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School vans (Omnis) - a disaster waiting to happen

TrafficPublic Transport
When I go to drop my boys at school and pick them up, a familiar sight greets me - Maruti Omnis with about 12-15 kids in each of them. There is not even space to keep their bags inside the Omni and so they are on the roof. Many of these are with white boards and so possibly illegally being used for this. If this overloading is not enough, the way they are driven is horrific. I have seen them go at full speed, jumping lights, taking turns without slowing down, etc. Sadly it seems a matter of time before something serious happens.

Better Bussing For A Green Bangalore

BusPublic Transport

There's no denying that the tree cover in Bangalore is being lost largely due to road widening. Road widening is necessitated due to unchecked growth and usage of private vehicles. To address this problem, you have to have excellent public transport services. METRO may be a solution. But, it is extremely expensive, and at best a solution in the long-term. BMTC cannot cope up with the needs, however much they may appear to have become efficient, which they are not and cannot be, as long as they continue to enjoy a monopoly status. The simple answer is to facilitate the entry of TVS kind of companies (my first exposure to TVS was as a bus service provider in the city of Madurai) into the fray. The present rules do not provide for that. It facilitates only the 'Sharma' kind of operations, which in turn only helps provide fodder for the die-hard opponents of the private sector.

Let us meet - Sunday Dec 16, 9 AM, Lalbagh West Gate

We have been talking about it - what more can we realistically do besides sharing our ideas and frustrations via discussions. We also want to decide on the future course for the website itself, for Praja aims to leverage the site as the platform. So how about we meet and talk all this?

Date: 16 Dec, Sunday morning, 9 AM Venue: Lalbagh, West Gate

Resources - complaint/suggestion websites, emails or phone numbers

Let us start building a "citizen's resources" section at Praja website. Many members know websites, phone numbers or email addresses for various local government bodies or public service providers. Let us start listing all such 'self-help' resources.

Eventually, this new section here could have the following:

1) Self help: as mentioned above

2) RTI and PIL guidelines: how to file a RTI application. Or even a PIL. And member's success stories

3) Contacts of helpful NGOs and RWAs (resident welfare associations) that members have experiences with

Bangalore's elevated roads

Traffic

Dont just think the elevated expressway from Silk Board junction to Electronics City. Our city is planning for a few more elevated roads to speeden up movements in and out of the city:

1) Sirsi circle flyover to Outer Ring Road (Kengeri) - 6 km elevated. BBMP got started with this one last week by calling for RFPs (read here on BBMP website, mentions 4 lane elevated corridor).

2) Silk Board junction to Shoolay Circle. BBMP should soon be floating an RFP on this one too. Its a pretty long one, 10.5 kms going by the CTTP (here).

3) Yeshwantpur and Outer Ring Road junction - 5 km elevated. Things seem to be moving on the Nelamangala tollway project (we discussed recently). But it is not clear to me if the 5 km elevated stretch at Yeshwantpur is part of the tollway project.

Bangalore Mangalore train - Lalu's admission?

TrafficGovernance

First off, thanks Vasanth for the informative update on the long awaited train. Hopefully they will complete the Bangalore Hassan line soon, the zig zag route via Mysore (go south) and Hassan (come back north) takes a bit too much time (12 hours).

BTW, I read a news-piece on this train in ToI this morning, and something in there just amazed me. The piece talks about Mr Lalu Yadav flagging the Bangalore train off at Mangalore, and how he kept the audience in splits during his speech. Now, for the interesting part:

"When Lalu mentioned that he knew the reasons behind the delay and put the onus on the bus and truck lobby, there was a loud roar of approval"

Black City, Bangalore

EnvironmentTraffic
In traffic jargon a black spot is a locations in the city where accidents happen with regular frequency. The areas around such black spots are called black areas. A study by Sudhir and Akbar of Secon Pvt Ltd., reveals why Bangalore is a black city. Excerpts from that study ...

Transport Regulatory Body - Long Overdue

EnvironmentTraffic
Today's (8th/Dec) Economic Times carried an item on Page-1 titled "Watchdog may soon put brakes on vehicles". The body would be responsible to frame legislation/s pertaining to limiting vehicle ownership per household, increased penalties for traffic violations including cancellations, etc. Pedestrian welfare & Cycling Infrastructure is also being addressed. Strips of 2.5 mtrs width for each is suggested on roads exclusively for pedestrian movement & cycling as also proper street furniture. Congestion pricing is being examined.

