Decongesting Bangalore City Centre

Devesh,

I like all your points. 

Need to add lane discipline in at least the city center, using bollards as lane markers if necessary and a zero tolerance to any  violation in this limited area.  Residency Road is an example of a wide road with chaotic traffic.  Bangalore seems to have this problem that traffic gets going very slowly when lights turn green because people don't follow lanes (it is like untangling a knot ).  Laminar traffic flow can reduce congestion to a great extent.

Point number 1 is difficult administratively. We need to define the boundaries of the central area, cover every entry point, etc and unless we move to the ERP Singapore style with gantries and stored value cards, it will make congestion fairly high at the entry point - (may not be such a bad idea).  The buses might end up getting stuck behind the long line waiting to pay the surcharge and become a victim of unintended consequences. 

Parking fee can be simplified greatly by the method you have suggested.  Again given the number of vehicles free riders can get away.  We need traffic wardens to monitor and seeing the hooliganism prevalent in Bangalore, I fear for their safety.  How do we ensure that it does not become their word against the person's?  How do we ensure that the person actually pays a fine - wheel clamps?  Law enforcement needs to go hand in hand with all these proposals and become ruthless.  I can't understand why BBMP has let go of this excellent revenue stream and then claim it has no funds and go on to increase property tax saying it needs funds for infrastructure.

Point 3 is politically sensitive but not impossible.  Private operators can be limited to premium services and be regulated.   A PIL might do the trick again?  This is critical for the success of all other steps.  If the govt doesn't give people a good alternative then it can't do any of the other stuff.

Other options that can have the same effect as a congestion surcharge.

Bring back the annual vehicle tax on cars and bikes.  A big sticker is given in return with a hologram showing that the person has paid the annual tax for that year.   It should not  depend on when the car was registered but by fiscal/calendar year (pro-rata for a car regd mid year).  This should be in the Rs.20,000 range for cars and Rs.5000 for bikes - at least let car users pay for road maintenance and flyovers and expressways.  Weekend only cars/bikes with a different sticker/license plate colour can be 2/7 of this or even free.  (This might actually bring in the sunk cost mentality and people might think - let me make the most of the tax I have paid by using the car more - but would like to hear others as well).

Usage itself can be discouraged by making petrol more expensive within Bangalore limits.  Have a Rs.10/litre cess - Bangalore uses about 280 million litres of fuel each year.  If that does not work increase it even more - at some point people will treat private transport as something that is a luxury for weekends.  That can bring in Rs.250-Rs300 crores of cess or more for Metro/Bus expansion.

If we can increase the average speed in Bangalore from 13/14 kmph to even 20 kmph it will make a big difference.

Make pavements broad and usable (check Jayanagar 4th main road) so that people walk for distances <1-2km.

Whichever government comes in should do it immediately so that in 5 years the unpopular stuff would have become business as usual and they can do all the populist stuff in the last year.  Does any of them have the political will?

Srivathsa

 

 

 

Hi All,

For reference, the CTTP-2007 report states :

Thus, they are also in line with your inputs here.

 

I have been thinking about this for years now: Building to signal free roads cutting across the city. For e.g. From Mysore road ring road junction to K.R Puram and from Peenya/Tumkur road to J.P Nagar 6th Phase (ring road).These must be 6 lane non stop roads with bus bays and designated turning areas. Also bring the Core ring road so these two roads avoid MG Road. Now, everyone will automatically find thier way to the nearest entry point to this express road and use it till the last stop. For e.g. if I were to go from Vijaynagar to M.G Road, then I would head to mysore road an take the express road (as opposed to digging through sheshadripuram). also ply busses at regular intervals on these roads. So feeder busses will bring you from home to the nearest express road stop and hence forth...

I am no expert in traffic management nor in planning processes of city development plans. There are many comment, all of which seem to focus on lack of connectivity because of inadequate road widths etc etc. These are fair comments, but are we not talking rather superficially on something that has a historic (recent) aberration and unless that cause is addrerssed we will only do a "Band Aid" solution?

Bangalore's roads are congested not only because we have too many people using them, but because we have

(a) A city plan that has given into the demands of "Lobbies" and given incentives for land speculators and builders to turn every place into a commercial one, without mandating and enforcing provision for adequate parking spaces. IT/ITES are the biggest enablers of this mess.

(b) Lax entry levels for driving licences, where skill and not road sense/etiquette are judging parameters, and where even the inspectors are ignorant of road etiquette.

