[Sebring]

Add to that, a planned cycle lane, and the problem gets magnified ten fold! God knows who does their planning. We desperately need another wide road, running parallel, few meters away

Originally Posted by Vid6639

The ORR bus lane implementation is a disaster

[osp]

Originally Posted by Sebring

We desperately need another wide road, running parallel, few meters away

I think in most places the areas around the ORR are already densely developed, although perhaps some of the already existing interior roads can be developed further to support a part of the traffic, esp those leading to some of the bigger property developments? Otherwise, as some of the others here have pointed out (and correctly, too) once offices reopen, traffic (and tempers) will hit the roof. Very soon.

[am1m]

Originally Posted by Sebring

We desperately need another wide road, running parallel, few meters away

Originally Posted by osp

I think in most places the areas around the ORR are already densely developed, although perhaps some of the already existing interior roads can be developed further to support a part of the traffic, esp those leading to some of the bigger property developments?

IMHO, if we use the roads we have the way they are meant to and instill strict traffic discipline by driver education, making the license process stricter, and with very strict, instant traffic penalties, I think the roads we have all over Bangalore are more than enough.

Just taking the main road near my place, we'll get much more space for vehicular movement simply by banning parking on one side. The inside roads will free up automatically if people planned to park cars inside their homes instead of on the roads all the time.

Any given time half the width of several roads are inaccessible because of BWSSB, BESCOM, BBMP, Reliance, Airtel, BMRCL, NHAI, et al. digging and potholes.

But a new road or road widening is much more lucrative for governments and their contractor pals.

[osp]

Originally Posted by am1m

The inside roads will free up automatically if people planned to park cars inside their homes instead of on the roads all the time.

Any given time half the width of several roads are inaccessible because of BWSSB, BESCOM, BBMP, Reliance, Airtel, BMRCL, NHAI, et al. digging and potholes.

Once had the main road leading up to the layout dug up for 2-3 days, and that being the *only* road in or out, all cars of the layout stuck inside or outside (wherever they were before the digging started) stay put where they were. At least the ones outside were better off, they could walk back home after parking their cars; for the rest, forced lockdown !

[balenoed_]

Look what is coming up on ORR (at some small stretches here and there):

Any idea how exactly this is different from the other ones in terms of serving a purpose (not the pockets of xx ).



Man, now this is going to be dangerous too. These are solid ones.

[anandhsub]

Originally Posted by balenoed_

Look what is coming up on ORR (at some small stretches here and there):

Any idea how exactly this is different from the other ones in terms of serving a purpose (not the pockets of xx ).

May be to prevent bikers from zigzagging? Although given the speeds they generally travel at haven't seen many do that.
Or is it to prevent people from crossing the road? I see even the service road is barricaded here. May be this is a second line of defense?

[balenoed_]

Okay, I got some clues here on that heavy barricades.

People in this part of the city; Coming from Chinnappanahalli railway cross > Jeevika Hospital right to enter the ORR - Watch out, the U-turn at the Karthik Nagar bus stop to join the ORR is closed.



You need to further drive on the service road into the layout and take a sharp U-turn, and that is where you see these new barricades. Probably they wanted to make the bus lane separator a little solid, hence replaced with the other pole model at this stretch. However, this u-turn is sharp.



Also not sure, if this was intended and planned for U-turn. Looking the way the divider is built, it looks like a one way to exit the ORR. But then there is no other way to enter ORR and go towards KR Puram. (Except go all the way to Marathahalli bridge and take U-turn)

All looks good as long as Covid is around. These won't stand a chance when all our guys are back on road.

[nagarjun]

On the same ISRO junction I saw a problem with these barricades first hand. I was driving down from Marathahalli towards KRPuram and a truck was trying to take a U-Turn at this junction and it required 3 or 4 iterations and traffic piled up quite a bit on a Covid Sunday evening. I am waiting for the day when the ORR is open completely and all hell to break lose. Only then authorities will realize their mistake and remove these stupid contraptions.

I may sound pessimistic against the Bus lane, but i feel its the most ill planned initiative in Bangalore, given that the metro construction is also about to start.

[LonelyPlanet]

The bus lanes are empty (for obvious reasons that people want to avoid public transport if they can afford it)
The middle lane is now occupied mainly by 2 wheelers.
The right lanes are now occupied by slow moving HCVs.

If and when life returns on Bangalore roads, brace for multiple accidents which will further create issues on the road.

What an ill conceived plan !!

[yogie]

Originally Posted by Sebring

Add to that, a planned cycle lane, and the problem gets magnified ten fold!

i think the bicycle lane is planned on the service road and not on the main outer ring road. So, the bicycle lanes should be ok.

Originally Posted by am1m

IMHO, if we use the roads we have the way they are meant to and instill strict traffic discipline by driver education, making the license process stricter, and with very strict, instant traffic penalties, I think the roads we have all over Bangalore are more than enough.


Just taking the main road near my place, we'll get much more space for vehicular movement simply by banning parking on one side.
But a new road or road widening is much more lucrative for governments and their contractor pals.

@am1m, I agree. If only getting a DL was harder, it would have eased a lot of traffic problem.
IMO, the parking on road problem is mainly due to BBMP's planning (i.e. having shops right at the edge of road. So, visitors to shop need to park in front of the shop and reduce road space. BBMP should not be allowing shops on service roads and at junctions and should have a setback from the road to allow parking for shoppers. Near my house, all double roads have actually become single lane in each direction.

