Jenny, Neha and I got chance to meet up with Commercial Street association head, Ajay Motwani on 7th Dec. The meeting was to discuss about an event which we are planning to have on 7th Jan, where the entire commercial street is made pedestrian only.
He seemed willing but his major concern was parking for 70 cars which will be removed from the street. He said he can give a green signal if only if we can come up with a proper plan.
We brainstormed and a couple of things came up:
- After putting in so much effort, it would make more sense to have the event (make commercial street pedestrian only) for a week and not just a day.
- Need to identify a parking spot and also it cannot be too far as there are a lot of people with kids/old people who will not be willing to walk a lot. Something like this was tried before but as the parking was some distance most of the people walked only up to the shops at the beginning whereas the shops towards the end had marginal sales.
So the biggest problem we face right now is parking. Das had worked on this and had identified a couple of parking areas and prepared a presentation.
For the detailed doc please look here
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Great idea
After putting in so much effort, it would make more sense to have the event (make commercial street pedestrian only) for a week and not just a day.
Great idea to have a proof-of-concept testing period. Some Qs:
Couple of ideas that could, potentially, enhance the impact of the experiment:
So the biggest problem we face right now is parking.
It would be great to bring the Army in too as a stakeholder. There are a couple of areas that could be opened up temporarily (red square on map; please zoom in all the way to the Dispensary Rd/ Main Guard Cross Rd corner)... but it's not a fix MoD will like.
A longer term goal could probably call for setting up a parking garage at the same location that satisfies all stakeholders. If all this works then later stages could explore closing Ebrahim Sahib St. and Narayan Pillai St. (between Ebrahim Sahib and Commercial St.). By any chance has Mr. Motwani seen the NYC/Times Square pedestrianization experiment?
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TM
...people walked only up to
...people walked only up to the shops at the beginning whereas the shops towards the end had marginal sales.
Is there baseline data (data from when the street was open to parking) to validate that claim? My money is the fact that stores had lower sales figures than stores nearer the entrance to Commercial St. end even when parking was available.
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TM
Are we obsessed with Commercial and Brigade Rd?
The other day I was having conversation with IDS with regards to declaring a "Pedestrian ONLY zone". I was told that there are some difficulties in declaring Commercial street as PED zone even for temporary period also.
I am all for many such zones all across Bengaluru including commercial zone. But after hearing the difficulties in getting notified as PED zone, I have been thinking on how to overcome this.
One suggestion that I would like to make is how about zeroing on other commercial centers in other parts of the city? Why only commercial Street? How about in other places?
-Syed
A shuttle that day from Shivaji Nagar, and around the area?
Will a special shuttle that day to mo people around from the nearby area do?
Instead of coming up with parking alternatives, I think we will have to go the route Transmog is suggesting. A shopping even on the day, allowing booths/stalls on the road could help convince shoppers, and also draw out people.
Shuttle from 4-5 surrounding parking zones, and the festival together could clinch it.