Easing Bangalore Traffic - Rocket Science? Hi all,
This thread would make sense to mostly Bangaloreans, but I am sure that all other BHPians will know what I am talking about. Over the past week or so, I have read in the news that the Bangalore Traffic Police are going hi-tech to solve the Bangalore traffic woes. First, all the traffic cops are to be given Blackberries. Then they decided to put up electronic billboards all over the city to update the people on the traffic situation on the major roads. And now, the traffic police has tied up with Airtel to provide traffic updates via SMS!! This surely has to be the joke of the year. The traffic police intends to determine the number of vehicles on a particular road by checking the number of Airtel users in that particular area!! As a friend pointed out, how can they differentiate between 60 Airtel users crammed into a BMTC and 4 Airtel users in 4 cars? It seems that the Bangalore traffic police has got its priorities all wrong.
I have been travelling from Domlur to my office in ITPL every weekday for the past year and I have some damning observations. I usually travel by Airport road, but I do take the Old Madras Road on the odd day. And I have come to the conclusion that 95% of the traffic jams are caused by having bus stops at major intersections. From Domlur to ITPL, I can list out the bus stops that create bottlenecks.
Domlur Signal - HAL Signal - Marathahalli Market - Marathahalli Bridge - Kunthanahalli Gate - AECS Layout - Graphite Circle (near Hyundai service center) - Vydhehi Hospital - Oracle office - ITPL
This about 10 out of the 14 bus stops on this route. In some cases, if there are 2 buses at a stop, instead of stopping one behind the other, they stop side by side and block the whole road. Shifting these bus stops to 50 to 100m before or after the major intersection and providing them with a proper bus bay would go a long way to reducing a chunk of jams and bottlenecks. And most importantly, the BMTC bus drivers must be trained to stop at the designated stops and to use the bus bays properly. I have seen only one bus stop in Bangalore with a dedicated bus bay, in Halsoor. The bus drivers drive as if they are having the most important race of their lives and that reaching the next jam before the other bus brings them the ultimate glory.
Also, the blantant corruption by the traffic cops must stop. Before I came to Bangalore, I have seen most the bribing being done in hush-hush tones and usually very discretely. But here in Bangalore, the cops don't give a damn how many people witness them taking a bribe. When I was waiting for my company transport at Domlur signal, a cop had flagged down a Tata 407. The vehicle didnt even come to a complete halt. Before that, the guy sitting in the passenger side stuck out his hand and gave the cop a 20 rupee note and the vehicle continued on its way. The people at the bus stop first looked at each other in amazement and then broke into laughter at this incident! Another example of the corruption by the cops can be frequently witnessed at the HAL signal. This is where the private buses to places like Kadugodi and Hoskote originate. During peak traffic hours, these buses just park at the signal and wait for passengers. The cops at the signal just go over and collect about 20 rupees from the driver. Now, the driver can wait there for another 10 minutes and get a few more passengers. So it's a win-win situation for both. But who are the losers? The people stuck in the traffic jam due to the bottleneck caused by this bus!!
Things aren't messed up just on the Airport Road alone..... I do travel by Old Madras Road. Here too, the traffic jams can be avoided easily in most places, except for the railway track crossing. Most of the time, the road under the KR Puram cable bridge is jammed. The reason for this is the same. Bus stop at a major intersection. However, there is the additional problem of the people going into or coming out of the KR Puram railway station. You can almost always find a bunch of 5 or 6 poeple stranded in the middle of the road, trying to dodge the traffic. I know the solution is slightly more expensive in this case, but in addition to shifting the bus stop, the authorities could also build a pedestrian bridge here. And there are traffic jams on the road from KR Puram to ITPL because of huge container trucks parked on the side. I don't think any cop gives a damn about this.
Since I travel by these two roads frequently, I know the problems here and how it can be resolved to a certain extent. I am sure most of you who travel frequently by other routes also might have noticed similar issues. But what I don't understand is why our so-called authorites spend lakhs of rupees on getting experts to study our traffic problems and how to resolve them. (I read this too in a newspaper article, that they are bringing in a traffic consulting expert from some European country)
So at the end of the day, are the Blackberries being handed out to the cops going to solve our traffic issues? No. It is just a gimmick to divert the attention from reality.... that they aren't doing anything useful.
Is Airtel trying to count the number of users in a particular area doing us any good? No. They just want to get the public to SMS them at a premium rate and get an additional source of income in the same way they get millions from KBC.
Are the messages being displayed on the electronic billboards about traffic jams going to help us in anyway? No, but trying to avoid jams from occuring will.
This now brings me back to the title of this thread. Is easing Bangalore's traffic woes rocket science? A firm NO!!! If a casual traveller like me can note all these drawbacks and point out possible solutions, I see no reason why the so-called experts can't do it! |