[airbus]

Originally Posted by adnaps

Bangalore airport toll booth clogged due cash issues. Expect a delay of 20 min

Toll suspended across all National Highways until 11 November:

[hemanth.anand]

NECE road toll suspended too. Because of this all vehicles are passing the toll gate simultaneously and speed on the road has reduced. Tolls were ensuring some sistance between vehicles and speeds were good. Now all 3 lanes in a direction are occupied with bumper to bumper traffic and speed has reduced considerably. I'm just passing the Bhannerghatta road junction as i type this and traffic looks the same as far as i can see.

Edit: NICE road toll collection happening at exits and long queue at Kanakapura exit where our cab is waiting to pass.
We told we have only 500 and not a single rupee. The toll collector told give at least 20 rupees. We didn't give... he had to leave

[audioholic]

Truck had broken down after Ecospace while going towards HSR at the up ramp of the flyover. Avoid that route if possible.

[yajaman99]

Today i was in for a shock at 8:45am at the Kodigehalli/Sahakanagar railway crossing. I normally do not cross this area so early but some urgent work came up. This is the only way from Kodigehalli/Canara Bank Layout to enter Sahakaranagar as the other two options are blocked due to on going work.

Today the cops decided to make the entry into Sahakarnagar one way and make a 4 lanes merge into two.
Took me near to 40 mins to cross and just as i passed the gate was coming down.
Below picture shows the mad traffic.

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by yajaman99

Today i was in for a shock at 8:45am at the Kodigehalli/Sahakanagar railway crossing. I normally do not cross this area so early but some urgent work came up. This is the only way from Kodigehalli/Canara Bank Layout to enter Sahakaranagar as the other two options are blocked due to on going work.

Today the cops decided to make the entry into Sahakarnagar one way and make a 4 lanes merge into two.
Took me near to 40 mins to cross and just as i passed the gate was coming down.
Below picture shows the mad traffic.

Been a while now since I have taken that road. I was once stuck there on a Saturday evening for 1h15m in a total gridlock.

With the works underway for installing concrete boxes to male way for underpass, the other small underpass closer to GKVK is also rendered useless.

It's super chaotic in the evening after 1745 all the way till at least 2200 when around 5 to 6 trains pass.

The worst here is the junction at both sides of the tracks and needless to say the impatience of the road users here.

[sanjaykk]

The median in front of EGL on Intermediate Ring Road is open now.

https://twitter.com/parul2411/status/796693989688627200

So, while coming from Koramangala side, you can turn a right turn into EGL?
Or is it only for exit from EGL towards Indiranagar?

[LoneRidder]

Originally Posted by FORTified

Found it very strange that such a wide road has no markings.

Strange? In Bangalore most of the main roads do not have marking! And one over enthusiastic road builder has drawn lanes on the narrow old airport road, that too with yellow colouring

[binand]

Originally Posted by LoneRidder

Strange? In Bangalore most of the main roads do not have marking! And one over enthusiastic road builder has drawn lanes on the narrow old airport road, that too with yellow colouring

Solid yellow line means drivers are not allowed to change lanes in that stretch for any reason whatsoever (which is quite valid for OA Road).

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by LoneRidder

Strange? In Bangalore most of the main roads do not have marking! And one over enthusiastic road builder has drawn lanes on the narrow old airport road, that too with yellow colouring

This is for the "over-ambitious" BMTC Bus lane on Airport Road.

Read more here

Dedicated bus lanes to be tested on old Airport Road

Move your vehicle aside when you see a BMTC bus on Airport Road. The Bus Priority System (BPS), to be tested soon in the City, beginning with Airport Road, will require all vehicles to shift lanes to make way for the BMTC bus on its way.

Sitharam, Professor of Civil Engineering at IISc, believes that the BPS fares better than Bus Rapid Transit System (BRT) because the latter would require further felling of trees which the city cannot afford.

“I am against felling of trees for widening because it has been proved that road widening is no solution to curb traffic congestion”, said Sitharam.

The BPS is a scaled-down version of BRT. While the latter provides a dedicated line on the stretch of road, BPS allows all traffic to use lanes normally, but to provide space for a public transport bus to ensure reduced time of travel.

One more: Enforcement of bus lanes is key to smooth traffic

The much-delayed priority bus lane project has finally been approved in principle by the Department of Urban Land Transport.

For over four years, the idea of priority lanes for public transport has been debated with several objections being raised over the feasibility of the same.

However, with the approval, the BMTC is now hopeful that it will be able to start the pilot on Old Airport Road soon.

Ideally, there would be a reduction in travelling time for those using buses on the stretch, realistically however, enforcing the system seems set to be a nightmare for BMTC and the Traffic Police.

Yellow lane demarcation lines have been painted on Old Airport Road recently.

