Road rage drives pedestrians up the wall!

Road rage drives pedestrians up the wall!

Deccan Herald, under its Road Rage column had highlighted the problems confronted by vehicle users on busy stretches like Cauvery Theatre — Palace Road junction, Hosur Main road and Koramangala area near the Forum Mall.

Our readers are sharing their experience due to traffic jams and also have suggested ways of overcoming the problem.

Here are some of the responses.


Jug handler system

This is regarding the ever growing traffic jams on Hosur Road mainly due to the Bommanahalli junction.

The Hosur Road is as wide as most interstates in the USA. And while vehicles there cruise at 70 mph, we find it hard to do 7mph.

The solutions are:

1. Let tractors etc use only service roads where possible. In the first place, why are tractors permitted on city roads when they don’t pay road tax? They are basically off road vehicles.

2. Let there be a dedicated lane to the extreme left for all heavy vehicles. Ban overtaking by trucks/ buses

3. Ensure strict checks on the city outskirts to ensure that vehicles are not overloaded. Have weighing centres on all roads leading to Bangalore City.

4. The transporter must be heavily penalised if a vehicle breaks down due to reasons that could be avoided (like bad tyres, no maintenance etc). Incentives should be given to those who maintain their vehicles well and who dispose waste oils properly.

5. Exclusive bus parking bays must be created so that the buses do not have to stop on the main road.

6. Pedestrians should have overhead bridges to cross. Now they break medians and cross. Who is responsible if they come under a big truck?

7. Use the Jug handler system as in New Jersey, USA, for road crossing. What this means is, whenever a vehicle has to turn right from a main road, say Hosur Road to Bommanahalli, it should first take a left service road before the intended turn and then turn right from the service road and proceed straight bisecting the main road. To visualise this imagine the handle of the jug to be a service road.

Muralikrishna

Drainage systems

Banglaore City had to be redesigned, at least the old city, by the intelligent infrastructure consultants.

Basically Bangalore city and its extensions were designed for certain density and land use .

Many old and new areas are allowed to have high rise buildings and drainage, be it storm water or sanitary drains are designed for density. Due to increase in population, current facilities can not digest the load, hence it has to overflow.

Traffic blocks due to recent rains are also due to the drainage problems.

Madan M Rao

Plummeting Bangalore

I am completely dismayed by the pitiable state our City has reached. Being a Bangalorean I had hoped for some rescue from its despicable situation. But now I write it off as a ‘dead’ city that needs drastic resuscitation.

The City seems to be surviving only because of the existing infrastructure. Grandiose plans of adding new infrastructure have led us no where. It is proving to be more of a hindrance than a support.

Bangalore has definitely been hit by worse monsoons before but never has there been such severe water logging. It is certainly frustrating to see that not a single road is free from water logging. Can’t a city withstand 30 minutes of rain?

The famished denizens of this city would certainly benefit immensely even if the State heads devote a fraction of the time and money towards bolstering the existing infrastructure.

The need of the hour is to wake up before the whole thing collapses.

Prasad

Shift bus stops

I would like to add that at present the worst hurdle on this narrow stretch are the bus stops.

The only way to get rid of them is to shift these bus stops away from the main road like the bus bay that used to be in front of the Galaxy theatre. For example, the first hurdle is near "Deepti Nursing home" cross- this bus stop could be shifted to a bus bay established in the park next to the Nursing Home.

Like wise the bus stops at St John's Medical College, Water Tank and Krupanidhi college could be shifted away from the main road to the service road to make way for traffic.

Iris Rajiva

Harvest rain water

When an Indian can't walk safely on the pavement during the rains can one complain about him/ her leaving for another country?

In Bangalore, as roads are widened at the expense of pavement area, the width of drains lying below pavements (where a pavement or a semblance of it exists) drastically reduces, thereby reducing their capacity. In some areas, drains are completely sealed off by large corporates who don't want to see culverts near their offices.

What can be done is, to ensure that a rain-water harvesting mechanism is implemented in the storm water drains, thereby recharging the water table as the water flows through the drain. On another note, all elections should be held only after the monsoons, and after all the candidates have been forced to walk on foot through the city during the rains.

Sunil Pichamuthu