Bengaluru: Traffic congestion

              I have lived for many years in a area -ISRO layout which is probably one of the most peaceful/quiet/serene residential  areas  in bangalore . A few factors which has helped it  to remain so is good planning - wide road, enough lung spaces , and also as pointed above shops have only come up in one road near bus stand. However, I believe traffic congestion is still a real possibility because the situation in our colony is no different from other residential layouts of  past like Jayanagar.

          I believe commercialization is driven by simple economics of demand. A shopkeeper will open a shop only if there are enough customers. As in the case in my colony, the shops have opened up near bus stand because that is where the maximum number of people can be found. So, this residential-commercial segregation happens quite naturally. Now, the interesting question is how this balance is broken.

           Most of the times what happens is that new colonies spring up and they don’t have any access roads to important corridors independently. .So, they start using the roads of the existing colonies. Suddenly, traffic starts entering these colonies from many ends. More traffic ->more visibility->more commercialization.

            So, in finding answers to this problem we need to first think of how to make people use fewer roads to get to arterial roads/corridor roads. By forcibly marking some land as commercial and some not would just not work in our country. People will find ways to circumvent the laws. The best way is to make some areas not attractive for commercialization!

ssheragu

I am not saying that one road having shops for essentials like medicine, vegetables, milk etc. is a must; even fact I would definitely prefer shopping complexes (many in number) for each residential area catering to the essential needs of the public; this is the policy adopted in Canada where shops allalomg the length of the streets are seen only on downtown area; near residential areas you have only SAFEWAY, BAY DAY etc. catering to the essential requirements of the public;

also the problems due to lack of segregation of residential and commercial areas is aggravated by lack of parking space;

many thanks

Srinath Heragu

ssheragu

The main reason for traffic congestion in Bangalore or for that matter any place in the world is lack of strict segregation of areas into residential areas and commmercial areas; rather areas may be segregated to start with but later beacuse of lack of strict implementation of segregation, they become chaotic; take for example Indirangar; twenty years back when it started as a purely residential colony, there were only houses and living in Indirangar was a pleasure; but down the years, there is rampant commercialsation with shops, hotels, hospitals etc. mushrooming on every road along with residential houses; thus every road or street has become a traffic mess;

in contrast one can seen DRDO Complex in CV Raman Nagar adjacent to Indiranagar; though there are about 1000 houses in this small colony, there is no traffic jam even one  a single day, as all the shops have been located in a shopping complex within the center of DRDO Complex;

if this practice is followed everywhere, then there will not be any traffic jams in residential areas and living (sleeping, studying, enjoying) will be excellent and everyone can have a good family life;

I would suggest that typically for any residential area, for every 10 roads, one road can be identified which will house only shops for essentials like vegetables, medicine, etc. (this road should be wide enough to accommodate the traffic and have lot of parking space on either side); alternately, for every residential area, not one but many shopping complexes can be constructed which will have wide & huge parking spaces and will house all the shops

if this suggestion, is implemented, then most of the traffic problems will be solved

many thanks

Srinath Heragu