[Rajeevraj]

BMRC has published the DPR of the KR Puram Silkboard Metro Line. Link

Some key extracts:

As mentioned earlier in the DPR, the area around this corridor is a fast growing area with very heavy vehicular traffic on the existing roads. The construction of Metro on this line would involve blocking of about 9 meters in the middle of the road which would in effect mean that the availability of the road for the traffic would be reduced from 3 lanes to 2 lanes each way.

Although there are service roads on both sides throughout the alignment and these service roads would be merged with the main carriage way at several locations. In spite of these modifications to the road, the vehicular traffic would be adversely affected during the construction phase. Therefore, efforts have been made to ensure that the project completion time is brought down to minimum. There are several factors which favor quick construction of metro line over this alignment.

Firstly, no major land acquisition is involved specially in the viaduct portion. The grade separators could have posed a major problem, but all the grade separators have been so designed such that there are split flyovers and even for underpasses there is enough space between the two main Carriageways on either side, where the viaduct could be accommodated without any major problem. Another factor in favor of this alignment is that there would be no sharp horizontal or vertical curves as the construction of the ORR has ensured that sharp curves on the roads are totally eliminated.
Moreover, there is no underground portion or tunneling which needs to be done in this stretch.

The actual construction work can commence immediately after award of tender as no land acquisition is involved for viaduct portion. Even for the station portions, the work can be commenced and the land requirement is only for the entry structure on either side, which will not affect the construction of the station structures.Because of the above factors, it is targeted to complete the entire project within a period of 36 months.

Additional input from TheMetroRailGuy Website

There are lots of positive take-aways from the DPR, like the decision to use of CBTC signalling and U-shaped girders for construction. That said, project funding is the most important component in all construction projects and at this time, no funds towards its execution have been (publically) tied up or promised by any government, lending agency or private company. Land acquisition is tricky, never easy and even more so in Bangalore because it’s not BMRCL’s forte as currently being witnessed in Phase 2’s execution where land notifications for many sections have not even been prepared or sent out.
After the BMRCL encorporates everyone’s suggestions, the DPR will be presented to the state government’s cabinet. Whenever they approve, the exact funding split/outlay will be known, and the BMRCL will then take steps to appoint a detailed design contractor (DDC) to assist with the line’s design. Overall, the government’s enthusiasm is very encouraging and with many pre-construction tasks still pending, I expect construction work to begin in 2018-2019.

The fact that the DPR was done in such quick time is a good sign. On the downside, there is no clear picture on the funding as yet. Hopefully the same pace and urgency will continue until the implementation is complete. 36 months seems highly optimistic.

Any inputs/feedback can be sent to bmrcl<at>dataone<dot>in by November 30 2016.

[LoneRidder]

Originally Posted by binand

Solid yellow line means drivers are not allowed to change lanes in that stretch for any reason whatsoever

Agreed and aware! Problem is, this road is very narrow ever for two lanes in few points, specially near Command hospital and entry point to old airport road from MG road side (ASC Junction to Overhead tank/Cambridge Road).

Originally Posted by paragsachania

This is for the "over-ambitious" BMTC Bus lane on Airport Road.

Good move, not too sure about the success. Definitely right lane is not the place for BMTC in this stretch for want of space. Left lane is too narrow at many points specially at turns where the big bus will have to go off the lane to take turns.

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by LoneRidder

Good move, not too sure about the success. Definitely right lane is not the place for BMTC in this stretch for want of space. Left lane is too narrow at many points specially at turns where the big bus will have to go off the lane to take turns.

Earlier attempts 8 years back has been 100% unsuccessful where in place of distinct lane marking, authorities had also installed flexible plastic posts on the lane markings - For Bus lane that is.



The day buses and other vehicles realised these were flexible, the demolition drive started and in the next week, all of them were flat on the road.

The stretch I am referring to was Cauvery Junction to Ganganagar.

[FORTified]

Originally Posted by LoneRidder

Strange? In Bangalore most of the main roads do not have marking! And one over enthusiastic road builder has drawn lanes on the narrow old airport road, that too with yellow colouring

On a narrow or 2 lane road, I don't even miss the lane markings. But on a wide road, you don't even know if it is 6 lane road or 60

[binand]

Originally Posted by paragsachania

This is for the "over-ambitious" BMTC Bus lane on Airport Road.

Somebody still believes that they can enforce traffic rules in Bangalore by way of voluntary compliance?

[LoneRidder]

Originally Posted by paragsachania

Earlier attempts 8 years back has been 100% unsuccessful

Yes remember that. Last year there was an attempt to create a separate auto lane on Kasturba Road, Hudson Circle to Mally Hospital junction. It worked well when cops were around for a month or so and slowly all the barricades were either broken or removed by motorist. Unless stricter fines are imposed, even during trial, these attempts may not become reality.