Originally Posted by LonelyPlanet

The middle lane is now occupied mainly by 2 wheelers.
The right lanes are now occupied by slow moving HCVs.
What an ill conceived plan !!

Originally Posted by NPV

Very true, the usable width and lanes for non-bus traffic is very less and even with sparse traffic, it ends up drastically slowing down the movement of vehicles.

@LonelyPlanet and @NPV, I agree, it has become so slower driving on the outer ring road. One lane is reserved for bus, the middle lane is used by 2 wheelers, and cars have to use the right most lane. It gets very frustrating to get stuck behind a slow moving vehicle because it gets difficult to safely overtake.

@LonelyPlanet: It is an ill conceived plan. But i guess this is the most practical and least time consuming version of a proper BRTS. Although other road user are inconvenienced, bus travellers will definitely have some benefit.
Only time will tell how successful this system is.

Earlier, somebody had remarked that is difficult to take a U-turn. I had to skip to U-turns and change my route because of difficulty in making a U-turn.

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by LonelyPlanet

The bus lanes are empty (for obvious reasons that people want to avoid public transport if they can afford it)
The middle lane is now occupied mainly by 2 wheelers.
The right lanes are now occupied by slow moving HCVs.

If and when life returns on Bangalore roads, brace for multiple accidents which will further create issues on the road.

What an ill conceived plan !!

Of course, this thing is not staying for long. Yesterday I had to make a trip to office and returned via the ORR and I chose to take the Ninja out. They have blocked many service road exits due to this bus lane. I joined ORR near ISRO junction and had to use the bus lane since there was no chance to enter the regular lanes. I could only do it close to Marathahalli exit of ORR. Then I continued on the main lane for a while and it was pretty smooth till Ecospace. After this, things got worse. The road has heavy vehicles and cars trying to overtake them. Sometimes there are two CVs side by side. In between this, two wheelers dont have a safe passage and it will either annoy the four wheelers when they take up the space, or if the two wheelers stick close to the bollards, there is hardly any space for a two wheeler. I was managing to maintain the general pace of the road on my bike.

Between Bellandur flyover and Iblur since the traffic density got highest, it became unbearable. I was not able to overtake, not keep my space on the road. At one point, a car almost pushed me to the bollards while he tried to overtake a tempo. After this it blew my fuse and I switched to the empty bus lane. There was not a single bus ahead or behind and I happily used this lane on the Iblur flyover as well as HSR layout flyovers. I really dont know who makes such plans, though to the general public the idea of bus lane, pro-public transport, environment friendly sounds exciting, this is definitely not the right way to implement it And as usual, there were buses which were not on the bus lane and stopping right outside it. Wait till someone gets to know these bollards are pretty flexible, and they will start getting demolished in no time.

[airbus]

Autos and Two wheeler are taking wrong side of the road on Swami Vivekananda Road at NGEF junction. This is a regular sight here, whenever traffic cops are not present

[anandhsub]

Originally Posted by airbus

Autos and Two wheeler are taking wrong side of the road on Swami Vivekananda Road at NGEF junction. This is a regular sight here, whenever traffic cops are not present

I think wrong side driving has increased a lot despite the low traffic on road.

Today I was taking a right from itpl main road at hoodi junction towards Graphite India and I literally stopped the car and was about to reverse back after turning right because I thought this had been made 2-way again given the number of vehicles coming on the wrong side. Thankfully other vehicles followed me and gestured to move on. I even saw a bus taking an non existent u turn.

[am1m]

Originally Posted by yogie

IMO, the parking on road problem is mainly due to BBMP's planning (i.e. having shops right at the edge of road. So, visitors to shop need to park in front of the shop and reduce road space.

That is certainly true of the bottlenecks on main roads. However in the case of most internal roads, I don't think it is fair to blame the government entirely. Yes the authorities are at fault for not planning the overall growth of the city better, but in neighborhoods like mine, a lot of home owners have 'redeveloped' their homes to include 2-3 extra floors and given those out on rent. When the original plot itself was too small and badly planned to include a car park, so where do these new tenants park their vehicles?! On the road of course!

(And these are very same fellow-Bangaloreans who will blame 'outsiders' for Bangalore's problems- traffic, water or otherwise! )

Anyway, one silver lining in the huge, dark, covid-cloud is that Cubbon Park which was closed during the lockdown and is still shut for vehicles may finally return to becoming vehicle-free, the way it was a long time ago. A very welcome move I think!

[Rahul_]

Icing on the cake :
If you thought only the red pillars of the bus lane would be a pain going ahead - brace yourself for the new one.
I happened to drive on the outer ring road after a week or so; I was taken aback by multiple exits to the service lane blocked on the Iblur to KR puram stretch.

There were two entries to the service lane previous to croma between martahalli and kadubesnahalli(opposite police station). I thought I would take the second exit to go to Panathur only to find it blocked. So proceeded ahead - observed the new horizon exit before ETV is also sealed now. I moved on and took a U-Turn under the intel flyover. I found that they are also closing the exit before the Kadubisnahalli underpass. Fortunately, one block was missing, and I carefully could exit out of ORR for yesterday, but I can only imagine the mess this would create going further.