Nobel cause

TrafficPublic Transport
Dr Rajendra Pachauri, the Chairman of the Nobel Laureate, IPCC, when asked to comment on the TATA '1- lakh car' project, in the context of the adverse remarks made by the famed economist, Thomas Friedman (addressing a meeting of the Bangalore International Centre), expressed his wish that TATA's would simultaneously get into public bus transport services. And, TATA's being TATA's would be happy to do so, provided the government facilitated their entry.

Irrationality of dedicated lanes

Traffic
text of letter sent to the New Indian Express: I refer to the report captioned 'auto lanes may be allotted to BMTC' published in your columns on the 5th instant. The idea of 'dedicated lanes' for BMTC buses seems to have caught the fancy of every self-appointed traffic expert. And, there seem to be plenty of them in the city today, apart from the author.

Bengalooru - Nelamangala Tollway on NH4

Infrastructure

Saw two interesting bits in papers about this project. About a week ago, newspapers carried a list of land properties along NH4/Tumkur road that could be acquired for the project. And today, one newspaper has an ad insert that says - "Navayuga Engineering Co. Ltd.

Deadly Roads of Bangalore

EnvironmentTraffic

Bangalore Accident Numbers
Bangalore is the third-most dangerous city in the country when it comes to traffic.

Total killed since 2001: 5631
Total injured since 2001: 46,926
Killed by BMTC buses since 2004: 366
Injured by BMTC buses since 2004: 1478
Killed by BMTC buses in the last 10 months: 97
Injured by BMTC buses in the last 10 months: 288

'Pre-Cast' Solution - Koramangala 100Ft Rd

Traffic
Now that solutions to traffic conflicts may be possible with underpasses using pre-cast arches, & after watching the Koramangala 100-ft rd video, I tried to see if I could find solution/s for the stretch from Sarjapur rd to 80 ft rd.

The problem is obviously that mainstream traffic on 100 ft road is interrupted & conflicts with local traffic moving from the western to the eastern sides of the road & vice-versa. Also, some of the mainstream traffic turns & moves to the east or west. So, this also needs to be addressed.
The situation is further complicated with limited spacing between these deviations. In less than a half km of the road stretch, there are two main roads that join on each side of the road.

ಆಟೋ ಲೇನ್ ಹೋಗಿ ಬಸ್ ಲೇನ್ ಬಂತು ಡುಂಡುಂ!!

TrafficBus

ಬಹಳ ದಿನಗಳಿಂದ ನಮ್ಮಲ್ಲಿ ಕೆಲವರು ಬಸ್ ಲೇನ್ ಬೇಕು, ಬಸ್ ಲೇನ್ ಬೇಕು ಅಂತ ಆಸೆ ಪಡ್ತಾ ಇದ್ವಲ್ಲ, ನಮ್ಮ ಕನಸು ಸಧ್ಯದಲ್ಲೇ ನನಸಾಗೋ ಹಾಗೆ ಕಾಣಿಸ್ತಾ ಇದೆ.

ಪ್ರಜಾವಾಣಿಯ ಈ ಸುದ್ದಿ ಪ್ರಕಾರ ಬಸ್ ಲೇನ್ ಗಳನ್ನ ಪ್ರಾಯೋಗಿಕವಾಗಿ ಪರೀಕ್ಷೆ ಮಾಡೋ ಆಲೋಚನೆ ಇದೆಯಂತೆ.

Stir over Sakrama

Agreed. Violators have rights. Right to protest government action, to appeal against penalty for their violations. Several residents associations in Bangalore have moved the court, seeking a stay on the Karnataka Sakrama scheme; which gives house-owners time till Dec.15 to 1) admit violation of municipal laws in their buildings; and 2) seek regularization on payment of penalty.

Widespread stir, public interest litigation, and a wait-and-watch attitude adopted by most house-owners raise a question mark on enforceablity of the scheme in its current form. Out of 2.1 lakh application forms sold in the state no more than 4,100 are reported have been have been filled and submitted to the authorities rill date. Deadline for filing applications expire on December 14.

Such large-scale non-compliance may well force the authorities to 1) extend deadline; and 2) re-work the scheme to make it more widely acceptable.

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