Bangalore traffic is commuters' nightmare

Bangalore traffic is commuters' nightmare


NDTV

Bangalore's traffic is adding to the woes of daily commuters, taking hours to reach even nearby places.

By normal city standards, Mary Regina, a medical technician, lives fairly close to her place of work on Airport Road - just five kilometres away.

But Bangalore's traffic make it far from a normal city - and the start of each working day is far from smooth.

"Bus drivers are very harsh in driving sometimes and even the youth. When they travel, they have their fresh blood flowing so they don't bother - they take up styles and they show off," said Regina.

Almost as soon as Regina leaves the house she comes to a major signal and traffic jams, which are a regular feature every single day.

Despite her office being at a stone’s throw away, it takes her nearly 20 minutes to reach in traffic.

She was being optimistic - the last stretch of less than two kilometres actually takes forty-five minutes.

Delayed flyover

This is because of the hugely delayed flyover on Airport Road - which means traffic is diverted through the narrow residential roads of Domlur. Most of the time the traffic stands absolutely still.

It took Mary Regina one hour to cover the 5km distance from home to the office through impossible traffic. And this is just the start of a demanding working day.

This is the way lakhs of Bangaloreans get to work. And getting home in the evening is no joy either.

Many IT firms are located quite some distance away from the city centre and long commutes are often a bigger stress than difficult bosses and demanding work.

"It is really hectic and a lot of pressure on you. You don't have any free time to ourselves. That causes a lot of tension. The travelling is the worst part,” said Rani Ramaswamy, a commuter.

"Main reason for me to put my son into boarding was this. He is in a boarding because I am not able to give full time and his studies are suffering," he said.

These employees have to commute along the city's dreaded Hosur Road - where traffic jams at peak hour are the rule, not the exception.

They spend up to four hours each day commuting, which in terms of hours, adds up to over 43 days spend commuting every year.

"Because of the stress we do have some health problems like back pain, neck pain. When I get home I do not have much time to engage with social activity like going out with children," said Venkatesh, another commuter.

More vehicles

There are over 70, 000 auto rickshaws in the city and many bullying buses - but travelling by public transport is usually no pleasure.

Bigger salaries and easy loans help around 800 new vehicles to be added to the city roads every single day.

The planned metro and monorail are all years into the future. For now, commuters need to find their own ways to cope.

The commuters of Bangalore are paying the price for living in one of Asia's fastest growing cities.