JOIN USPersonal cars, SUVs and two-wheelers are all over Bangalore roads. Ask any Bangalorean travelling in their own vehicle why they don’t take the public transport buses instead, and they talk about the lack of last mile connectivity, frequency and high cost of AC buses. But there is also a rising number of people who have realised the benefits of taking that BMTC bus: Safety, comfort and yes, fuel saved. Here’s a closer look at the pulse of the Bangalore commuter.
Niraj Kumar, a resident of Hennur, has not travelled by bus even once ever since he purchased a four wheeler, two years back. “Having an own vehicle is always good as you do not need to wait for the buses and avoid heated arguments with the autorickshaw drivers. But there are times when I get frustrated waiting in the middle of the road and despite continuous honking, no vehicles budge. But life has been much easy after buying a car,” says Kumar.
There are a few, however, who continue to travel by bus in spite of owning a bike or car. Roopika G, a software engineer working in a private company near Indian Express junction, says: “I got a new bike a year back and used to ride but then I developed backache after three months. Now I am traveling by bus as I feel it’s safe and comfortable. The growing traffic and reports of accidents everyday scares me. Also, it’s no more affordable to ride a bike or car due to fluctuating diesel and petrol prices.”
‘You may find a match for marriage but you will never find a parking space in Bangalore’ is what one signboard in Indiranagar quipped.
The message in a way sums up the increasing problem of traffic congestion and lack of space in the city. “Forget about parking, there is no space on the road,” points out Deepak. For someone who has stayed in Bangalore his whole life, the change on the roads is even more glaring. “Earlier even on normal days with traffic, it hardly took me 40 minutes to go from Basavanagudi where I stay to my friend’s place in Lingarajapuram. Now however the journey takes more than an hour,” he says.
In a car, however, the situation is far worse, according to Deepak. ”Although the traffic congestion is bad, what makes it even worse is the indiscipline on the road. It is as if there are no rules and people drive the way they like.” He has had a number of fights on the road due to people breaking the traffic rules and hitting his vehicle.
Mohammed Rashid Ali, who works in the finance sector, owns a bike but prefers taking the office cab as it is far convenient. “A lot of energy is saved when you take the office cab. In fact, a number of my friends do the same thing. No one wants to get stuck in traffic during the peak hours. It’s a nightmare,” he explains. A resident of Bangalore for the past eight years, Rashid has experienced the traffic scene get from bad to worse.
However, car pooling or car sharing, where more than one person can travel by one car thereby reducing the travel and fuel costs, seems to have very less followers in the city. An IT professional, Seema Bansal, was looking out for female carpoolers to share a car ride from C V Raman Nagar to ITPL Whitefield and had even posted her advertisement on a website but did not get any takers, unfortunately. She says: “The concept of car pooling is yet to catch up here. Most of them do not even know about it. It should be highlighted and awareness needs to be created among the public.”
MOHAMMED RASHID ALI
Resident, JP Nagar
“About five years back, I bought my bike for convenience in commuting. However, that was a bad decision, since I soon found out that due to the constant travelling and being exposed to pollution and dust, I had developed asthma.”
SOME WAYS TO
get out of the traffic mess
IMPROVING PEOPLE MOBILITY
Upgrading of footpaths, pavements and development of cycle paths could encourage people to walk that last mile from their houses to the nearest bus stops, thereby minimising use of personal vehicles. Major budgetary allocations will have to be made towards development of such people mobility utilities on all the roads.
BOOSTING PUBLIC TRANSPORT
Redoubling efforts to make public transport, both road and rail-based, more efficient, modern and affordable could be a sureshot way of decongesting traffic. Bus bays, bus stops with real-time information on frequency, routes and GPS-based location maps could make public transport attractive to the car and bike-users.
DEVELOPING COMMUTER RAIL
The City’s existing railway infrastructure could be developed with more stations, for a commuter rail service that can take people from the City’s core to the outskirts and beyond. Frequency of trains could be increased between the City and Ramanagara, Tumkur, Hosur, Whitefield, Anekal and other areas by doubling the lines.
STREAMLINING PARKING
A complete overhaul of the vehicle parking system in the City could trigger a sea change on the roads. Once free parking is banned and charges are made variable based on the density of vehicles and the needs, the current menace of haphazard parking encroaching into road space can be addressed.
INTEGRATED MULTI-MODAL MASS TRANSPORT SYSTEM
This system, proposed by RITES involved the integration of the Metro, Light Metro, Bus Rapid Transport, Suburban Commuter Rail and a High Speed Rail Link. Under this, the balance traffic could be carried by a road system catering to the needs of the normal bus system, two-wheelers, cars, bicycles, trucks and pedestrians.
ENHANCING ROAD INFRA
Building scientifically planned grade separators can enhance the infrastructure for smoother traffic flow. New roads, flyovers, signal-free corridors and road-widening projects can work if designed smartly and in coordination with all the civic and transport agencies concerned.
There is no dearth of strategies proposed by agencies such as the Centre for infrastructure, Sustainable Transportation and Urban Planning (CiSTUP), RITES, an engineering consultancy firm specialised in transport infrastructure, and the city traffic police, to tackle the seemingly insurmountable traffic mess of Bangalore’s roads. Here’s a glimpse of the possible solutions on offer.