Traffic Management
About 700 new vehicles are added to the Bangalore roads everyday. Some of the arterial roads like Airport Rd, Hosur Rd carry over 10,000 PCUs per day, 5 times more than what they are designed to carry. Bangalore is exploding. And whether we like it or not, we are not prepared to face the explosion.
Multiple factors contribute to this chaos. Unintelligent planning, inadequate law enforcement, and poor driving sense are the ingredients of this collective chaos which has become the signature of Bangalore City!!!
The problem is our government resorts to reactive planning, when proactive planning is the need of the hour. The good news is, though late, the government has finally taken charge, or at least made a start. Four traffic projects were launched last week - Easy Auto, Bangalore Transport Information System, Blackberry and lane system - as the first installment of the 350-crore traffic improvement project – B-TRAC. Experts from US and Singapore are being consulted to develop comprehensive traffic management plans for the City. 70 crore budget has been set aside for transport in the state budget for 2006-07. 109 crore is earmarked for metro this year. With the flyovers, expressways, STLS, Mid-block controlled crossings planned for the city, we have hope.
But, what we have to ask is, is the sudden launch of multiple projects an effective way of solving the traffic problem? Do they provide holistic solutions to the congestion problem and how feasible is it to implement them? Will these projects translate to workable solutions on the ground?