail.

-Syed

Review Comments - Part1

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Here are my comments for Pages 1- 50.

1. Page #2, Sec 1.2 - Any plans to cover segments - Richmond rd to Kasturba Rd to Queens Rd, IE circle to SBS Terminus to Dickenson Rd to Ulsoor Rd to Trinity circle?

2. Page #2, Sec 1.3 - What is Traffic Dieting?

3. General - Glossary of terms is needed.

4. Page#4 Sec 2.1, 1st Para - Need solid numbers in terms of Budget allocation for  vehicular traffic improvement projects vs budget for NMT to make the point.

5. Page#5, Bullet #3 and many other places - Replace the word "Metro" with Mass Transit stations including CR, Bus Terminus and metro stations.

6. Page#6, Sec 2.2, #1 - Most important aspect in design of NMT infrastructure.

7. Page#17, 3rd Bullet - The sentence is missing the word "Parking". Should read as "No on-street parking found on this Road".

8. General - In all Pictures, Roads, streets looks almost empty. Is B'lore roads are so good that hardly there is any traffic jams?

9. Page#30-32, Sec 4.4 - What is the norms for the height at which the signs are to be posted for visibility by the cyclist.

10. Page#33, Sec 4.5 - Pictorial illustration of Diagonal and perpendicular parking is needed.

11. Page#39 - A map with markings to show all the suggested interventions is needed for better understanding and reading.

That's all for now. Still to review the next half of the report.

Syed

Since we are running out of

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Since we are running out of time, here is a quick way to look for major gaffes. If you were to ride a cycle on the alignment indicated in the maps & were to visit various places of interest like shops, malls, transit points like bus stops, metro stations, TTMC's etc what problems would you observe? Most activities will require you to park cycles, cross roads midblock, ride across bus stops, cross at junctions etc. See if you spot deficiencies in usability.

Meaning, given the track & alignment in the map what minor additions need to be done to make it usable if you seee a dificulty

We have only today & tomorrow left. Put your thoughts, mostly major gaffes in usability will carry weight. (all inputs will be communicated regardless, no judgement will be made on the comments by the few representing on the task force) minor details can be worked on.

Any plans to cover segments -

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Any plans to cover segments - Richmond rd to Kasturba Rd to Queens Rd, IE circle to SBS Terminus to Dickenson Rd to Ulsoor Rd to Trinity circle?

Not in current plan, we can make this a success with shared biking & all, then look to extend. Thats the advantage of this alignment, it can extend outwards in all directions 

some points..

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  • The initial thought was to provide NMT connectivity to TTMC and there is no mention of that in the plan

 

  • Another missing point is the logical end(entry and exit) to bike lanes especially contra lanes. For example..contra lane starts from cash pharmacy but where will the cycle traffic on the opposite direction go to? Ideally bike tracks will need to have painted lanes as feeders

 

  • No thoughts on bus stop rationalization( eg: 2 in a span of 50 mts)?

 

  • Also there was a bike parking at bigade rd jn..the war memorial..this is missed in the doc

D'souza circle, Hayes rd jn

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D'souza circle, Hayes rd jn etc are missing, apart from MG road others are missing the plan for the entire length.

Report suggests green pigmentation which we are okay with but the jayanagar lanes are using red pigmentation from what I heard, this will cause confusion they all have to standardize on one color.

Detailing the integration of residency rd track & MG road track at mayo hall jn is missing.

St marks rd needs a crossing at vittal mallya rd junction

Dieting MG road towards cubbon park at the corner of Anil kumble jn will cause offset on the other side & prevent this scheme from being implemented.  

Webbs jn seems to have offset crosswalk making people cross in the middle of the lanes or maybe its just my eyes. 

Cycle stands are not very clear, I can see them mentioned only on the MG rd sections at bus stops on all other roads, near the schools in that area are missing.

Keep adding comments here.Too late to compile the list separately, I will just mail this link to DULT tonight. 

Prajagalu Fantasy

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I suspect we will need something like this

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-14380367

in order to maintain the NMT.

Its a Praja contributors fantasy - bike paths being maintained - parking rules being enforced and a mayor who actually cares about the city !

 

 

 

 

Oops ! A couple of ideas - too late?

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Oops ! Did not know about this DPR. In case it's not too late, here're a couple of thoughts.

