Parking vs pedestrians - What about Brigade Road?

I logged in to post about this same thing, as per TOI report, there are 85 car park spots, and the "empty spot indicator" system will cost Rs 35 lakh or upwards.

I rarely go to that side of town, is it true that no buses ply on this stretch of brigade road? On one hand, we want to popularize Hop on Hop off, Blue line etc services, and on other hand, we are investing in parking facilities right on top of this road in the downtown?

How much is the parking fee here? What responsibility has the shopkeeper association of this area shown so far to promote public transport? When this road was seeing rapid reconstruction (late 90s onwards and early 2000s), why did the renovated fancy buildings not include provision for parking in their basements?

With Big10 and Hop on Hop off buses, at least going to this shopping district is really easy. I mean REALLY EASY. Investing in parking is not going to send any right signals.

Absolutely.

I too cannot fathom why they are going in for "Parking Space Availability Indicators" when we already have Big-10s touching right upto St.Patricks, Brigade road. I had stated many times earlier too that Brigade rd must be pedestrianized between War memorial & Cauvery emporium. The upcoming Metro station is also going to be extremely convenient for Brigade road shoppers.

Best way forward would be to make the whole of Brigade Road/MG Road/Commercial St. and surrounding regions parking free. If implemented in bits and pieces the parking will spill over to surrounding regions.

One workable solution is to connect parking zones and these areas with HOHO/KS type services. The TTMCs at Shantinagar and Shivajinagar can serve as parking zones.

Actually the current HOHO service does this - but it is not advertised well.

That way vehicles entry these regions will reduce and also congestion caused because of parking on these roads can be avoided.

And for BMTC not only will it increase ridership - it can also earn more money from parking fees in these TTMCs.

There is a lot of opposition to such plans from the traders on these roads, they feel that these steps might affect their revenues - which i dont think is justified.

We know historical parade ground will be lying vacant 24X7 except for two or three days in a year.  In the present days of paucity of space for human usage,  whether it would be worth keeping idle such valuable space needs to be considered seriously.  Parades can be held in front of Vidhana/Vikaasa Soudhas on Dr.Ambedkar Veedhi.

Suggestions for alternate use of Parade Grounds -

Extend Cariappa Garden,

plant as many carbon absorbing saplings as also varieties that yield nectar, flowers, fruits, seeds and herbal and aromatic plants to act as Carbon Sink to this part of CBD and to act as a source of food chain for birds, bees, butterflies, insects whose habitats/trees have been destroyed along the bund of MG Road for METRO.  

In a portion towards officers mess, construct underground parking with PPP,

On top of that, create a hanging gardens

Such main garden to contain and decorated with artworks from stone, wood with shaded greens

In a corner, provide space for artists/budding artists to express their painting skills anytime, anyday and also to sell their art works by paying a certain percentage to the authorities who will be handling a PPP model of parking facility. 

Provide a small open air stage for performing artists like folk dance, singing etc. Rural artists may be invited to perform every day evenings for fixed hours since a lot of foreigners / floating population will be moving along in that part of CBD.  These will be like value added shopping experience and also help artists, folk artists, tourism etc.  It could be a win win situation.

BUT PLEASE, PLEASE, NO CONCRETE ABOVE THE GROUND. 

-Vasanthkumar Mysoremath  

@RS,

I agree with this point of yours.

"I think we have had a similar discussion some time ago - though as always its never clear where these discussions go. Commenting on Praja is basically speaking to the converted...."

I have done some ground work in Commercial St.

We have a collection of factors that make Commercial St. the ideal choice to have Bangalore's first vehicle-free street.
1. The shoppers want it.
2. The shop owners want it.
3. It is a destination in itself, not a thoroughfare.

