Will US team solve city’s traffic woes?

Will US team solve city’s traffic woes?

TIMES NEWS NETWORK


Bangalore: Tested transportation solutions from the US, custom-made for Bangalore. That’s the offer a group of experts is making to a city caught up in ambitious projects such as long-term traffic plans, when basics like sidewalks are still missing.
The Bangalore transportation summit — on September 10 and 11 — brings civic stakeholders, planners, business leaders and NGOs together to chart a way out of the logjam. The focus will be localization of measures that have worked elsewhere, says David Faria, CEO, Technology Solution Providers (TSP), a summit partner.
“Prior to the summit, the experts from the US will tour the city over two days to understand the ground situation. They will interact with the residents and analyze local conditions before initiating the dialogue,’’ says Faria.
The BBMP’s magic box underpasses, bus depots, grade separators, rail systems, development in areas like Whitefield will be covered in the tour. The Bangalore Metropolitan Land Transport Authority, Transinnova and Alesig are other summit partners. The event propose to look beyond short-term, bandaid solutions like one-ways. Faria says the city has been witnessing piecemeal implementation of plans that don’t have a state-prescribed policy to back them.
“The importance of evolving a comprehensive transportation policy, integrated transit planning and operations and traffic and transportation issues will be discussed. Stakeholders, including the police and transport corporations, will be represented,’’ says Faria. Civic groups are expected to add value by exploring possibilities to further promote public transport and improve civic sense of traffic discipline.
Two-day dialogue
Among the delegates will be Connie Sorrell, chief of transportation system operations in Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT); Bev Mitchell, vice-president, Transcore; Marthand Nookala, assistant county administrator for public works, Hennepin county (Minneapolis); Harshadrai Desai, federal highway administration, US department of transportation, and Gummada Murthy, director of operations, VDOT.
Participants will prepare a white paper detailing strategies and commitments, that could be followed up periodically. While the focus is on a multimodal approach to transportation solutions, the summit will also discuss possibilities of an integrated approach in implementation of these solutions. “We could look at options like a commitment from all civic agencies when a new road is laid. For instance, there could be a consensus among agencies that the new road won’t be dug up for utility-shifting or other work for, say, five years,’’ says Faria.
EASY RIDE
US experts to offer localized transportation solutions Team to cover various parts of city to understand ground situation Summit to focus on the policy-planning-implementation cycle Civic sense of traffic discipline among focus areas White paper on strategies and commitments in the agenda Hi-tech roads the future?
Bangalore: A lot has been said about the state of roads in Bangalore. Potholes, cracked surfaces and the need for constant maintenance are just a few unresolved issues. But when age-old, time-tested methods of laying roads are not working much, can the use of polymer technology prove effective?
This was the focus of an interactive seminar on ‘Technology Innovation for Roads — Series 1’, jointly organized by the Romix group and Karnataka State Highway Improvement Project, on Saturday. The session was attended by BDA, BBMP, NHAI and KRDC engineers and officials.
The South African company is associated with a few turnkey road development projects in and around Bangalore. It has developed a stretch in Manyata Tech Park, Hebbal using ‘soilfix’ technology.
According to company representatives, the advantage of polymer technology is that more durable roads can be built faster. Also, these roads require minimal maintenance.