Road-users at sixes and sevens over one-ways

Road-users at sixes and sevens over one-ways

Traffic snarls triggered by the six new one-ways made commuting miserable to those using M G Road, Brigade Road and most adjoining roads.

Deccan Herald

Merry-go-round, confusion and chaos. That describes the motorists’ experience on day one of the conversion of six roads into one-ways on Saturday.
The day turned out to be both a boon and a bane for the road users as well as traffic managers. Boon because schools and many software firms on Residency Road remained closed, due to second Saturday.

Bane because the traffic swelled by the large number of weekend shoppers and visitors en route to M G Road and Brigade Road, making life miserable for road users. Perhaps, the conversion of six roads on a single day amounted to asking for trouble.

Residency Road appeared to be the most affected. Reckless traffic at dangerous speed continued to trickle down the Richmond Road flyover, (in front of Bangalore Club) almost non-stop. The flow of the traffic was such that pedestrians had to wait for long duration of time before crossing the road.

“This is the scene from the morning. The real test will be on Monday, when Bishop Cotton Schools and the software firms will be open”, said Swamy, a parking attendant on the road.

Motorists using this road up to Mayo Hall were subjected, on and off, to major traffic snarls, especially in front of St Joseph’s Pre University College.
Traffic headed towards Airport Road was being diverted towards Shoppers Stop, (behind Mayo Hall) where some traffic policemen were posted specifically for the task.

The other major road which faced similar situation, (heavy traffic flow, interrupted by major snarls) was the Richmond Road. Heavy traffic converging on D’Souza Circle was diverted towards Richmond Circle.

The one-way had its toll on the Richmond Road flyover, where heavy traffic was not only routed but a strange situation occurred wherein a junction was created by putting up barricades and traffic was routed in a criss-cross direction. (From Richmond Road to Residency and in the reverse direction from Double Road). However, in the night only one ramp of the flyover (Double Road to Residency Road) will be kept open.

The repercussions of the diversions could be seen on M G Road, Brigade Road and almost all adjoining roads, in the form of snarls.

Santoor maestro Pandit Shivkumar Sharma experienced the traffic bottleneck on Saturday when he reached Windsor Manor at 1.15 pm, despite landing at the airport at 11.40 am.

The roads made into one-way are Residency Road, Richmond Road, Magrath Road, Wood Street, Campbell Road and Museum Road.