Help required for design of alternatives

Arun,

I have sent you an email. Please revert details, thanks.

I was looking to improve upon the ‘rough’ solution proposed by Vasanth. Initially I did believe that the solution was in having about 2 magic box underpasses including one at Tagore circle, as proposed by Vasanth.

                Even as was working on the solution and presentation of the solution on a map, I started to analyse the pedestrian requirements of the area.  One thing to be observed is that, on all the four sides of MNK park, the roads have wide footpaths on both sides. It is extremely important to leave the footpaths unaltered because of the demographics of the pedestrians in the area, which are

·         MNK park attracts a large number of elderly people who come there for their dose of morning/evening walk.

·         Part of the park area is occupied by two government schools, and most of the students of the students of these schools come by public busses alighting at the Taxi Stand bus stop.

·         There are atleast three other private schools around the periphery of the MNK park.

All these mean that the footpaths should remain untouched, or be improved upon. More on this later in the post.

Another point to note is that Tagore Square is one of the four corners of MNK park (see map above). The three other corners of MNK park have roundabouts at the intersection, which along with the lone traffic signal (at the intersection of KR Road and Dewan Madhava Rao road) have been sufficient to handle the traffic on these four roads (around MNK park) and the 8-9 other  connected to the three roundabout. The problem at Tagore Square is the absence of such a roundabout. So, I propose to convert the Tagore Square (a small park) into a roundabout.

       The problem with the existing structure of Tagore Square is that the width of roads around the Tagore Square is too small. Also, since it is a square, vehicles will have to make 90 degree turns, which will further slow down the traffic moment. Hence, during the conversion of Tagore Square to a roundabout, we can widen the width of the road and decrease the area occupied by the Tagore square/circle.

       After a roundabout has been put in place,  we need to put a traffic signal at the intersection as shown in the figure below. (apologies for the mediocre quality of the diagram, created with Paint).

link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/32171393@N02/3008889751/

The point at which vehicles stop at the traffic signal is shown the three green and blue dots.  Vehicles coming on KR Road from National college (green line) will stop a little ahead of the post office for the signal. Vehicles from Gandhi Bazzar main road and taking a right turn to enter KR Road and BP Wadia Road ( blue line) should stop on the right half of the road. The vehicles coming on KR road (from Banashanakari side and) moving towards National college (red line) will go around the roundabout and take a free left turn. Assuming that BP Wadia Road is made one-way ( from KR Road to Kanakapura Road, as proposed by Vasanth), the vehicles travelling on KR road towards National college (red line) will not be hindered by the traffic signal.

If BP Wadia road is one-way, the travelling vehicles from RV Teachers College(Trinity hospital) towards Bugle Rock will have to take a left turn at Kanakapura Road, travel around the MNK park and return to KR Road and take a left turn at Tagore Circle. This will be minor detour of about 300-400 mts with one traffic signal ( even now, they encounter a signal at tagore circle).

Also note that Kanakapura road (from yediyur lake) splits for a small distance at MNK park. Hence, vehicles coming from Yediyur lake (Kanakapura Road) and going toward VV puram/lalbagh west gate will have take a left turn at the MNK park T junction, go around the roundabout to reach KR road and then proceed on the BP Wadia Road to reach VV puram/lalbagh west gate.

This arrangement will ensure that the traffic re-alignmments will happen only around MNK park, leaving the traffic movements on other adjoining areas and intersections intact. Also, not more than three-four trees will be lost at Tagore Square. That should be satisfactory for the ‘green’ brigade.

Next, we need to come back to the impact of these changes on pedestrian movements. I do not see much impact to the pedestrian movements, but for on the tagore circle. If need be, we can install the magic box subway to provide safe movement of pedestrians. I would expect to see one subway to cross the BP wadia Road, one to cross the KR road (opposite Police station) and one near the entrance to MNK park, to connect MNK park with Gunasheela Hospital.

-Srivatsava V

http://srivatsava-vajapeyam.blogspot.com/

To think of alternatives. Here is my line of thinking

• Additional traffic signals
• Synchronizing existing traffic signals
• Waiting lanes for right turns at two possible locations
• And, if possible, get away with one or two magic boxes

More after I visit the area once. Anyone wants to team up on this field visit, I am at 98453-01075