Soon: ‘Park and ride’ bus depots

Soon: ‘Park and ride’ bus depots
New Indian Express

BANGALORE: As the city police are planning to restrict parking on at least 50 roads, they have also come up with an alternative: park at bus depots.

As the latest plan to decongest the central business district, the Bangalore Traffic Task Force is offering the motorist a way to escape the traffic and still be able to ride back home.

Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy last week launched a 10-point programme to improve city traffic congestion and the Park and Ride facility figures prominently on it.

Although the project aims at reducing total traffic congestion in the CBD, the main objective is to restrict two-wheelers.

“The crux of the plan is to reduce traffic density on major roads as well as to encourage the public to use mass transport systems,” DCP Traffic (East) M A Saleem told this website's newspaper. He said that the plan was drafted because traffic conditions during peak hours had reached unmanageable levels.

“Peak hour traffic management is becoming tough. For instance, 40,000 cars ply on Hosur road every morning. We could motivate them to take a BMTC bus at the nearest depot after parking there,” he said, adding that most BMTC depots can offer space for parking.

In order to woo office goer’s youngsters using motorcycles, the government proposes to introduce 1,000 Volvo buses. They are saying Volvo buses plying on routes where IT companies are located are a success.

But the plan can’t be for everyone. As Aarti Shetty Sathiraju, an advertising agency staffer, says. “The scheme may suit working people with a 9 am to 5 schedule. But for people in marketing and for those whose jobs end late, it is not feasible,” she says.

Will the BMTC offer a 24 hour ‘drop back’ facility to the parking place, she asks.