FM Cariappa Road

As I can remember, the biggest reason for the one ways which inturn led to signal on the flyover was the schools..

"Travelling distance may get longer, but the ride will be hassle-free. That’s what the traffic police say, as they gear up for the new one-way regulations on Richmond Road, Residency Road and surrounding areas from Saturday, December 11. These are the areas where a large number of schools and commercial establishments are located." - TOI 10th Dec 2004

Again on sept 01 2008, from TOI:

Principal of Bishop Cotton’s Girls School, Princess Franklyn, said, “We have six BMTC buses plying from various parts of the city and even from far off places to bring children safely to school. Many parents now do not come to drop their children which reduces the chaos in front of the school. Now only a few use private vehicles to commute.” But when asked if the problem of jammed roads has been solved completely, she said there still are hordes of vehicles parked right opposite the main school gate on Richmond road.

“We have not been able to keep a check on the private vans and autorickshaws that come to drop the children. It is mostly due to them that there are traffic jams during peak hours.

This is self admission that the jams are due to the schools! And just 6 busses ? shouldnt every child come by bus? isnt that better than the rickety autos? are the parents scared of BMTC reputation of knocking people down regularly?

However the other big reason was the then old airport..now that it has been shifted. We need to seriously relook at the traffic numbers now..and probably turn back some of the one ways into both ways!

Heaven is not as easy as that :).  There are buses coming down the flyover as well from jayanagar, etc and they have to take a sharp left to join the bus line.  They are the ones that add one extra lane to the bus stop.  Should they be forced to go under the flyover and join the road from the left?

Cars also tend to stop on the extreme right lane (Devatha Plaza complex).  Even one car standing (even with hazard lights on:)) renders that lane unusable. 

Moving on - this stretch is pure hell - Cash Pharmacy junction.  There are offices on the right + Konark.  Cars that want to take a right turn don't stay extreme right because of projecting manhole covers.  There is parking on the left (near Kyber?, Corporation building as well). 

Then more parking on the left past Joesph's college. The extreme right lane should be the one used for parking as vehicles don't use that lane much. That extreme right lane is useless as vehicles using that will have to cut left to join the stretch infront of Imperial talkies.

That brings us to the unholiest mess of them all.  Autos on the left waiting for girakis from Brigade Road.  Then the really narrow stretch from New Opera till Mayo Hall.

Srivathsa 

Fascinating stuff. I must admit, I have no knowledge what so ever of the road/flyover. And hence posting this with the risk of being completely wrong on this one. I have tried my best to understand everything said above by using google earth, but please feel free to correct me. Here goes -

1. The flyover is bifid at both its ends.
2. Its 1.5 as TS has pointed out elsewhere, hence its worth the authorities mull over how they could create a hard shoulder of a kind and streamline it.
3. The under-passes on either side are wide enough at certain points to have even 3 lanes. I have pointed out on the entropy post, the lanes can be 2.5m wide (2.7 preferrable).
4. The buses - one solution is to not let them run on the flyover and let them use the underpasses. Why are they doing atop anyway? Its not possible to have bus stops on top on such a long flyover.
5. But lets assume, we want to run express buses zooming along the elevated stretch moving briskly towards cash pharmacy.
6. Now the foot bridge as I can make out is not seen in the pics above, but as per the google earth image, I note is towards cash pahrmacy. Forget escalators, lifts, ramps - even the foot-bridge is an overkill (totally agree with these not being the solution as pointed by TS, plus its useless for elderly and disabled).

So what is the solution. I am expanding on some points made above already. For this I have taken the liberty to abuse the above picture further (copyright holder, please forgive).

Now here are some steps I am likely to take -

1. I will start with the basic premise of making the roads safe for all, pedestrians included. I note the problem is that a huge effort has been made by building this flyover to satisfy vehicle drivers alone. The goal seems to have been to try and get the traffic to move non-stop. This is a myth of a kind amongst our planners, because they only contribute to chaos further down at junctions such as cash pharmacy and beyond by sending a relentless stream of vehicles towards it.
2. To correct the above, I will first remove the railings (red circle) and restore the exit point of the flyover to its original state.
3. Next I will convert the flyover in to a single file of traffic (needs some thinking - but something similar to a hard shoulder is an option).
4. Then I will re-do the line markings on the road beyond the flyover and the underpasses - 2.5 to 2.7 meter width of each lane.
5. I will insert traffic lights at the 3 orange circles to control flow of traffic from each of the streams. This is vital because, in turns they can switch more smoothly in to left lane approaching cash pahrmacy. This makes it damn easy for buses too. Signals can be vehicle actuated rather than timer actuated to give priority to the stream with most inflow.
6. Traffic lights above automatically renders to pedestrian safety. As each stream in cycles is blocked, two CREAM coloured pedestrian refuges will suffice.
7. By optimising lane width, we create options to use the road width optimally. The brownish triangular area to the left bottom of the picture can become a parking space (paid parking, allowed for 20 minutes at a time or perhaps only a drop-off/pick up point or a rickshaw stand - anything that is felt useful can go here).
8. I will remove the extra width of the badly done footpath on the right (red triangualr area). This then can make way for a bus bay.

ASJ

PS: If this works, and the footbridge is wide enough I will convert it in to a hawking zone (why waste it).

Any movement on getting the above to authorities?