ROADS AND TRANSPORT – 2013 – PROBLEMS
• BBMP and BDA have been slow to develop Priority Corridors (BIG 10, Outer Ring Road). As a result, vehicles don’t choose to stay on arterial roads.
• Road surface quality is extremely poor, and is made worse by inadequate planning for rains.
• Speed of construction is ridiculously slow. BDA /BBMP /Metro all seem in slow mode.
• Over-emphasis on vehicular movement. Pedestrians and cyclists suffer as a result.
• Inadequate bus fleet, plus weak last mile connectivity. At least 1500 per year needed to be added.
• TTMCs in wrong locations, makes transit difficult. Ticket prices impose a penalty on those switching buses.
• Key entry points – Silk Board, Hebbal – need redevelopment.
• Standard design for public infrastructure is needed. Plus, kickbacks in public works is scaring away skilled contractors.
• Parking policy deferred again by Council.
ROADS AND TRANSPORT – 2013 – HOPEFUL SIGNS
• BMTC’s Big10 system is being expanded, and feeder services are planned to connect to the trunk routes
. Routes are being renumbered logically. Fleet strength is growing, though not fast enough.
• An effort to improve / standardise road designs is being taken up by BBMP, initially for a few roads. On these, the positions of the drains and footpaths are being switched, so that storm-water runoff can be collected better.
• DULT is making efforts to bring some non-motorised solutions to the city, and also to advocate properly priced parking in public spaces.
• Government seems willing to take up commuter rail connectivity to nearby towns.
• BTP is the first fully-digital traffic police force in the country. Its second-generation control room is about to open.
• BMLTA has conducted one round of measurement of mobility metrics. Needs to do this annually.
• Station access plans for Metro stations are being developed by BMLTA.
ROADS AND TRANSPORT – 2013 – NOT GOOD ENOUGH
• Government has not yet recognised that public transport needs operational subsidy. A profitable BMTC should not be the goal. Instead, we should measure and improve level of service.
• There is virtually no effort to learn from other countries /cities on how to improve speed of construction in the roads sector. Technological advances seem to be nearly absent.
• Still no kerbside taxi service. City needs at least one lakh more taxis.
• A standard manual for infrastructure [Bangalore Street Design Manual], which covers roads, signals, junctions, under-passes, crosswalks, and much more is needed.
• New drain design must be adopted on all roads, not only TenderSURE ones. Soak pits are needed every 100 m to charge groundwater and prevent flooding.
• There is no routine data collection to understand changing patterns of mobility, nor a planning process to respond to growing needs. BMLTA needs to take up these functions.
• Priced parking must be introduced.
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