Rants on Bangalore's traffic situation

[ajmat]

Yesterday, I drove from airport to Indiranagar via ORR from Hebbal. Believe me, it was crowded but traffic flowed without any issue. I turned off before the KR Puram flyover. Main grouse is that there are no signs to indicate when to turn off!

[ambivalent_98]

If memory serves right wasn't "signal free" supposedly to be implemented from Airport to E-City which would include the major chunk of ORR which is heavily used.
I think the government is trying to ballet before it can walk (saying run before walk would be too ridiculous).
The existing traffic situation is so bad that even if the administration woke up and made good roads lots of problems would get resolved. There have been umpteen examples where smoother roads have made traffic move so much faster. They can just tar the roads properly and many traffic jams would get resolved on their own.
By the way who would implement the "signal free" ? BBMP or NHAI ?

[Acharya]

Bangalore has hardly seen new roads in last 4-5 years (except for few elevated roads), there are so many options which could ease up traffic if govt is serious about bringing some respite to Bangalore's commuters. For example - the whole mess on marathalli/Kadugodi can be easily solved by creating a new road from outer ring road (near rainbow hospital) to the entry of EPIP in whitefield. Yes, few properties will have to give way but that's a small price for a larger public good.

Wish, someone in govt has sense to think on these lines.

[Rajeevraj]

Originally Posted by ambivalent_98

If memory serves right wasn't "signal free" supposedly to be implemented from Airport to E-City which would include the major chunk of ORR which is heavily used.

Technically speaking, this stretch is almost signal free. . There is one small signal just after you leave the Airport, then you can come all the way till Mahadevpura-Total for the next signal, and then all the way till after HSR for the next small one. Free left at Silk Board and take the BETL, you are at EC-Mostly Signal Free.

Of course, whether you can actually drive the stretch without stopping/blocks/jams is a completely different discussion

[suresh_gs]

Call it apathy on part of the state govt, KA is loosing money on tourism when compared to
other states. Reason being poor infrastructure, roads..

http://www.bangaloremirror.com/news/.../48104771.cms?

[ambivalent_98]

Originally Posted by Rajeevraj

Technically speaking, this stretch is almost signal free. . There is one small signal just after you leave the Airport, then you can come all the way till Mahadevpura-Total for the next signal, and then all the way till after HSR for the next small one. Free left at Silk Board and take the BETL, you are at EC-Mostly Signal Free.

Of course, whether you can actually drive the stretch without stopping/blocks/jams is a completely different discussion

Agree on that buddy. With stoppages without signals at Manyata , Ecospace and the tech-park before Sarjapur it is technically signal free. So for the administration.
I really feel that the top bureaucrats should drive in disguise and face the problems that commoners like you and me and many many others face. Maybe then they will wake up.
Getting a little philosophical a person that is sleeping can be woken , but one who pretends cannot. Looks like the latter is true for Bangalore. Is there no hope ?

[suresh_gs]

Originally Posted by ambivalent_98

Agree on that buddy. With stoppages without signals at Manyata , Ecospace and the tech-park before Sarjapur it is technically signal free. So for the administration.
I really feel that the top bureaucrats should drive in disguise and face the problems that commoners like you and me and many many others face. Maybe then they will wake up.
Getting a little philosophical a person that is sleeping can be woken , but one who pretends cannot. Looks like the latter is true for Bangalore. Is there no hope ?

I feel at the time of constructing the Madiwala flyover the authorities should have planned to have a similar one connecting HSR and BTM so that the jam that we see at silk board any time of the day would have reduced drastically. But then some alternative had to be thought of to tackle the drain that flows across the silk board junction to Madiwala.

[kiran_cr]

Originally Posted by suresh_gs

I feel at the time of constructing the Madiwala flyover the authorities should have planned to have a similar one connecting HSR and BTM so that the jam that we see at silk board any time of the day would have reduced drastically. But then some alternative had to be thought of to tackle the drain that flows across the silk board junction to Madiwala.

A cloverleaf interchange similar to kathipara interchange in chennai will definitely solve the issue. But will city planners wake up and plan is the million dollar question.

