Commercial St should be traffic-free’

Commercial St should be traffic-free’

TIMES NEWS NETWORK


Bangalore: Do you want Commercial Street to be a pedestrian-only street? Yes, say 70% shoppers and 92% non-shoppers, according to a survey.
The study reveals Commercial Street is not a thoroughfare and people come here only to shop. Therefore, it should primarily cater to pedestrians and not vehicles. However, only 32% of the road space is available for pedestrians. Automobiles carry only 24% of the people coming in, but hog 68% of the road space.
Students of Poorna Learning Centre carried out a survey on the flow of traffic and shoppers on Commercial Street and came out with startling facts. The survey, conducted over several weekends by groups of students, sought the opinion of 900 shoppers on Bangalore’s high street.
The study found 42% of the road space is used for parking by just 2% of the people who come here. Half of this 42% is used by slow-moving cars that drop off shoppers and crawl along waiting for parking space to open up, inconveniencing pedestrians. Eight-one cars are parked on the street at any given time, corresponding to 218 people only and most of these cars are parked for 2 hours, the study reveals. This means the average number of passengers per car is just 2.7.
A total of 76% of the shoppers come on foot, 14% in cars and 10% on 2-wheelers. Among pedestrian shoppers, 12% come by bus, 31% by auto and 57% by their own vehicle, but park elsewhere. The average number of passengers per 2-wheeler coming into the street is 1.75, the survey said.