Vying for space

Vying for space
Indias IT Capital is behind other Metros in human population, but it beats most of the others with its whopping 31 lakh vehicles, standing second only to Delhi, in vehicular population.

Now, that is a record quoted by the State planning and traffic department, but one look at any city street and a Bangalorean will not pause to agree.

The steady increase in Bangalore’s vehicular population naturally mea ns the City roads are hardly ideal for motoring. For the harried road-user, the dream of a smooth ride had died years ago. Here’s why: Only 16 per cent Bangalore roads are arterials and about 80 per cent of the roads are less than 30 metres wide. In many roads, traffic flow has been reduced to a crawl.

A recent survey had highlighted that only 11 per cent of the entire road length allows for journey speeds over 30 kmph. This makes Bangalore’s roads not only the most cramped but also a driver’s nightmare. To top this, the frequent infrastructure works carried out by the civic agencies has further shrunk the width of the city roads.
Now, more on the numbers. Till October last year, the city had 31,06,564 vehicles registered with the Road Transport Organisation (RTO) and stood second to Delhi, which has around 48,09,000 vehicles on the road. Chennai with about 30 lakh vehicles stands third. Surprisingly, Mumbai had only 15 lakh registered vehicles till April last year, while Kolkata with 18 lakh vehicles and Hyderabad with 17.64 lakh had more on the road.

Assistant Commissioner of Police, Traffic and Planning, N Narasimhaiah had a break-up of the Bangalore vehicles.

“The total number of two-wheelers contribute to 75 percent of the total vehicles while 16 per cent are cars. Autorickshaws make up 4 per cent, trucks 3 per cent and buses and other motor vehicles constitute about a per cent each of the total,” he told Deccan Herald.

For the infrastructure-starved Bangalore City, more vehicles is obviously not a matter of pride. Close to 1,300 vehicles are added every day to the already packed roads of Bangalore. As RTO officials said, 1,200 two-wheelers and 1,000 four-wheelers are registered in the 10 RTO across the city daily. Now, that is a mammoth addition.

Syed Shafi Ahmed, Secretary, Regional Transport Authority, said “Ba ngalore witnesses one of the highest vehicular growth rates among all Indian cities. The increase can be attributed to many factors like increase in income, availability of easy loans and finances for purchasing a car or bi ke.”

Floating Population

Adding the floating population of vehicles entering the City from outside would push the numbers even higher. Bangalore-based traffic research firm, Traffic Engineers and Safety Trainers (TEST) put the total number of vehicles at 35 to 36 lakhs in Bangalore, including the floating vehicular population.

Even in Mumbai, the vehicular population would go up to 28 lakh if the floating numbers were added, according to TEST.

But the numbers game is more a matter of related problems, particularly in vehicle-rich Bangalore. Here are more reasons more vehicles mean more trouble: “About 12 per cent of the roads are being earmarked for vehicle parking, about 20 per cent of the roads are usually being dug up or used for some purpose or the other by the civic agencies. Now that the Metro rail work has commenced the roads have further shrunk with only 40 to 45 per cent of the roads left for vehicle movement in the core areas of the city,” explained Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) KU Ramamurthy.

A survey by the The Energy and Research Institute (TERI) revealed that around 45 per cent of the city’s trips were being made by public transport buses. But over 90 per cent of the total traffic on roads at any point is constituted by cars, two-wheelers and auto-rickshaws, as opposed to public modes, which constitute just two per cent of the total vehicle fleet.

Death Toll

Blame the increasing vehicular population for the rise in accidents in the city. In 2007, 8,426 accidents were reported in Bangalore of which 957 were fatal, claiming 981 lives. Loss of property and grievous injuries to others added to the damage.

Nano Nightmares

Traffic nightmares, safety and emission norms can take the back seat. The recently launched world’s cheapest car, Tata Nano, has bowled over Bangaloreans with its looks and features.

Though the car is expected to hit the roads later this year, the excitement this small wonder has aroused is noteworthy. Enquiries have already started pouring into the Tata showrooms across the City, and people are keen to know when the prototype of the car would be unveiled in Bangalore.

But for those involved in monitoring the city’s traffic scene, the arrival of Nano and Bajaj’s small car has aroused fears of further trouble on the roads. They are concerned that the traffic situation may go haywire.

However, even policy makers have welcomed the car stating that it could become a ‘popular mode of personal transport’.

Traffic Engineers and Safety Trainers (TEST) Chairman M N Sreehari sounded optimistic about the launch of the car. “The small cars will reduce the number of two wheelers as they can carry four people as against two by the latter. The small cars will also help reduce the number of auto-rickshaws,” noted Prof Sreehari.

Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Authority (BMTC) Managing Director Upendra Tripathy too welcomed the launch of the car stating that small cars were a better option than luxury cars and SUV’s.

“ The smaller cars occupy lesser space than bigger ones and the cost of the Tata Nano no doubt will make it a popular mode of personal transport. However, we do not see the BMTC commuters, especially those who travel on our Volvo-Vajra shifting over to the small cars as most of them belong to the upper middle class and from the IT sector. They have chosen this form of transport due to health reasons and to avoid the driving on the congested city roads.”

The BMTC which has placed orders for around 300 Volvo buses this year, would be offering Gold Class passes valid for a year. “The Gold Class passes will cost Rs 1,700. Commuters could travel using it throughout the year. For commuters using this card, the travel cost will be less than buying and travelling on a regular basis in the One lakh car,”

Managing Director Upendra Tripathy