(c) Inadequacy of space for non vehicular traffic, where by they are forced to walk on the carriageways, even at their peril.

(d) Totally inadequate enforcement machinery in handling road misuse. A sense of 'deja-vu' pervades across all sections. 'Jungle Raj' if you ask me. The state does not seem to have the heart and will to govern.

(e) A visionless, un accountable and disconnected approach of the planners (sic)and officials in making the roads user friendly. Have you noticed the presence of electric poles right in the middle of carraige ways on the widened roads in Bangalore? Or the presence of makeshift places of worship on footpaths? Or electric transformers, on the roads and on footpaths? Or the continuous digging up that leaves rubble on the roads for months on end? Or the garbage heaps lying directly in line of the traffic?

(f) Roads being widened, but ending up in bottlenecks like traffic signals or right turns. Unless and until bottlenecks are removed, no amount of widening is going to help ease the flow of traffic. All that we have achieved is enable more vehicles to wait on roads between two bottlencks. In the bargain, more trees chopped off, adding to global warming, increase in gas consumption and not enough saving in time. 

(f) IT/ITES not taking the responsibility of removing the congestion on roads by providing mass transportation to their employees. Hiring of taxis - 24x7, who are the biggest nuisance value to normal road users of Bangalore are also the biggest congesters of roads.

Was Bangalore not "unlocked" for those two days when these taxis went on strike? Did the IT companies shut their business on those days? I doubt. The alternative is obviously there, but will the Captains of the most pampered segment of businesses, respond and rise to shoulder their responsibility to city from which it demands the most?

OLD THOUGHT

I totally agree with narayan82.

in fact if you see my views on paraja they are very similar and same. in fact i have gone an extra mile & suggetsed that we should have arteries like these 6 lane or preferable 8 lane (WITH NO SIGNAL LIGHTS ONLY FLY OVERS & UNDERPASSES) passing in the North South & East West diretions ( at least 2 in each direction). once the utility of these arteries are established, the administration will be encouraged to build dmany more arterial road like these. ONE IMPORTANT ASPECT IS THAT THESE ARTERIAL ROADS SHOULD BE TOTALLY CEMENTED.

 

it is high time that we praja members sit down, draw a plan and implement the same at the earliest.

Srinath Heragu

Friends,

I would like to add few of my thoughts on the Mr. Devesh's proposal/suggestion on PPP for Public Transport. Instead of trying to place competitor, PPP should be added to compliment the BMTC in areas where it is not able to match the demand. There are quite a few:

1. More Mass Tarnsit Centers - Design, build and operated under PPP. This should allow transit for BMTC, Prvate Buses, Taxis, Auto-Rickshaws and ample Parking for 2 wheelers, cars etc.

2. PPP Buses for Industrial concentration areas like ITPL, Electronic City etc, to replace the Taxi Cars, SUVs etc. Atleast they can ply upto teh nearest transit center

3. PPP buses or Schools ( Smaller Private vehicles should be discouraged / prohibited)

4. PPP Buses to Mass Transit area like KBS, between Railway Stations.

5. Should allow 1 ticket purchase sufficient for the whole journey with limited/unlimited transfers.

Syed

Was passing thru the news stands yest and noticed a familiar face on Bangalore Mirror with the subject topic Devana'Yelli'..bought it..to find more pictures inside..

Congratulations Sirji..hope this effort gets blr to better shape!

I don't have hard numbers to back this up, but these are out of observations. I will limit it to a few roads that I regularly use in the CBD

Drive along JC Road, Lalbagh Road, Residency Road, Richmond Road and you will find that the left lanes (even where there is no parking) are underutilized. Everyone wants to drive on the middle (where there are one ways) and on the right lane. This could be because of mud, bad surface, nasty surprises in the form of pavement projections, etc. One way to overcome this it to mark a thick yellow line about 2 ft from the pavement so that one can drive confidently to the right of this yellow line. This becomes like the road shoulder markings on the NHs. Trucks there usually stay to the left.

At many traffic lights (Town Hall light on JC Road e.g, Brigade Road jn with Residency Road), there are far too many waiting lanes (4-5) and far too few lanes receiving traffic. We need to match waiting lanes and receiving lanes by building suitable islands and putting some greenery/fountains.

Bollards at traffic lights to mark lanes. Bangaloreans dont think too much of painted lane markers. Bollards every 10 ft starting 100m before the traffic lights can streamline waiting traffic and bollards at the receiving lanes can make sure people don't crisscross the roads slowing down everyone else.

