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Your daily bread comes with jam
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Traffic jam, that is. And it's spreading to all areas of the city, reports BHUMIKA K.
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— Photo: K. Gopinathan
All choked up: every hour seems to be like peak hour in the city. — Photo: K. Gopinathan
"OK. SO the appointment is confirmed for Monday morning, 10 a.m." You leave home at 8.45 sharp, giving yourself more than a half-hour leeway to get through peak-hour traffic. But then you got stuck in a meandering kilometre of cars, autos, two-wheelers, and BMTC buses at the second signal on your route. The green light fleets by your eyes thrice like a mirage before you get through. Finally you turn up for the appointment with your by-now irritated client at 10.40 a.m..
How many of us have actually made it on time in the past year to any destination in the city?
I see no raised hands here.
Disadvantage Bangalore. Burgeoning city with biblical scale problems. More than 20 lakh vehicles are on our roads today. And every day, around 750 new registrations are added to this mammoth vehicle brigade. Hardly one in 20 of us uses public transport. We may think of ourselves as intelligent, finding alternate short routes, leaving early on our two-wheelers. But nothing seems to work. Maybe three years from now we'll all have to walk to work because traffic will be one congealed mass that refuses to move.
Massive road digging operations by various agencies that leave trenches uncovered are the order of the day. When it rains, it's muddy, often sewage-laced pools on most roads. Add to that are chaos contributed by flyover constructions and various ongoing projects. Even as the arterial roads are full of potholes, the state of bylanes and streets in extension areas is indescribable. Why extension areas? Take the case of an upmarket area like Koramangala. In the Fourth Block area alone, the roads are filled with jelly stones and mud. A water project has blocked a large part of the 80 Feet Road. When it rains, there's virtually swimming pool at the 80 Feet Road-Airport Road junction. People working in this area and who ride to work on a two-wheeler definitely need life insurance. With an entire side of the road blocked, movement is narrowed to a small stretch, causing hour-long jams.
Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic and Security) Chandrashekara sees one-ways as the only solution to decongest Bangalore's roads. Eventually, more one-ways will be introduced in the city as part of traffic decongestion plans so as to reduce commuting time. "The number of vehicles on the road is enormous and increasing every day. Roads have remained the same except for cosmetic changes and have to handle additional traffic," he explains. The police department is working out area-specific traffic plans, based on recommendations of the Bangalore Agenda Task Force (BATF).
Over the last two years, nearly 158 one-ways have been introduced in Bangalore, the latest being the Cunningham Road-Millers Road-Queens Road and Cantonment Railway Station Road network.
How many times have we not experienced jams on weekends on M.G. Road, a road that is considered fairly wide? If such is the fate of wider roads, the narrow winding streets of Chikpet, Balepet, Avenue Road, areas around City Market, and the old Bangalore areas where the wholesale business hub is located is still worse. Where lorries and trucks downloading goods fight for space on the road with bullock carts and humans ferrying maal.
Every time there is an attempt to widen a road, land around it has to be acquired. A harrowing process, both for the developers and the owners.
The city did see a spurt of flyovers and underpasses that did ease some of the regular, torturous jams. Mehkri Circle is one such example. A point where traffic moved at a snail's pace and accidents and deaths were an everyday occurrence, it changed dramatically with the introduction of an underpass. Then came the linking Hebbal junction flyover. M.N. Sreehari, Adviser to the Department of Traffic and Transport, says: "With Mehkri Circle underpass, we only shifted the problem to Hebbal. When the Hebbal flyover was built, the problem passed on to Yelahanka. We are only shifting the traffic problem without comprehensive planning."
The road length in Bangalore averages a total of 4,850 kilometres. Compared to the increasing populace and vehicles, it's a total mismatch. The problem is the volume-capacity ratio. "When roads are widened, footpaths have to be sacrificed, putting pedestrians at risk. Even if a road is widened, trees and transformers remain, taking away the point of the widening," says Mr. Sreehari. He blames the lack of decentralisation of offices as another problematic factor. "While the city is growing outward in residential areas, a large part of the offices remain in the city centre in a three kilometre radius, where traffic converges. And then there is a reverse flow in the evening."
Metro Rail or a ring railway system with a feeder service or mass transportation are other solutions to Bangalore's woes, he says. Or introduce a toll for vehicles wanting to come into the city centre within a certain radius, so that the high costs will discourage unwanted travellers.
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Added tension
THE ULTIMATE nightmare in Bangalore is trying to rush a patient in an emergency situation to hospital. While one concedes that there is some change in people's mindsets over the years, a chat with ambulance drivers who go through this torture every day is revealing. A life rests in their hands. And with accompanying worried and wailing relatives, they have to manoeuvre through unyielding traffic, requesting other drivers to move aside and give way.
Lingaraju and Mariappa, both ambulance drivers with Ambicare, an ambulance service, have been through this rigour for 10 and nine years respectively. Says Lingaraju: "Traffic policemen help us when they see or hear us. But most of the time, they are not at the signals or are chatting with someone or are fining people at signals." According to him, educated people tend to give way more easily. One-ways are a bane. "Going to hospitals like Manipal and Mallya is very difficult. One-ways have made these routes long-winding. A one-kilometre distance becomes four kilometres."
Says Mariappa: "When we approach a signal, even when we have the emergency light and the siren on, the people in front don't move. Naave jor maadbeku. Avaga daari kodtaare. (Only when we shout at them do they give way.)" On an average it takes them an hour to get a patient — who may be from Rajajinagar — to Manipal or St. John's.
With its six ambulances, the service caters to around 12 serious patients every day.
The best way to deal with this problem is for all of us to put ourselves in the shoes of the family of the patient. Imagine your own pain and grief.
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Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
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Kochi
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