1. Think of non-motorized public transport for intra-CBD movement, and as last -mile transport for the Metro. Basically cycle rickshaws. Delhi has about 1 lakh of them, and more are going to be introduced.

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-newdelhi/article606532.ece

2. The picture (Cambriudge, UK) shows road markings for cycles to stop before other vehicles at signals, so they can take off first ( a key requirement for cycles).

 

The NMV track is 2m

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The NMV track is 2m unidirectional & 3.5m for contraflow. Operating space accounted for any NMV is 1m. 

Delhi rikshaw rules stipulate 1.14 meters as width of rikshaw, I am sure this can comfortably fit in the NMT lanes.

But maybe a sleek single person rikshaw transporter can be designed to fit in <1 meter operating space so it can allow bicylists to pass as well.

 

Bikeshare to be CLASS leveler - The HINDU!

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"The Hindu" carried a news article titled "It is time to pedal your way around town" highlighting the need for bicycle infrastructure to augment the PT systems in B'lore.

"...Several public interest bodies have been urging the city fathers of Bangalore to think of mass transport and eco-friendly private vehicles such as bicycles for last mile connectivity. But not much effort was seen on this front. Now that a Metro network is emerging in the city, the eco-friendly bike should also be thought of as an alternative to two- and four-wheeled automobiles for easy transportation..."

Most thought provoking words are written citing an example from Washington DC's Capitla Bikeshare program:

"...the gender ratio reveals 60:40 men vs. women users. Bikes are used by company directors, managers, courier boys, mailmen etc.

For any such programme to succeed in the Indian context, the people would need taming their vanity more than the availability of the infrastructure. Humble bikes, of course, are no substitute for social prestige associated with cars."

-Syed

NMT plan in CBD gets momentum

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The track will run along an eight-km stretch. CISTUP of IISc and Praja have been working out the logistics of the non-motorised track with the DULT since April.

The DULT has earmarked Rs one crore for the construction of dedicated cycling tracks. DULT will bear 50 per cent of the project cost, said V Manjula, Commissioner of DULT.

more here

NMT lane violation

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Wanted to highlight the violation of NMT lane in New Delhi. NMT lane is regularly used by motorbikes. We will have to tackle this challenge in Bangalore. This is at the Chirag Delhi Jn. Notice how not only are bikes using the lane but an SUV is climbing into it. Interestingly 50 meters after this the NMT lane has been officially closed & converted into a slip lane for left turning traffic, So I guess the SUV is only trying to get a head start.

NMT violation - nothing new

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This happens universally, which is why physical separation is necessary, especially in India. Large height differences created with kerb stones, though generally seen as obstacles for pedestrians seems the only way out.

There will be challenges in way of alleys & driveways where kerbsides are discontinued across the entire width to allow vehicles entry & exit, as seen in the picture above. An option is to continue the line of kerbstones with just two small breaks to aid bonafide vehicles to enter /exit at almost right angles to the direction of flow on the thoroughfare. Though this makes it difficult for entry /exit, it discourages vehicles on the moving lanes from intruding since it becomes inconvenient to align themselves to enter the service road or NMT lane/s.

However, 2-wheelers will still be able to violate - the solution may be to erect staggered bollards as marked in the photo below, which would allow bicycles to pass easily and openings adjusted to be insufficient for scooters or motor-cycles (this is common in Chinese cities).

 

6 mths post approval

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The Directorate of Urban Land Transport (DULT) has submitted a Detailed Project Report (DTP) to the BBMP for laying dedicated cycle lanes in MG Road and Madivala, and is waiting for the civic agency’s nod. The cost of the project will be shared by the BBMP and the DULT on a 50:50 basis.

A BBMP official said the project will take a little more than six months to be executed. “Once we get the approval, the project should take a little longer than six months to be completed as it will also include some civil works.”

Source

Biking in Mexico City.

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Interesting article on biking in  Mexico City on the BBC..

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news...

I think the advantages of places like Mexico city and Bogota is that they have some enlightened city authorities. Here the `highly qualified' people that are in power are just interested in making money in the short term.

Downloadable Report

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Is it possible to have the report in a downlodable form. It is a bit long to read online. Thanks. 

there is a download link ...

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right at the botttom of the document window. the pdf is on scribd, here is the link again: http://www.scribd.com/document_downloads/60702836?from=embed&source=embed