Mysore bank junction sky-walk with lift facility

Good to see the way it is deployed and how people are using it. Wish we could have many more such facilities around the city. Following locations badly need it:

1. In front of Mysore Road Satellite Bus Stand where I was about to be jammed between a truck and a bus 3 years back posted here

2. Outer Ring Road between Silkboard and Hebbal where signal free roads are proposed without even thinking of how pedestrains would cross the road. I am wondering how ORRCA has kept mum without any concerns of their employees. ORRCA can build up in PPP model in co-ordination with BDA since ORR is built and maintained by BDA.

3. Koramangala Inner Ring Road in front of EGCL where hundreds of people cross the road after getting down the city bus.

4. Corporation Circle probably in a Circular fashion enabling easy changeover of buses for Pedestrains .

5. Various places along Airport Road.

6. In Bangalore Railway Station, Footover Bridge within the station should be connected to that of Majestic BMTC Bus Stand to eliminate multiple "climb up", "get down"  to reach Majestic Bus Station.

BDA and BBMP before thinking of signal free corridors should think of Pedestrain crossings..

another circular skywalk in Japan across a junction

I agree with Ravichander. Has any data been collected on the utilisation of existing skywalks by pedestrians in Bangalore. And what is the data on the number of jaywalking even at the places where skywalks have been provided? Is the government getting into commercial deals or should it be concentrating on providing better governnace and better delivery system?

Has there been any study/assessment done on wether population preferred to use skywalks. Are they more conscious of  and educated about road sense and safety?  Have they developed a better sense of civic responsibilities and behaviour?

Further and esssentially, if the people responsible for planning city's development were more conscious that the healthy growth of city depends not on what appears great on paper or how much money is spent but upon providing appropriate insfrastructure for city dwellers on the ground, at the level where the target section understands and accepts it. If they only cater to builders, traders and automobile lobbies to safeguard their interests, and at the same time do not understand that for any project to succeed, it must be user friendly, Bangalore will continue to multiply its woes. Till then you will see chaos on the roads because virtually every street has become commercial, and people will need to cross roads. Among pedestrians will be elderly, differently abled and children and women. There will be several who are just not comfortable using mechanical medium. Providing 'lifts' is a fancy idea in our conditions. First of all there are those who are petrified of elevators. What happens when it develops a defect? What happens when power failure happens without notice? There will also be those who come from rural areas with little understanding of city life. And most importantly, our system which can not prevent stray cattle and dogs from roaming on the streets, from where will the authorities suddenly find the will and means to control pedestrians from crossing roads at their will? 

Let us get our priorities right. First understand right, then plan right, then educate right then provide appropriate infrastructure (including uninterrupted 24x365 days power) and then think of fancy projects. Better to provide more flyovers and underpasses for vehicular traffic, better mass transport and connectivity, restricted/no use of individual motorised transport (including two wheelers) particularly in areas where skywalks are proposed, better pavements. An alternative should be found not for the pedesrtians, but for those who use individual mechanical transport to clog our roads and endanger pedestrians' lives. Broadly, no vehicular traffic should be allowed on streets that have become commercial. And lastly, NO DISCRETION OR EXCEPTIONS.

Skywalks only serve their purpose when the total crossing distance is 6 lanes or more because with a 20 sec ped phase 4 lanes of traffic can be crossed. More than 20 seconds will need the ped phase to be broken up with a traffic island, except the wait time in the island will be equal to atleast 2 signal pahses of traffic.

If you notice the japanese circular skywalk picture above it has its vestibule going into the building on 2 sides instead of on to the sidewalk. The Pudong circular skywalk covers a large area so is more efficient. Compare with the skywalks we have put up in Bangalore. It takes more time going up & down than crossing on the surface.

For maximum pedestrian efficiency dont put up skywalks or subways on 4 lane roads or less (which is most of Bangalore city. 6 lane roads with signals will need a ped island in the median so as to make the surface crossing easier. So you will notice most of Bangalore dont need skywalks except on the highways.

