Entertainment seekers are clogging Bangalore roads

Entertainment seekers are clogging Bangalore roads

The Hindu

People are driving long distances in search of leisure


BANGALORE: Why blame only shoppers when those in search of recreation and entrainment of various kinds are also clogging up the roads?

With multiplexes and malls spread across the city and many in the central business district, late night traffic after movies and from pubs and cocktail lounges (they prefer not be called night clubs now, due to licensing restrictions) keep the traffic police on night patrols quite busy.

Mahatma Gandhi Road already has a density of 12,000 passenger car units (PCU) during weekend peak hours.

Extensive "no parking" zones may become the option open to the police with political considerations ruling out any revival of the "pay-and-park" system. Parking meters with strict time limits are limited to one stretch of Brigade Road and on Commercial Street.

Apart from the increase in the number of vehicles — close to 2.5 million at last count — other factors have contributed to people driving long distances in search of entertainment.

Two decades ago, most neighbourhoods had one or more cinemas, restaurants and bars. Many people walked to the theatres and back; it was that easy. Some of the newer multiplexes, which show the latest movies, have to be reached on cars or two-wheelers and between shows, cars and two-wheelers pour out on to the roads.

The traffic police have reportedly identified quite a few stretches of roads and even smaller streets where parking may be banned in the near future.

The stretch between Webb's Junction and Trinity Circle may be one and parts of Church Street, now choked with parked vehicles, may be another.

New constructions, most of them to be completed in the coming months, are expected to make things worse.

The UB City located between Kasturba Road and Lavelle Road may have both a multiplex and a star hotel with coffee shops and cocktail lounges. Residency Road already has a large new hotel opposite Bangalore Club. Another major hotel has come up on the site of the old Lido cinema and a multiplex is due to come up next door.

According to senior police officials, the traffic to be generated by these new establishments will certainly multiply traffic density. Restrictions on parking and asking the commercial complexes to increase their parking space may be the only way out, they say.