[Mad Max]

The following is from today's Times of India Bangalore edition.

Let us be the solution



We need out-of-the-box ideas to fix Bangalore’s connectivity problems


Sujit John | TNN




Our Lead India campaign had a telling line: You are not stuck in a traffic jam; you are the traffic jam. And as we move into our Unlock Bangalore campaign, this powerful line becomes even more relevant.
It’s a stirring call to action. Most of us use our personal vehicles to commute. Over the years, as Bangalore’s business boomed, so has its personal vehicle numbers. In 1982, cars and two-wheelers accounted for less than 16% of vehicles. In 2006, it was over 40%, and is likely to go up further.
In other words, we are just as responsible for traffic jams as anybody else. Therefore, we have an equal responsibility to do something about it. Not as armchair critics, but as active participants in finding solutions to the gargantuan problem the city has on its hands.
At one level, some solutions are self-evident. We need more fixed infrastructure — roads, flyovers, underpasses, elevated tolled expressways. We need the Metro Rail. We need a comfortable and dependable bus service. Pedestrians have been getting a particularly raw deal, so we need good pedestrian infrastructure.
Over the next three weeks, these issues will be taken up again, as we have done many times in the past. But this time, we’d like you to flood us with your suggestions, and together with TOI, put unrelenting pressure on corporators, bureaucrats and politicians, whose responsibility it is to implement the suggestions.
We’d like you to think out of the box. If Transferable Development Rights (TDR) don’t work, is there some other way we can go about widening our roads? Can we think of elevated tolled roads within the city? If so, how much are we willing to pay for those roads? If we can’t have toll roads, are there alternative ways to finance them? Resource constraints are only in the minds of bureaucrats and politicians. Surely, there are innovative ways in which the required resources can be raised for projects that must urgently be finished. We have some of the best engineers in the world. So, can we think of a much-faster roll-out of the Metro network?
But we must realize that since we are part of the problem, we need to make changes in the way we use and behave on the road. Can we think of leaving behind our cars — which occupy an unreasonable amount of space on the road for what is often a single passenger — and get into a bus for at least some of our commutes? Voluntary car pooling efforts haven’t met with much success. So, can we think of mandating car pooling?
Our traffic violation fines are so abysmally low that many do not care a hoot about being fined. And are, therefore, equally unconcerned about violating rules. Can we think of sharply increasing the fines, to the punishing levels worldwide?
Can we think of becoming a truly global city? Our lamentable road and transport infrastructure has reached such a deplorable level that it’s beginning to hit the city’s business growth. We need to change that. Collectively.

I feel that a large e-community like us can make some impact on this. Is there any way our Admins / Mods can plan something to help ToI and Bangalore? I bet there are quite a few of us here bursting with ideas.