There could be a lot of benefits for the city in terms of changing its automobile-addicted culture. We might see some or all of these happening.
1. Get people used to the idea of an automobile-free area.
2. In time they will hopefully get addicted to the idea, and demand it in other localities
3. They will realize the harm that over-dependence on private automobiles is doing to them and to the city.
4. Acceptance of public transport will rise, resulting in reduction in use of private transport.

About 20,000 people visit Commercial St. every day on an average, and these happen to be users of private vehicles. The educational value of implementing this project is therefore huge.

What we need is a small group of people to work consistently on converting this street to pedestrian-only. Let's stop wasting electrons on this issue and get working on it.

Any volunteers willing to join the group ? I hereby volunteer.

Shop owners association - I have spoken to the head of the association. They are already sold on the idea.

BBMP - there will be road alterations and street furniture. We need to get their cooperation.
Traffic Police - the ADGP traffic is already in favour of increasing pedestrianization, so cooperation should not be a problem.
BMTC - Should see how Comm. St. can be part of the KS network, connecting nearby parking spaces to the street.

An extremely important thing is to involve the Shopkeepers Association every step of the way. Ideally they should spearhead the project, we do the facilitation and coordination.

The association already has a detailed pedestrian-only street plan made from last time (5 years ago), with street furniture, etc. Was done pro-bono by a prominent architects firm. This can be starting point, maybe the same firm can make an updated plan.

Let's form the group, then start by meeting the Shop owners association first.

I can lead, but have no contacts in the various government bodies. It would be ideal if we can get on board some Praja people with the contacts - BBMP, Police, BMTC.

Das sir,

It is excellent that the shop owner's association is with you.  Any project like this needs to be a win-win for all concerned. 

We had a similar situation in our apartment where we wanted to make the front driveway a no drive zone.  Initially lots of resistance.  But we suggested a 2 hr time in the evening when children used to play a lot as a pilot project. Now we have a 24hr no-drive zone.

So maybe you work with the shop-owners to start this on say one or two weekends maybe a month from now and learn from it.  What has been the shopkeepers' experience?  What about car owners?  Shoppers?  Where are the difficulties?  Doing it as a pilot gives people the confidence that if things go wrong we can go back to the good/bad old days.  if business goes up then it is a success story for many other parts of Bangalore.

Srivathsa

I think the original idea was 'park and ride' - to enable people to come on their vehicles to Shivajinagar bus stand, park their vehicles there, then take the bus. Nobody used it, so it was rented out to HP.

Around 2002 (?) when I initially started cycling to work I couldn't do the whole 15 km. stretch (more of a mental block), so I used to actually be one of the rare 'park and ride' guys. Used to cycle up from my home in Sadashivanagar to Shivajinagar, park the cycle there, take the bus to my office in Jayanagar. On the way back I used to do the reverse. Worked beautifully till I developed the mental strength to cycle the whole way.

When our family goes to MG Road or Commercial St. nowadays we actually park the car in the Shivajinagar bus stand.

I used to notice the empty parking space in 2002, and notice the empty space now too.

It's also a matter of publicity. Very few people know about it. When we do the Commercial St. 'pedestrian-only' project this is one of the parking places that we must think of.

Das, spread across various members here on Praja, we have the contacts to reach BBMP, BMTC, Traffic Police. So far, they have all been readily accessible.

But let us reach them a bit later, first let us plan what we'd do, and interact with Shopowners association.

Let us do it Praja-style - use this website to plan and coordinate, and minimize on face to face meetings.

Let me create a project called "Pedestrianization in shopping areas". Commercial Street will be the first one. Perhaps Brigade road next, and Jaynagar 4th Block (Geeta Colony area) next :)

Right, will be there. 11 AM, LB West Gate. Orange color bicycle.

@silkboard,

Can you please create the project "Pedestrianization in shopping areas" ASAP ?

Also, should we postpone the meeting to late afternoon so Naveen can also be there ? May also make sense in case some of us get delayed by the voting.

@Naveen,

What time can you come ?

4 PM is OK with me.

How about the rest of the group ?