Infrastructure: How Can We Improve The Traffic Condition In Our City?

Traffic condition and infrastructure. Caught between the devil and the deep blue sea is yours truly from Bangalore ushering in the Blogathon. Since the late 90’s, Bangalore is been witness to the IT boom and the term “Bangalored” being coined with great apprehension by the West who feared jobs being shipped out. But Bangalore had to pay the price and is still paying the price with no respite from her citizens or the elected politicians.

Population increased with people pouring in for their share of the pie and so did the vehicles. However, infrastructure development could not keep pace with its counterpart, the economic development. The government had not foreseen the inevitable crumbling of infrastructure and hence the same old narrow roads resulting in congestion, traffic jams, grid locking taking place.

To cut a long and wailing story short, I am going to list out a few suggestions to improve the traffic condition in the city.

First and the most important one is Traffic Etiquette. People please wait for the signal to turn green before revving off. The pedestrian is always given the right of way. However motorists think the other way round here. Foot paths are meant for the people and not for some motocross adventure on bikes. Patience, is pretty short in supply here in Bangalore. I sincerely plead with all the motorists out there to stop honking. Use it only when it is absolutely necessary. These are some things which are in our control, and hence we can definitely follow them to make it a pleasant experience for our fellow road users.

Now the infrastructure. Finally the government woke up to the fact that the traffic infrastructure is crumbling and put in some old and time tested solutions which did not work. Making most of the city’s arterial roads into one ways and road widening. Oh, did I forget to mention the flyovers? What’s the point in cutting down the trees and widening the roads without asphalting them? By the time they come around asphalting them, the whole exercise would be obsolete because the number of road users would have increased exponentially negating that advantage of widening the roads in the first place.

Some stretches of the roads are so badly worn out; no wonder the motorists prefer the footpaths to the roads. There must be a definite cycle of asphalting that has to be carried out and quality checks to ensure the best possible mix of asphalt is used. I did come across an article that incorporating plastic into the asphalt will increase the shelf life of the asphalted road. Building flyovers dime a dozen will not solve the problem of traffic congestion. Please consult experts before embarking on building a flyover.

The public transport is woefully inadequate. More environment friendly busses should be introduced. Bus stops in most places are present right before or after a traffic signal. Please shift them, keeping in mind the inconvenience caused to the people, to avoid traffic snarls right at a traffic signal. Carpooling has not yet caught on, here in Bangalore.

There is a case in point about the government lethargy. The Bangalore Metro is almost a year into its construction phase and there is hardly any progress. I am pretty sure that by the time it is completed it would be obsolete and might be the cause of additional headaches. The blame game continues among the politicians, accountability is non-existent here.

The ubiquitous auto-rickshaws weaving in and out of lanes, cutting into other motorist’s paths, turning and stopping on their own whim. At this point I absolutely give up. I don’t know what to do.

The situation is not so bad that it’s gone to the dogs. It can be still salvaged. Only thing is that like minded people unite, spread awareness and make the government accountable.

Please feel free to comment, point out issues I have missed out and participate in the Blogathon.

Tags: blogathonindia, blogathonindia1