Bus bays near flyovers add to traffic woes

Bus bays near flyovers add to traffic woes
Bangalore, May 24, DHNS:

The much-publicised bus bays constructed to streamline traffic seems to have presented Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) with a whole new set of woes.

With most bus bays located at the entry or exit of flyovers or underpasses, buses tend to pile-up leading to traffic jams along the entire stretch of the road. Vishnu, a middle-aged driver of bus route G4 admits that BMTC buses cause traffic chaos, but adds that there seems to be no solution. “We try to use the bus bays as much as possible, but when three or four buses are already standing in a row, we are forced to stop on the road. Waiting for buses to move would cause traffic jam on the flyover,”he said.

While commuters have enough reasons to complain, in their defence conductors say that they too find it problematic to have bus stops near flyovers and underpasses. “We find it hard to halt the vehicle and it also makes it difficult for the passengers. We want the bus stops to be a little away from the flyovers, but we cannot do much about it,” bus conductor Nagesh, says.

Chandrakant Gupta, who witnessed a horrific accident due to the proximity of the bus bays to flyovers said “once when a BMTC bus stopped at the BTM Layout flyover, a motorcycle rammed into it from behind and the rider was thrown off his bike.”
Surya, another commuter, points out that the proximity of these bus bays to the grade separators force the BMTC drivers to cut sharply.

Disciplining drivers

P K Garg, Director (Projects), BMTC, said “Most of the bus shelters have been erected in coordination with the traffic police. Most of the flyovers in the City that have a down ramp have a bus shelter away from it. We had organised a traffic discipline week in April to ensure our drivers adhere to basic road rules.”

He said 650 bus shelters currently exist in the City as against the need for 1,000. The task of constructing shelters has been passed to the Corporation from the BBMP, and tenders will be floated within the next three months, he added.