The only other place a skywalk/subway will work is when there is substantial cross flow between an origin & destination like between 2 public utilities or between high foot fall businesses like malls etc. In these cases the skywalk/subway should enter the primeses directly from where the exceptional non OD traffic will exit the premises onto the sidewalk, example between city railway station & the BMTC busstand

I have used those skywalks in singapore they have been around for long & they are an overkill. I am surprised Sg hasnt torn them down already. I have often wondered why they didnt put a surface ped crossing in those locations. I can show you similar situations in europe where they have given the skywalks the go by & it has worked fine.

I found the elevated crossways across the expressways very useful. For example the bus bays on the AYE near science park are on an elevated slip road & the crossway was used extensively to get across the expressway.

I belive sky walk is must in most part of the city where the traffic density vechicle movement & road width is high especially like ORR near EGCL , ST johns hospital,crist college Nr Dairy circle, Madival  Total Mall. Forum, But Barricade on pavements has to  incresed in order to people to make use of these skywalk people always finds easy way out by negllecting the danger on road.

Its time For BBMP to think of Bus bay like Gujarath Model in Ring roads. so that there would be smoth moving of vechicles since the road r wide enough to plan such bay . Most of the fly over  in Bangalore r un planned i belive Dairy circle & Hebbal is the best as far as i noticed . Silk board signal required a dairy circle model like over bridge n under pass . In future plan i belive engineers will follow that model where four Roads meet. In major Roads the crossings should be avoided so that there would signal atleast for a kilometer or Half a kilometer to avoid congestion In 100ft road therre is lot of crossing n vechicle movement most part of the day is congested . even near domlur bridge a U turn should be planned under the fly over for buses n small vechicles which move towards Domlur so that signal is avoided over there, block median till bridge & divert the traffic so that there would be free movement. Near Egcl Gate Bus stop should be avoided near the main gate even though bus stops near Dell people wait near EGCL gate its sad we R health concious Bangaloreans Dont want to walk even  a half a kM for Bus & Block Roads in Between n  speak about traffic :(.  i noticed  lot of Bus stops are near signal junction which should be moved atlest 150 mts away frm junction to avoid snarls.

A pedestrian comes to a skywalk, s/he climbs 30 feet and crosses the road which takes at least 3 minutes.  He has he got safety, and he reached just across the road.  Now a car traveling at 60 kmph will be 3 km away in 3 minutes. Pedestrian dont want skywalks just for the sake of safety. Anyway to maintain 60 kmph you need to have flyovers at all junctions, so instead of sky walks make flyovers and toll it.

Praja did quite a lot of research on the pedestrain crossover on OMR near the begining of the cable stayed bridge..and eventually a skywalk was provided there and I was pleased to see it last week  being fully utilized even duing afternoon period..

So its more I think to do with the traffic conditions below that will decide pedestrain behaviour!

On KG road, the traffic stops at the lights and this gives ppl a chance to cross road at grade. This is unlike the OMR junction where traffic flows continously and the elevated walk way is the only safe option!

So what was needed in KG road was perhaps better ped crossing facilty at grade rather than the elevated contraption!

Why is there so much clamour for sky-walks?  And why the need to paint sky-walks as the "panacea" to pedestrian problems?

Pedestrians should be provided crossing facilities at-grade.  This has to be non-negotiable.  The whole policy of making people climb up steps so that vehicles don't have to stop/slow down isn't right.

Just curious, how exactly does one attend these meetings?  Is it open to the public?

Murali You have clearly spelt out the process in your letter to BBMP Commissioner / Addl Com Traffic for future planning and execution of these projects.

After  Elections are over I feel we should take up this issue more seriously.

1 Have this discussed in the TAC meeting

2 Form a TEAM ,prepare an Agenda of the points agreed upon and write to the Legislators /  Chief Minister to FORMULATE  a definite process for future WORKS making it mandatory to get the clerance by the Technical committee / CiSTU before calling for  Tender and also strictly MONITOR while  works are being executed with a TIME bound process

3. The Govt should allocate the required funds well in advance to facilitate the execution and completion of Projects on Time

4. A co-ordination Committee of all the Stake holders ( CIVIC AGENCIES) should be part of this process, which should give neceesary clearances well before these project works begin.Very often they do not complete their part of the work such as lines shiftiong  etc , which hampers the work process.