Why gridlocked Bengaluru must rethink its streets

Bengaluru, a city of about 14 million people, is poised to grow into a 20-million-plus metropolis within the next decade. As the city expands and rural-urban boundaries blur, the need for smart, responsive, and accountable transport systems that enable people to move safely, efficiently, and equitably has never been more urgent.

Bengaluru today has an estimated 12,800-km road network, including about 1,345 km of arterial and sub-arterial roads that form the backbone of its economy and daily life – connecting people to livelihoods, education, healthcare, and opportunity. A majority of Bengalureans walk at some point in their journeys, whether for the entire trip, the last mile to public transport, exercise, or everyday errands. On average, about 2,000 vehicles are registered in Bengaluru every day, with many of them occupying valuable street space as on-street parking.

Streets continue to house shops, vendors, and an active public life. However, the institutions and systems responsible for designing, operating, and maintaining this vast road network have not kept pace, struggling to manage escalating vehicle ownership, growing parking pressures, and increasingly complex patterns of street use.

The result is visible every day: frequent gridlock, unsafe conditions for pedestrians and cyclists, fragmented footpaths, and streets that fail to perform their most basic function – moving people reliably and creating a common space for belonging. These pressures will only intensify unless Bengaluru shifts from reactive fixes to institutionalised, system-level management of its road network. The challenge Bengaluru faces is not merely one of road capacity. It is a challenge of governance; of how public road space is treated, managed, and held accountable as a public asset. Addressing this requires strengthening three interlinked pillars: right-of-way (RoW), network design and management, and road asset management.

Streamlining the right of way

Often overlooked, but a critical component of mobility infrastructure is the right-of-way management. Streets are not just strips of asphalt; they are shared public spaces extending boundary to boundary, accommodating vehicles, pedestrians, cyclists, public transport, utilities, vendors, trees, and drainage infrastructure.

In Bengaluru today, RoW management is largely ad-hoc. Encroachments, parking spillover, and informal activities often erode space meant for walking and cycling. While traffic police manage vehicle movement on the carriageway, no single agency is responsible for the RoW end-to-end – from footpath continuity to regulating/monitoring activities within the corridor.

This gap has real consequences. Footpaths disappear, signals prioritise vehicles over pedestrians, and bus stops and crossings are poorly integrated. The city ends up managing traffic symptoms rather than street performance.

Recognising this, Bengaluru has begun to articulate better standards. The Namma Raste Kaipidi, adopted as a guiding manual by city agencies, provides practical guidance on street design, footpaths, junctions, and safety. We need RoW management to be institutionalised – with clear responsibility for protecting pedestrian space, coordinating utilities, enforcing encroachment norms, and maintaining service levels across the corridor.

Network design and management

Street networks should be designed and optimised to move people, vehicles and goods efficiently. Today, what we have is a set of isolated projects spanning roads, tunnels, and underpasses. Network design currently occurs only at the master planning stage when RoWs are earmarked on city peripheries.

What we need instead is a scientific, data-driven network analysis conducted at regular intervals – every five years, annually, or whenever major disruptions occur (such as large infrastructure works or significant road closures). This approach would allow the city to proactively manage mobility demand, ensure resilience, and optimise street performance in real time.

Cities need to address this through efficient network design and management; defining street hierarchies, arterial and sub-arterial roads, prioritising movement of people over vehicles, coordinating signals along corridors, and managing demand through pricing, parking, and access controls. There is a need to create an institution with responsibility for network design aligned with the objectives of safety, reliability, and equity.

Roads as life-long public assets

Roads must be treated as life-long public assets that are not only planned, funded, and developed but also systematically managed and maintained over their entire life cycle. A Road Asset Management System (RAMS) can help enable this shift. Such a system maintains a comprehensive inventory of every road corridor and its elements, including carriageways, footpaths, drainage, junctions, signage, and lighting – assigning each a condition rating, performance standard, and maintenance timeline over 10-20 years. Instead of quick fixes, the city must invest in preventive maintenance, drainage upkeep, pavement strength, and utility coordination so failures occur less frequently and cost less to fix.

Globally, cities that have adopted asset management approaches have demonstrated lower life-cycle costs, better service quality, and greater transparency. For Bengaluru, this approach also supports public transport, walking, and cycling, because the carriageway, footpath, drainage, and safety features are managed together rather than as disconnected works.

Tools exist to support this shift. With geospatial mapping, satellite imagery, OpenStreetMap data, and field surveys, a citywide road inventory can be created relatively quickly. What is missing is not technology, but institutional ownership and accountability to use this data consistently in budgeting and decision-making.

There are positive signs which indicate a turn in policy and practice. The newly established Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA), with its citywide mandate, is well-positioned to anchor a more integrated approach. Recent efforts to build in-house urban design and planning capacity signal the acknowledgement of issues and a willingness to address root causes and not just the symptoms. What remains is to tie these elements together through formal mandates, defined responsibilities, performance metrics, and, of course, collaboration.

(Madhav is CEO and Pawan is Executive Director – Integrated Transport, Clean Air and Hydrogen, Sustainable Cities Programme, at WRI India)