Doing the above will mean more throughput at traffic lights. The traffic police can then shorten the green lights and reduce waiting time at the signal.

After doing all this communicate changes broadly through newsprint and TV so that people know what to expect. Bring back those Indian News Review style documentaries in movies - but this time about traffic safety and good driving habits. Rope in a few local celebrities to spread the message. Get your company heads to reinforce this message in their offices.

Metro work - why does the BMRCL dig up such big stretches and then take so long to complete them. Take one stretch complete the work in 3 months and then move to the next stretch. They need to plan work according to the total resources available. Digging and leaving it incomplete for a long time is not the way to go.

Regards,

Srivathsa

I'd given this suggestion sometime back on other forums and in Praja in a different thread. I too, like narayan, feel education is not the problem. Lack of enforcement is. Ofcourse, this would be only first step. Then we could go on with other stuff (like improving design of junctions, analyzing traffic flow and design an integrated transport system, etc).

Suggestion:

1. Create laws similar to other cities like Mumbai, where after 3 traffic offenses, the license is cancelled. And also create a simple process (like punching or ticking on the license) to mark a traffic offense. Publicize (educate?) this in the media.

2. Create a squad of 6-8 traffic police (you can choose a more appropriate number). The only job of this squad is to randomly choose a road/junction and enforce all (or a random set of) the traffic rules VERY STRICTLY. Each day they would choose a totally different location.

The method that this squad adopts is also very important. The presence of this squad should not be obvious to the offenders. This is tricky. But you could choose to have one constable in the uniform and rest all in plain clothes.

If the above are done, I have full confidence that it would create enough fear in the offenders and we will surely see very good results and quickly too.

There are enough examples to show that this works. One: Mumbai. Two: Recently I was going from Hubli to Darwad via a 2-lane highway (not sure if this is part of NH-4). The speed limit is 40km/hr. And surprisingly almost all the vehicles were moving at that speed, though the road was good and empty. Reason? I saw atleast at three places in between on this small stretch, squads of police with RADAR speed detectors. And they were enforcing it.

If the police/right govt. agencies have the WILL to do it, they can. Its just that and rest all are reasons for the sake of it - they are just a curtain to hide in-action/in-efficiencies.

 

 I am sure rationlaization of BMTC bus services and routes can be attempted within next 6 months.

A. Select 4 corridors which needs urgent help for easing the traffic with public transport.

1. Start Transit Centers at Indira Nagar Bus Station on Old Madras Road. Rationlaize the routes/bus service from here to ITPL, Whitefield, KR Puram and Hosakote. May be add more frequent service from this center.
2. Start a Transit center at Koramangala on Hosur with more frequent bus service to Electronic City and places upto Hosur.
3. With Banashankari Bus Stop (#13's last stop) as the Transit Center, frequent Bus Service to Electronic City via Bannerghatta Road and Hosur Road
4. With Yeswanthpur as the Transit Center for frequent bus service to Peenya Industrial Estate Entrance and more places on Tumkur Road upto Anekal.
5. Wit Mayohall (MG Road) as the Transit Center, Frequent Bus Service to HAL Airport and places on this road upto White Field.

B. Introduce connecting service from these Transit Centers to other centers like ITPL transit center to Electronic city Transit center etc.

Hope that these suggestion are solid and worth considering.

Regards,

Syed 

 

Devesh

I beg to differ. Indore has adopted the BRT model. They possibly can afford to widen their roads. But, Bangalore has serious limitations on this score. And, I agree totally with Dr ASJ when he says that it does not address the basic problems. That apart, my biggest reservation is that it is harking back to license-permit raaj over un-naturally created monopoly situations. We have gone over this before. Do look up http://bangalore.praja.in...

Muralidhar Rao

PS: Recommended additional reading: http://traffic-transport-...

Devesh,

You are questioning the reason for police inaction on enforcement. I think first is, as you pointed out, corruption. Again as you pointed out, that doesn't look like a compelling reason. 

The real reason seems to be lack of motivation. I mean, what do they gain if they enforce? If at all, they may earn some bad name for being tough and for "inconveniencing" and "harrassing" the public. But if they have the will and support of govt. they can do it. Ofcourse, support from govt. here need not be something great. If govt. stands by them while they enforce, general public will eventually realize that its helping them and soon the traffic offenders would be minority and isolated.

