One-way ticket to the blues!

One-way ticket to the blues!
New Indian Express

Travel in Namma Bengalooru anywhere today and chances are you will end up on a one-way. Think of going to any office in the heart of the City and you will have to negotiate a maze of one ways to get there.

Almost all major roads in the centre of the City have been converted into one ways. Residency road, St.Marks Road, Cunningham Road, Kempegowda Road, Queen’s Road the list is endless.

It seems as if making one ways has been Bangalore’s major solution to its traffic woes. The trend of introducing one-ways started in 2003 and gradually the number of one ways has increased over the years. Today, there are 93 one-ways in the City.

Is one-way the only solution to the burgeoning traffic snarls? Has it really affected the traffic situation? The traffic police say introducing one-ways has been one of the major measures used to decongest traffic and it has proved to be effective to an extent.

“It has brought down the waiting time at traffic junctions and there is continuous flow of traffic, the average speed of vehicles has gone up from 14kms/hr to 18kms/hr. It has also reduced the rate of accidents, cases of head-on collisions especially have come down” says DCP M A Saleem.

Statistics point that total number of accidents went down from 9,856 in 2002 to 7,575 in 2005.

Even a majority of commuters find the one-ways convenient. Avinash an entrepreneur who uses a car says “Though the distances and petrol consumption have increased time taken has surely come down. I can get to work faster.”

Somashekhar an auto driver adds “This has led to a decrease in business for auto drivers as commuters have to pay more for covering the same distance, yet traffic jams in the City have decreased.” BMTC bus drivers too find the one-ways easier to negotiate.

There exists a flip side to all this. Pedestrians find it more difficult to cross roads. Saralamma a fruit vendor complains “Vehicles travel at fast speeds and don’t stop to let us cross.”

Aesthetically speaking one-ways tarnish the beauty of the City, your view of the City’s major landmarks are hidden behind traffic whizzing past at 50 kms/hr.

For visitors to the City this maze of one-ways is very confusing and lack of proper sign-boards at all junctions adds to this. More one-ways means longer distances to cover, which leads to more fuel consumption and higher transport charges.

This also leads to higher pollution in the long run. Ultimately converting more roads into one-ways is an immediate and temporary palliative, where the real issue being lack of proper infrastructure for the city.

Given the state of the City’s transport system any solution is welcome and seems like one-ways are here to stay.