No flying over, just snarls

No flying over, just snarls
BY CHETANA BELAGERE
BENGALURU







Article Rank










[Click To Enlarge]
The city is suffering due to its poorly planned infrastructure. It has flyovers in places where they are not needed, badly located bus stops and shifting bottlenecks of traffic, that decongest one area only to crowd another.

Not surprisingly, despite all the “planning” all that remains is chaos. Flyovers The city’s flyovers are both badly planned and designed, says traffic expert and advisor Prof M.N. Sreehari. “No flyover is required in city limits. Flyovers are now being built around the world on expressways and in the outskirts. It’s not possible to plan a good flyover in the city because of Bengaluru’s bad geometry and narrow roads,” he says.

The Richmond Road flyover is the first in the world with a signal, he points out. “The Dairy Circle flyover is narrow and its entry and exit The increasing number of vehicles is already worsen ing the traffic scenario in the city and under such cir cumstances the least that authorities can do is to ensure a smooth flow of traffic by removing chaos at crucial junctions like the one after Richmond flyover.

— Vishal Sinha Software engineer points aren’t properly planned. This leads to congestion in front of Christ College and Forum mall,” he feels. The Sirsi Circle flyover is very old. Only slow moving and heavy motor vehicles use it now while Basavangudi flyover is under-utilised. Right turns The right turns after the flyovers add to the traffic congestion. The turn after coming down the Richmond Road flyover is a typical example. Also, the flyover on Indiranagar 100ft Road a right turn is just about 30 meters away. So the vehicles from Indiranagar which want to turn right are forced to negotiate speeding vehicles coming down the flyover, causing chaos. Bus stops after signals Defying all logic bus stops have been localted immediately after traffic signals. Some are around corners. Take the bus stop after the Indiranagar complex signal, The flyovers do not really ease traffic problems.

Instead they create prob lems if not managed well. The right turn after the Indi ranagar flyover is risky for moving traffic and it also adds to traffic piling up at that junction because there are vehicles coming from different sides.

— Sharath Kumar Transcript professional which is proving a traffic nuisance. This could have been avoided had it been located about 250 metres ahead. Once a free junction, it now sees around a 100 vehicles queued up during peak hours.

At the Hudson Circle and Corporation signals, there are three or four bus stops near each other. The worst located is the bus stop after the Town Hall junction, which creates such a jam that even the traffic police have a terrible time here. The bus stop located after the signal near Mayo Hall forces commuters to apply sudden brakes to make way for buses. Shifting bottlenecks The planners in their enthusiasm to widen roads often create new bottlenecks while getting rid of the old. The Old Madras Road, where the four-lane road is being widened into eight lanes is a typical example.

This is also seen on the Airport Road-Koramangala flyover.

The area around Marathahalli flyover becomes dangerous during peak hours because there is no traffic police around that area. Vehicles come from different directions and there is no one to keep tab on them even if they violate traffic rules.