Travel time has increased around St. Mark's Road

Travel time has increased around St. Mark's Road

The Hindu

Parents dropping children at schools on the road facing hardship

Bangalore: A week after the new one-way rule on St. Mark's Road was introduced, schools located on the road are barely getting adjusted to the new traffic situation.

Entry to St. Mark's Road is now from the Lavelle Road side through State Bank of India Circle; from there you have to drive to the Residency Road junction and past Ashirvadam Circle, get onto Museum Road and then come back to SBI Circle and past Bowring Institute to join Mahatma Gandhi Road.

The travel time during peak hours has increased by 30 minutes.

Earlier, parents with children studying in both Bishop Cotton Boys School and Girls School could drop their children within a few minutes of each other. Now they are forced to park on Vittal Mallya Road and walk their children to each school. Some do drive but do it in a roundabout way, spending more time.

However, several parents said, "It was difficult on the day the schools reopened on Monday because we were not too sure about the new rules and about finding parking space. Now we are getting use to it... after all, it is to reduce traffic congestion.''

There was some traffic hold-up near the Residency Road junction during the school timings and also on Vittal Mallya Road, they said. Many children end up waiting fairly long after school to be picked up.

Bishop Cotton Girls High School Principal Princess Franklyn said parents who had to approach from Vittal Mallya Road faced some problem initially. "Considering the parents' difficulties we have now allowed children to be dropped and picked up from the gate on Residency Road. This may make it easier for them as well as allowing parking at that end,'' she said.

Drivers of some vans hired to transport students said they had to start early in the morning so that children could reach their schools on time.

Most vans transport children to different schools in the same area and an increase in travel time makes things difficult for them. "The situation is bad in the afternoons when we get delayed in traffic and reach the children home later than usual and many parents complain,'' a van driver said.