[JD1]

Originally Posted by suresh_gs

I feel at the time of constructing the Madiwala flyover the authorities should have planned to have a similar one connecting HSR and BTM so that the jam that we see at silk board any time of the day would have reduced drastically. But then some alternative had to be thought of to tackle the drain that flows across the silk board junction to Madiwala.

I think about this all the time when I am at Silk Board waiting to get from HSR to BTM but then the underpass wouldn't have helped much as one gets stuck in BTM at 29th Main and 16th Main signals so not much help. The underpass would have definitely helped travel from BTM towards HSR.

[ambivalent_98]

Originally Posted by suresh_gs

I feel at the time of constructing the Madiwala flyover the authorities should have planned to have a similar one connecting HSR and BTM so that the jam that we see at silk board any time of the day would have reduced drastically. But then some alternative had to be thought of to tackle the drain that flows across the silk board junction to Madiwala.

Valid point but then now rather than what should have been done there should be what can be done and where can tax paying citizens like you and me and all the other fellow BHPians here in Bangalore raise this or at least make a pitch for it.

[NPV]

Originally Posted by ajmat

Yesterday, I drove from airport to Indiranagar via ORR from Hebbal. Believe me, it was crowded but traffic flowed without any issue. I turned off before the KR Puram flyover. Main grouse is that there are no signs to indicate when to turn off!

I think you refer to the place after Ramamurthy Nagar underpass where you need to get onto the service lane, go below the ORR bridge and get into Kasturi Nagar, NGEF area. If yes, woefully short of signages. One has to be quite familiar with that area and alert to make those turns

[drhoneycake]

Yesterday, I had to drop my relatives at the Yeshwanthpur Railway Station for a 11:45 pm train. Left JP Nagar 7th Phase at 9:30 pm totally oblivious to the fact that it was the beginning of a long weekend and a friday

Took 4th Block Jayanagar > Double Road > ITC Gardenia > Hudson Circle > Mysore Bank Circle. This last stretch on KG Road has some tendersure work going on plus the bus traffic took me 1 hr to get from Hudson Circle to Mysore Bank circle.

On seeing the jam ahead, I took Palace Road > Chalukya Hotel > Race Course Road > Sheshadripuram > Mantri Mall > Rajajinagar Metro > Yeshwanthpur Railway Station.

This last sector again took 40 minutes thanks to the buses, lorries and cars all heading out of Bengaluru.

Just managed to reach at 11:35 and luckily my relatives didnt miss their train.

Absolutely Piss-poor traffic management. And to top it off, Mysore Bank Circle signal was switched off.

This is just getting worse day by day.

[binand]

Originally Posted by Rajeevraj

There is one small signal just after you leave the Airport, then you can come all the way till Mahadevpura-Total for the next signal, and then all the way till after HSR for the next small one. Free left at Silk Board and take the BETL, you are at EC-Mostly Signal Free.

You missed the pedestrian-only signals at Esteem Mall and Kammanahalli. I think there's one more between Devarabeesanahalli and Bellandur too.

Also, I at least had quite some trouble locating the exit to make use of the free left at Silk Board during my early days in Bangalore, so I used to go till the signal and turn left on green.

The junction under the hanging bridge at KR Puram is manually managed; so it should also be counted.

In the return direction (towards airport) there are signals at Silk Board, Iblur and under the Hebbal interchange.

All said and done, yet quite a long way from being a signal-free corridor.

[shankar.balan]

KA has had lousy road infrastructure since the '70's as compared with TN.
We have been travelling up and down these roads for years and years and frankly, despite the so-called progress by way of Flyovers and all the rest of it, the poor maintenance is a serious concern.
Even the famed Inner Ring Road in Bangalore, which has now become an arterial road connecting the two or three sides of the city to each other, is a complete mess, in terms of road surface.
Truly, unless KA fixes this problem permanently there is not going to be any respite for the poor tax payer!

[naveenroy]

Originally Posted by naveenroy

Can you guys upvote the complaint that I have raised on IChangeMyCity - http://www.ichangemycity.com/bangalo...adiwala-market

This is asking to tarmac the Madiwala market road - what with more traffic flowing through it, it is a pain to traverse the craters on that road.

Thankfully saw some work going on at the road today. Hopefully it will be complete before the evening. But it rained the past 2 days and might rain again today. Wonder how the tarmac will hold up