Given all the shortcomings the we have in Bangalore, we should give a try on using BRTS features on stretches where ever it possible. We should definitely try on the route:

Mayo Hall (MG Road) to Electronic City

1. Dedicated Bus lanes where ever it is possible on streches where the road is wide. I am sure this is definitely possible from Koramangala onwards.

2. Bar 2 wheelers, trucks and autorickshaw traffic on the stretch from Johnson Market till Koramangala. Divert them through alternate route to take a detour on Mico Road towards Bannerghatta Road.

3. Should have increased bus frequency of atleast every 5 minutes.

4. Supplement these corridor with connecting service from Shivaji Nagar (at MG Raod), KR Market (at Koramangala), KG Bus Station (Koramangala), Jaynagar/Banashankari (at Silk Board).

5. Should have the bus stops at right stops and location serving large neighborhood area. If needed should be relocated/cancelled/added to the existing ones.

Requirements:
1. Strict Enforcer authority to clear traffic mess on the whole stretch.

2. As many suggested, transfer of ticket feature should be also be tested so that it appeals more users.

Feedback on this propsal is very much appreciated.
 
Regards,
Syed

Very good point Syed.

But when the HAL's and NAL's started in 60' and 70's the traffic on bangalore roads was not as high as it is now. Actually even 10 years back it was a fraction of what it is now.

Still, corporates employing higher number of people can set examples by encouraging the use of public transport or provide mass transport vehicles for the use of their employees which can save a lot of road space.

It feel sad to see single person driving cars on congested roads. Encouraging and incentivising the use of public transport and car-pooling can go a long way in reducing congestion on roads.

My suggestions in points are the following:

1) Provide incentives for use of public transport and car pools.

2) Reduce the number of free parking slots and charge the rest of the slots and use that money to partially suffice the cost of incentives given to people who use car-pools and other public transport.

3) If the number of employees is large, try to arrange for buses and other mass transport vehicles.

A result of such steps will be reduction of cars/bikes on the roads and buses will be able to move faster which can further encourage people to use buses.

This comment has been moved here.

My 20+ kms evening ride was dotted with 4 vehicle break down yesterday. This was the start of the monsoon..

Cauvery underpass had cars break down which slowed traffic creating jams..all thats needed is tow trucks to restore smooth flow.

Smaller vehicles can be easily towed by the Tigers with BTP...atleast this way it will be used for a better purpose than the money spinning one which is as of now!

For the BUsses/trucks we need heavy duty ones like the one shown here..we bought many busses from volvo..shouldnt they contribute by helping us procure these..Volvo makes may 'wreckers' which is the common name out there!

Hi Devesh,

One of the best ways to solve a complex problem is to first analyze the issues of what is wrong currently, breaking down the problem into smaller ones and then implementing the solution first on a small scale (a prototype). Once that works we can implement that on a larger scale. The simple problem of traffic congestion is the symptom of deeper underlying problems each of which needs to be tackled individually.

a) First and foremost, road & footpath design. CRRI(Central Road Research Institute) & Indian Roads congress are 2 institutions charged with research & design standards. These standards must be reevaluated and enforecement should be there
to have these standards implemented.
b) Enforce strict compliance to specificed building codes in terms of distance to be maintained from curb, how much distance to be maintained from footpath in order to maintain specified width of footpath for free pesestrian flow.
Commercial or residential properties must not tamper with the height of the footpath or the quality of the footpath surface to serve their own needs like building driveways for cars etc. Strict adherence to standards must be maintained for such alterations with due approval.
c) Obstructons from the roadway itself in terms of traffic poles, trees etc. should be relocated to provide for smooth traffic flow. Road itself should confirm to design standards (construction being strictly supervised and enforced) in terms of lane widths, markings, curves etc.
d) strict law enforcement of traffic rules.
e) adequate parking should be provided per city block. This needs deep involvement of urban planners. Commercial establishments and residential flats/colonies/houses should adhere to strict building codes and provide adequate parking within their premises.

The above need to be implemented first on a pilot basis on one or two stretches of major throughfares. This can be considered as a barometer of success and moreso, a barometer of the future. If it suceeds then further plans can be drawn and the above pilot can be used as a platform for educating & raising public awareness. For most of the problems Bangalore and Indian cities are facing in general, cultural and mental changes are required. The above suggestions may look simple, but if you notice I have stressed enforcement in more than one point. Without enforcement nothing is going to work even if the best technology is made available.

Believe me, this is a short term solution that if implemented successfully on a small scale can be extended slowly. Tackling this problem at once is going to be a major challenge considering the situation we find ourselves in.