It's rush hour all day

IT’S RUSH HOUR, ALL DAY
With traffic jams round the clock, it's hard to define peak hour any more. BT examines the problem
The Times of India

• 8.00 am
, Hosur Road-Johnson Market junction: A traffic jam takes nearly half an hour to clear.

• 11.30 am
, MG Road: A 45-minute jam throws traffic out of gear.

• 3.30 pm
, Silk Board flyover: Traffic is stationary for over 20 minutes.

• 8.30 pm
, Koramangala-Hosur Road: Traffic flows at a snail's pace.

• 11.00 pm
, Airport Road-Kodihalli Junction: You're still stuck in traffic.

YOU can't avoid peak hour rush even if you plan well ahead and schedule your route meticulously. Simply because there is no peak hour anymore — in Bangalore, it effectively extends round the clock. Peak hour can now be anytime from 8 am to 11 pm or later, especially on arterial roads.

Traffic expert MN Sreehari says that traditional peak hour timings — 9-11 am and 5-7 pm — don't exist in the city now. “At any given point of time, there is congestion all over,” he says, adding that this has come about because of several factors. “ The vehicular population has risen sharply. Besides, nearly 60 per cent of key roads have been made one-way and and some can't handle the load, so people use smaller roads. Traditional work hours have also changed now with the tech industry throwing open jobs to people from all over. Each sector that constitutes traffic — like work, daily commuters, school and college — overlap at various points in the day.”

Not being able to work around peak hours means life thrown out of gear for most Bangaloreans. Dr Bharati Jajoo, occupational therapist and Airport Road resident says, “If you know what hour is peak hour, it's easy to work around it, but when all hours are peak hours, you are bound to have a tough time on the road. Continual peak hour traffic is not just restricted to the heart of the city or bottlenecks anymore. In the US, traffic hours are staggered and controlled, so you can work around peak hour traffic.”

Bhaskar Rao, corporate consultant and Hosur Road resident says, “I have been stuck in a 45-minute traffic jam just a stone's throw away from my house. It's not something that happens only when VIPs visit the city or if there is a political rally or something like that. Traffic is thrown out of gear all day here. It can get very stressful. You just have to learn to deal with it. I keep an allowance of at least two hours per day, just in case I get stuck somewhere. Just last week, I was stuck on Airport Road, near Trinity Circle, for nearly 30 minutes, that too at 9 pm on a Sunday.”

The average peak hour traffic on city roads is around 9,000 PCU per hour with some roads seeing even up to 12,000 PCU. What can be done to ease the situation? “Stagger work hours in a controlled manner. Educational institutions can start early and finish early to take the load off regular traffic. Mass transport must be better regulated,” says Sreehari.

So, is there no time at all that you can drive without running into peak hour traffic? “Traffic marginally reduces between 2-4 pm. You really can't call it off-peak hours, but if you want to drive with reduced stress, that's probably the best time,” he adds.

Recorded peak hour traffic in passenger car units (PCU) per hour
Ananda Rao Circle — 15,125
JP Nagar — 16,242
Vijaya College Road — 5,348
On the Richmond Circle Flyover — 3,000-5,000
Subbanna Circle — 9,669