City had 1 lakh vehicles in 1976; 1,822 pc more now!

Rising vehicle Nos, poor road engineering trigger accidents

Bengaluru’s vehicular population touched the one lakh mark in 1976. This was a good starting point to measure how much the traffic had grown over the last three decades. But the City traffic police were startled by the 2013 figures: Driven by an unprecedented influx of people from across the country, the vehicle numbers had grown by a mind-boggling 1,822 per cent!

This explosive growth also meant the cases of accidents triggered by collisions, reckless driving, drunken driving and poor road conditions would also grow.

A recent study has now established that the accident numbers that were a mere 651 in 1965, rose to an alarming 10,505 in 2003 before settling around 5,000 by 2014.

Citing the City’s poor road engineering and network as a major cause for accidents, the study zeroed in on a critical contributing factor: The exceedingly large number of intersections in Bengaluru’s road network.

The City has about 44,000 intersections, of which more than 350 are signalized. “It is evident that intersection areas contribute to conflict between vehicles.”

No scientific planning
The study found a clear lack of scientific planning in the City’s road engineering. “Road condition, besides the natural characteristics of the road itself, was found to be affecting safety in various ways. Carriageway width has been found to be consistently inadequate in comparison to the traffic volumes at most accident blackspots,” the study noted.

Due to the nature of the road layout, the carriageway was often found to narrow unduly at entry points of intersections. “There is also a strong inadequacy in terms of the carriageway not being divided. Even where it is divided, absence of a raised median has contributed to accidents.”

During the study, many roads were identified with breaks and openings at several places. This was ostensibly to cater to commercial outlets and fuel outlets. “These have led to abrupt stoppages and turns by vehicles, leading to serious accidents.”

Inadequate turning radii, consistently associated with intersections was another factor associated with accidents. Besides dangerous pot-holes, poor sight distances and obstructions to sight due to trees and poles were other reasons that led to often fatal accidents.