'Safe Passage' - for pedestrians at K R Puram, Benniganahalli

First step is the hardest. We can get started with a meeting to plan this campaign.

I was thinking of suggesting to go meet BBMP to have this location included in the skywalk list. I only see one skywalk in this area ("K.R. Pura Bus Stand in front of BBMP Office"), where exactly is this?

BBMP has to provide land for skywalks, not sure if they own land on both sides of ORR near the foot of the cable bridge near the station.

Staggered crossings are indeed very useful especially in areas with high vehicle traffic. As you rightly point out, they are very widely used in UK.

Here is a representation of them from UK's DVLA website.

For other types of crossings refer to rules 18 onwards on the ' Offical Highwaycode' here.

-Shastri

We assume that you would be meeting to plan more on 'Safe pedestrian' project with sharp focus on Benniganahalli area.

Ckannan, Anantharam, Srinath, you should now be able to post the "event" yourself. This is how:

• Login to Praja (at www.praja.in)
• Then, go to bangalore page. (bangalore.praja.in).
• On left side column, scroll down a bit to find a link (below Bangalore) that says "create event"
• Click on this link, and fill the details to post an event.

Let us know in case you face any difficulty, can post the vent on your behalf.

I think we have a challenge which is a mixed bag. While driver training is an issue, so is law enforcement and significantly the way our roads are planned with regards layouts etc.

I don't think we have consumed all options to consider last resort methods. The police have not been firm enough, breach a red light - lose your license - it should be as simple as that (its mother of all offences).

Coming to refuges - We need them all over, different types for different layouts.

On narrow residential roads something as simple as - No zebra's needed, typically a residential setting hence flow of vehicles is intermittent.

Busier but narrow roads - two options here:

1) Zebra crossing without signals - This one has a refuge as well for added safety (but can be without as well)

2) But because generally most drivers in India are unaware that the Indian roules stipulate pedestrians have ROW at the zebra, they will not follow above, hence we need traffic lights - The image below has no refuge, but roads as narrow as the below can also have refuges (this splits the stoppage time and reduces the time the vehicles are left standing).

But the above can be with a refuge if the road is 2 + 2 lane as shown below: 

A Staggered refuge has to be considered for roads 15 meters or more wide (most certainly on a roads with grade separators/dividers (aka dual carriage way) - we have discussed this with images above already.

Coming to oneways with 8 lanes - please refer to Cariappa discussion, I am copy & pasting my thoughts here -

Now here are some steps I am likely to take -

1. I will start with the basic premise of making the roads safe for all, pedestrians included. I note the problem is that a huge effort has been made by building this flyover to satisfy vehicle drivers alone. The goal seems to have been to try and get the traffic to move non-stop. This is a myth of a kind amongst our planners, because they only contribute to chaos further down at junctions such as cash pharmacy and beyond by sending a relentless stream of vehicles towards it.
2. To correct the above, I will first remove the railings (red circle) and restore the exit point of the flyover to its original state.
3. Next I will convert the flyover in to a single file of traffic (needs some thinking - but something similar to a hard shoulder is an option).
4. Then I will re-do the line markings on the road beyond the flyover and the underpasses - 2.5 to 2.7 meter width of each lane.
5. I will insert traffic lights at the 3 orange circles to control flow of traffic from each of the streams. This is vital because, in a cycle two streams will stop while other proceeds allowing drivers from each stream to move to desired lane more safely. This makes it damn easy for buses too. Signals can be vehicle actuated rather than timer actuated to give priority to the stream with most inflow.
6. Traffic lights above automatically renders to pedestrian safety. As each stream in cycles is blocked, two CREAM coloured pedestrian refuges will suffice to let pedestrian cross in 3 stages.  
7. By optimising lane width, we create options to use the road width optimally. The brownish triangular area to the left bottom of the picture can become a parking space (paid parking, allowed for 20 minutes at a time or perhaps only a drop-off/pick up point or a rickshaw stand - anything that is felt useful can go here).
8. I will remove the extra width of the badly done footpath on the right (red triangualr area). This then can make way for a bus bay.

The above applies to any wide one way, where the traffic on right want to move left and vice versa, to do this across two lanes is tough enough, our planners expect drivers to do it across 6 lanes!! Once you strategically insert traffic lights and pedestrian refuges as means of managinf flow and direction, the problems will be solved.

ASJ

PS, I have not gone in to triangular refuges above to avoid confusion, the basic premise is same.

Dr. Asj, I agree with you on the suggestion for staggered PedXings on a one-way with multi-lanes. This is certainly a good and doable option.

But I beg to differ you on your suggestion for the Residency Road flyover (Gen Carriappa) flyer. From the photo, and the adjacent neighborhood I knew off, it looks to me that the ramp from fly over is feeding into the road that leads to Double Road Junction. This particular stretch is not very long and not more than 1/2 KM. Prajagale, pls correct me if I am wrong on this.

Your suggestion to put the Ped Xing right at the ramp exit, seems not right. Instead I would suggest that, you provide 2 PedXings with synchronized traffic lights.

One below the flyover, just at the entrance of this road/Residency Junction. This will also give you the space for the refuge for Staggered pedxings. This would leave the flyover traffic to join the road without any traffic light. Pls see the Pink Marking for this suggestion.

www.flickr.com/photos/22896183@N05/2901520611/ 

2nd one at the entrance of the Double Road. That way people have ample PedXings on this road.

I agree withh you on all other suggestions, specially removing the Iron-Railings.

Syed

CKannan,

Is there any further progress with this ?

I agree with your last post - the standard road crossings will work well where the nos. are controlled. This particular spot has too many pedestrians & also a continuous, non-stop stream of vehicles - drove past here a few days ago & observed the same.

A wide subway across for pedestrians, using precast elements (magic box) would be needed.

I feel that pedestrian conveniences are far more important than vehicle movements. Efforts so far have only been to build flyovers & magic boxes to offer conveninces for vehicle movements. How about the thought of keeping all facilities closer to ground level for pedestrians so as not to inconvenience them too much & get the vehicles to move up or down more ? This will obviously incur more expenses, but such expenses are atleast, being spent on more worthwhile causes.

What can be done here is to elevate the road slightly - say, abt 6 feet, with a subway positioned only a few steps down from ground level. This way, the length of the ramps on each side of the underpass will be short & expenses could be minimized. This may be worth it as the no. of pedestrians crossing here is too high.