Hello Everyone,
There were a couple of threads on the pedestrian over bridges in Praja some time back and I thought I will revive the topic.
I travel from Marathalli all the way to RVCE every day. I go through the old airport road/Mysore road or ORR/Banashankari. And in all my commute in West, Central and South Bangalore, there is one (1) bridge (near Leela), and one under ground crossing (near Chowdaiah Hall). Thats it!!
There are many accident prone zones in the city and here are the top 8 from my observation.. (These are areas/crossings where traffic police presence is not there. Example: HAL Maingate lights.. There are always multiple cops directing the pedestrians.)
1. Marathalli Bridge/ORR Junction - Enough said.
2. Marathalli Bridge Near the Purva apartments - With so many BMTC buses, private buses, company shuttles, cabs, autos zipping through the intersection on both sides and at least 2000 people crossing the road in both directions, this is an accident waiting to happen place at any given point of time.
3. Old Airport Road/IRR intersection - I am not sure why all the vehicles stop under the bridge and make people cross the road in multiple directions than stopping on the left side.I don't think the reason is to cross the intersection and stop, because I rarely see any pile up from old airport road towards IRR.
4. Corporation Circle -
5. Mysore Road End to End - There are tons of small scale industries on both sides of the road, women in sarees running across the street and jumping the median and vehicles trying to run them over..
6. ORR - Not a single bridge anywhere
7. Silk Board Junction -
8. BTM to Banashankari - Not a single bridge, but there are enough traffic lights and cops in this stretch to cross the road safely.
My question would be, who do we approach to fix this problem? It will not be long before people get killed trying to cross a road..
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GNT - Thanks for this eye-opener!
On the one hand, we have too few pedestrian over or underpasses; On the other, we have pedestrians that never utilize them where they are built & made available.
Other than the one between SBC & Railway station, all pedestrian over or under passes are poorly utilized, in fact almost never used.
I don't think all of them are poorly designed or dirty. In fact, some are quite good - like the ones on airport road & Indiranagar 100-ft rd. It's just that there isn't sufficient focus on enforcement. Whilst overpasses are built, openings are also left on road median dividers to tempt pedestrians to cross on surface.
Unless sufficient moves are made to enforce use of pedestrian bridges, people will continue to expose themselves to risk darting across streets.
I don't think such overpasses are required at or near traffic signals since a pedestrian crossing signal phase is better there. Also, these are high volume pedestrian points with very large crowds needing convenience to inter-change buses, etc.
ROAD CROSSINGS
We want to promote public transport, esp. buses. The commuters need bus stops/shelters which are to be provided at every 500M intervals as per norms, but in fact the distances are much more.
It is common sense that on two-way roads, any commuter alighting from or boarding a bus has to cross the road when he takes the return bus.
Obviously every bus stop cannot be provided with a sky-walk or sub-way. Only practical way is provision of zebra crossings with elevated humps.
Instead, what is being done is building walls along the road median to prevent bus commuters and other pedestrians, who form 60% of road users, from crossing the roads.
The hapless pdestrians are forced to cross the road as well as the 'walls' risking their life and limb. The accidents, fatal andfatal are increasing day by day. Still authorities talk of 'signal-free' roads completely ignoring the needs of pedestrians/ bus commuters to have safe arrangements for crossing.
I hope DULT, City Connect etc who are designing the roads will give serious thought to the pedestrians needs and provide for them.
K.V.Pathy
Tangential data point
moved the comment here
Pedestrian over bridge !!!!
I agree Good Suggestions
Pedestrian over bridges are definately required.Especially at marathalli with so many people crossing
in all the directions.Why can't BBMP build Pedestrian over bridges with escalators like in singapore and other countries.that will ensure people wil not l walk/run in heavy traffic.
After Marathalli bridge near Spice Garden Stop(Purva/Rohan Vasanta Flats since most of vehicles come from the bridge very fastly and also from kundhalli side .it definately an accident waiting to happen and would lead to chain of accidents also .
In General its less costlier and more Faster to build steel Over bridge for pedestrian crossing and also putting escalators so peolpe find it easier to use.the usuall under bridge takes 6 months to build and difficult to maintain and also lesse people use it.
Thanks for highlighting this
Thanks for highlighting this again GNT. It is a very important but much neglected aspect in our city's infrastructure development. While vehicular traffic, roads, mass transit get so much attention, not enough is done for the pedestrian crossings.
Do not wish to "hijack" this post, but I do want to share a few ideas on how we can evolve a viable pedestrian over-bridge model for the city. I will create a new post to put these across.
-MP
more thoughts..
Thanks for the comments everyone..
One thing that didn't come out of my post was the danger pedestrians are putting themselves in, while running across the road at full speed..
With the poor lighting provided by the street lamps, pot hole filled roads, vehicles with head lights at all kinds of heights from the ground on the other side, high beam being a fashion for all the Cabs and trucks, the chances a driver missing a pedestrian running across his or her car and reacting to it is becoming increasingly slim.
I try to take public transportation (335E) at least three times a week and crossing the bridge at Purva for me is a nightmare. I can't imagine kids, elderly and women in Sarees and long skirts crossing that intersection at all..
The educated and elite’s participation in bringing these issues to the elected representative's notice itself is lacking.. Recently, one of my cousins met the personal assistant of our local MLA, Mr.Arvinda Limbavali as a part of the ward meetings.. MLA’s PA was amused that the only thing that we (read IT class) are concerned about is the Khata for the apartments and nothing else. There are no demands from the apartment owners associations in this area.. Nothing about water, sewage, garbage disposal, lake cleaning, road conditions.. nothing.. Am not sure if the elected representatives will make a difference, but if we are not even bothered to raise a topic like this, what interest they will have in making our lives better?
@ GNT reg Aravind Limbavali
Dear GNT, The next time you or your cousin meet's Limbavali's PA, please ask him to stop lying. I have personally been at meetings where demand for water, sewage, garbage disposal, lighting, potholes and evey other topic imginable was made. Just recently, we unearthed a scam where tanker lorries are taking water from the GLR (Ground Level Reservoir) at Hoodi and supplying to apartments at tanker water rates. The BWSSB referred the issue back to the same AEs responsible for this corruption to investigate. We were told that the MLA is busy with his job fair and would attend to this. It remains to be seen if it will.
While I appreciate Mr. Libavali for keeping in touch and actually helping us with a few things, this sort of a statement is either falsehood by his PA or a poor reporting on your part. I assure you however, it is not true. There is a tendency to caricature the "IT" crowd as people with misplaced priorities. I think it is important not to believe everything you hear.
Reg: Aravind Limbavali
Let us be clear about one thing.. It is definitely not poor reporting on my part.. I will not guess if it is a lie by his PA either, because it was made to my cousin and not me.
There is also no denying the fact that most of the IT crowd is really worried about 'Khata', because their life time savings are invested with no proper document from govt in place..
My point is not that or the misplaced priorities.. My point is that the public participation about important civic aminities and problems can't be in isolation or in pockets.. I wish there were more people like you, who meet their representative and discuss the issues..
Now, help me with some thoughts on how to get this over bridge near Purva apartments. :)
thanks,
-Pavan
Need overbrdige on Kundalahalli junction too
Hi, did you find out who do we need to approach for pedestrian overbridge requests? If yes, please share with all.
Regards
Sirish