Steel Flyover; what an idea?

Whats worse is this is on JC road which is already one way 4 lanes wide. What are we doing creating 8 lanes just on that strech while all roads before, after, and around, it is a bottle neck.

They are also planning a similar one in front of Lalbagh main gate? Why do we need a flyover in front of main gate? what is the problem there?

BDA had proposed such flyover on nrupathunga road..it didnt work!

We have metro coming up soon around that area and that should ease off the traffic to a certain extent..feel they wait and watch before they do a hotch potch job!

These pictures show an interchange that I used to drive past almost daily. Picture #4 here shows a steel span (also notice the blackish structures below the road surface criss crossing 290 in Picture #2). Increased span and lower weight are apparently the main reasons. Steel is also environmental friendly. 

Here is a white paper that describes advantages of using steel.

But when proper design and maintenance regimes are not followed, fatigue failures have caused issues in steel structures. And we know very well our attitiude towards both, especially the latter.

Ravi

Arent the authorities sure of what they are doing? if they are not..then is it worth undertaking?

If seven signals are been avoided..we will end up piling up traffic at KG circle and Kasturba road signals!

Havent we had enough of 'magic' stuctures..now that the cauvery jn underpass is shrinking..are we planning to dismantle it?? and do what after dismantling?

To be built at a cost of Rs. 134.89 crore, the flyover with 7.5 metre carriageways on either side, will link Minerva Circle to Kasturba road (2.25 km), Minerva Circle to Kempegowda road (2 km) and RV Road to Nrupatunga road, completely bypassing the busy Hudson Circle.

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/366301/decongesting-hudson-circle.html

As we know bridges only shift congestion..so instead of stopping at Hudson circle, Kasturba road will get clogged and so will KG road..the govt still wants to promote personal vehicles (no PT/bus allowed on the steel bridge)

Wonder when they will learn..when they do, they will have a huge ugly structures which they cannot live with nor demolish it!

Metro is planned to be a game changes on this route..only if they could wait till it opened to re-asses the needs then!

Murali, I just think traffic density could come down on JC Road once the southern arm of Namma Metro opens.

This is just a guess. One would have do a lot of research on the ground to understand as how to Metro would impact the lives of South Bangaloreans.

Peenya, a major economic centre will become easily accessible to residents of Jayanagar, Banashankari, JP Nagar and Basavangudi. 

For starters, our Basavangudi MLA could park his car at home and travel to Vidhan Soudha by Metro and lead the way. 

What Bengaluru needs now is a plan that looks 50 years ahead, say Prakash Belawadi and Naresh Narasimhan, in their joint rejoinder to the interview of RK Misra published on Citizen Matters.

For the full text of the interview, click here.

The full text of Mr R K Misra's interview is accessible here. The most glaring part of Mr Misra's approach becomes obvious from the statement "In a city like Bengaluru, where people are able to afford travel by cars, they are even ready to pay toll if you provide them a good traffic-free road". Essentially, he wants to make room for the close to 60,000 vehicles onto our roads every month, even as it is already log-jammed by the existing 66 lakh odd vehicles, of which the proportion of cars is on a steady ascendency (check here).   

I had mentioned about the our pursuing the Houston model in my post of 8th Nov (scroll above, to read). Well, that indeed seems to be the vision that R K-ji seems to have sold George-ji. The talk about the "consortium led by US firm AECOM is now in the final stages of preparing the (Rs 11cr) DFR" fits in with that.

Well, the two ji's may be sold on their vision; but, as Naresh has pointed out, they contradict the The National Urban Transport Policy 2014 (NUTP 2014) that the country has chosen to abide by. George-ji better take note.

Thanks Murali sir for taking the time to read my Citizen Matters article in support of Elevated Corridors.

I wish to add few more thoughts here. I hope points about optimization will be understood by this audience.

When I wrote "cabs", I did not just mean cars but also vans like Tempo (Force) traveller vehicles. As the popularity of Ola Shuttles show, people prefer point to point, shared rides. Such services maximize occupancy, but also ensure a seat for all passengers.

I believe the focus on buses as public transport is misplaced.

To begin with, considering BMTC is a govt monopoly, the only response from a group like Praja should be to encourage people to boycott BMTC buses.

But leaving that aside, fixed route buses are - by design - sub-optimal. Even in the best case scenario, where buses are private run and in large numbers, it'll be near impossible to do justice to all those who need to commute. The number of people who'll need to take a single bus for their commute, will be rather small. And such people will still likely spend far more time sitting in a bus than required. The majority of commutes will likely involve 2 or 3 bus rides, even more. 1 or two neighborhood feeder buses and then 1 or 2 route buses. In a perfect bus network, there'll be huge redundancies, where lots of (feeder) buses run empty. The cost to the public will be prohibitive. Private players will not enter this industry and the costs have to be borne by tax payers.

On the other hand, point to point services run by private operators are more optimal. This is not something Uber or Ola have discovered yesterday. (They are optimising on idle time). But the point to point idea has been popular for decades. When I grew up in a small town, I used to take bullock carts which carried all neighborhood children to school! Then we had motorized cycle rickshaws and then auto-rickshaws. Today, shared autos popular across India are the most obvious example of this optimization. And this is something which even the poor and the uneducated clearly understand.

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Asking people to take a bus or a train, is like asking them to admit their school children in a government school. Sure, there must be few left wing people here, who believe in public school system. But for an average Indian parent, such a suggestion on schools will be absurd. Somehow, suggesting people to take the govt run bus or train, is considered alright. Why should the state subsidize the daily commute of the upper middle class and the rich, by spending on bus and train systems? Anyway, lets leave this also for individuals to think through.

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We need to focus on point to point cab based public transport. This could be provided by the company we work for, or Uber/Ola/Zipgo et al. But this idea can be expanded much widely.

Why can't shared autos like in Chennai be introduced in Bengaluru? Ofcourse they need not be lawless and unorganized, but run by licensed companies with entry barriers. Isn't that what Zipgo tried? Hitching an 'illegal' cab ride is still popular in Bengaluru. Why?, because no one wants to take the slow bus service.

Why can't each RWA in apartments, work like the transportation department of a private company? Each apartment complex can have its own arrangement with van services, so that a group of people in the apartments, going in the same direction are dropped in office and picked up. Who wouldn't want to commute to office with a neighbor from their own aparment?

Our apartment (Brigade Gateway) has golf carts to drop residents at the entrance. Why not extend the idea to have common drop vehicles (paid by resident taking the ride ofcourse, but cheaper)?

Why can't commercial buildings or even a commercial street organise shared vans for all the employees on that street, even if the individual companies (say small startups) cannot afford?

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Future is electic self driving cabs.

Some of the recent arguments like 'Demotorization' are so irrational, considering the world is moving towards electic self driving cars and cabs. They are already operational in Singapore and Pittsburgh. And in this very city, Lithium is running. Some of the US/European cities are already facing drops in Metro ridership, as people have better transport options like Uber/Lyft.

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A section of the civil society can continue to obcess with idealogical and outdated ideas like buses and suburban trains, but the rational person on the road is thinking on her feet and avoiding such forms of sub-optimal transport.