I was going through this article. This article claims that Bangalore needs more underpasses and flyovers because of the ever increasing traffic in our city. I had read somewhere earlier (sorry, ‘m unable to recollect where) that Bangalore is either the fastest growing city or one in the top 3 fastest growing cities in India. The density of traffic in Bangalore is highest in India.
This article gives some nice statistics like more than 200 new vehicles being registered daily in Bangalore and that nearly 2.5 million vehicles are plying the roads in Bangalore. One might not realize that though these are only figures, the actuality is much worse. 2.5 million vehicles plying on a city which is less than 30 kms in diameter!!! I read in the hard copy of the Times of India (Bangalore Edition) that there are 3500 kms of roads in Bangalore (including the cross roads). This was mentioned in the article which gave reasons for terrible traffic during the rains. The reason was that there are drains on both sides of the road… making it a drain distance of 7000 kms. The drain depth is about 3 feet (max) and it should have been 20 feet (as per what the article claims).
3500 kms of roads catering to 2.5 million vehicles (The road distance would never increase, but the vehicle count is increasing daily at the rate of 200 vehicles each day). When I try to find out the number of vehicles per km, I get an astounding figure of 714 odd vehicles per kilometer!!! No wonder, the traffic density is greatest in Bangalore.
Creating Underpasses or Flyovers are not the only remedy for this. There has to be strict restrictions on the number of new vehicles being purchased each day, the number of vehicles being issued permits each day, and the number of vehicles which come in each day from various states. Added to the above count of 714 vehicles per km, there is the count of ever entering vehicles of neighboring states, the vehicles which are passing through Bangalore to go to a different state or a different place within Karnataka itself.
Bangalore is not a 24 Hour City like Mumbai, and it cannot even become one. Still, the # of vehicles increase daily, the traffic situation becomes choc-o-bloc and the blame is put on the authorities. I also got to know that the RTO recently issued permission for another 100000 autorickshaws. GOK where Bangalore is heading to… Expansion in Traffic more than the expansion in the infrastructural facilities needs to such problems. As a city, Bangalore might be growing (which I have my own doubts) at, say a rate of 2% but the vehicles in Bangalore are increasing at a rate of 20% (which is more than the annual average of India i.e., 10%)
This article gives some nice statistics like more than 200 new vehicles being registered daily in Bangalore and that nearly 2.5 million vehicles are plying the roads in Bangalore. One might not realize that though these are only figures, the actuality is much worse. 2.5 million vehicles plying on a city which is less than 30 kms in diameter!!! I read in the hard copy of the Times of India (Bangalore Edition) that there are 3500 kms of roads in Bangalore (including the cross roads). This was mentioned in the article which gave reasons for terrible traffic during the rains. The reason was that there are drains on both sides of the road… making it a drain distance of 7000 kms. The drain depth is about 3 feet (max) and it should have been 20 feet (as per what the article claims).
3500 kms of roads catering to 2.5 million vehicles (The road distance would never increase, but the vehicle count is increasing daily at the rate of 200 vehicles each day). When I try to find out the number of vehicles per km, I get an astounding figure of 714 odd vehicles per kilometer!!! No wonder, the traffic density is greatest in Bangalore.
Creating Underpasses or Flyovers are not the only remedy for this. There has to be strict restrictions on the number of new vehicles being purchased each day, the number of vehicles being issued permits each day, and the number of vehicles which come in each day from various states. Added to the above count of 714 vehicles per km, there is the count of ever entering vehicles of neighboring states, the vehicles which are passing through Bangalore to go to a different state or a different place within Karnataka itself.
Bangalore is not a 24 Hour City like Mumbai, and it cannot even become one. Still, the # of vehicles increase daily, the traffic situation becomes choc-o-bloc and the blame is put on the authorities. I also got to know that the RTO recently issued permission for another 100000 autorickshaws. GOK where Bangalore is heading to… Expansion in Traffic more than the expansion in the infrastructural facilities needs to such problems. As a city, Bangalore might be growing (which I have my own doubts) at, say a rate of 2% but the vehicles in Bangalore are increasing at a rate of 20% (which is more than the annual average of India i.e., 10%)
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