Our city's authorities have not failed to mention escalators whenever skywalks are announced, & announcements have been so many in the recent past, with nothing much to show for it.

If BBMP had been sensible, they would have fitted just one & by now, tested it over a period as a pilot case, & ironed out any problems for fitting others.

If & when they do start installing these, there are sure to be issues that will need addressing, & they would not only have wasted time, but a lot of money with anticipated retrofits.

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 Here is a post from silkboard in Dec 2007.  That is about 25 months back.

http://praja.in/en/blog/silkboard/2007/12/30/56-sky-walks-pedestrians

and again in Sep 2008 by Bengaloorappa about some EOI

http://praja.in/en/discuss/forums/2008/09/bangalores-new-skywalk-locations  

Those links to the tenders in these posts no longer work.  Any idea if any of those 56 have actually come up?

 BIAL started construction in Jul 2005 and was done by Mar 2008.  

Srivathsa

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BBMP should have considered the  NH-4 near Yesvanthpur Station to cross NH-4 and Station in one go with either sub-way or Foot over Bridge, this type provided in Mumbai. Here all KSRTC buses stops & Yesvanthpur  Station passangers require to cross NH-4. Also METRO work  is in progress in this section.

Also at Cantonment station, its real difficult to cross the raod infront of station & traffic gets affected due to unsafe crossing by pedestrians.

Also at Hebbal Airforce station next to Mecri Cricle they should provide the skywalks.

Any one has idea of Malleshawram pedestrians sub-way at Malleshwaram  Underpass not opened even after a year. 

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 BBMP should have considered the  NH-4 near Yesvanthpur Station to cross NH-4 and Station in one go with either sub-way or Foot over Bridge

It is needed here, but If something piecemeal were to be put up now it should be modifiable to connect the yeshwantpur metro station (near goverdhan) directly to the SWR and the TTMC (coming up behind Gopal theater) without people having to comedown to the road unless necessary. One long corridor at the same level. It can have exits on to the streets via escalators where necessary. At SWR it can connect to the platform Skywalk already existing with exit escalator to the entrance plaza. They should make provisions for a travelator inside the skywalk. Infact these types of skywalk connectors should be made available at all integration points of the metro. 

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Not to say that skywalks are not needed, but in Mumbai, I observed the long skywalk between Bandra station & western express highway empty with very few users even during peak times.

It might make a lot of difference if elevators /escalators & walkalators are included, but then there is the question of recurring costs for power & maintenance - private parties can be given advertising rights & brought in, but will this actually see better utilization ?

Much of our crowd prefers taking risks across streets. Where such facilities are provided, roads must be barricaded & kept put of bounds for jay walkers. Nothing else seems to work. An example is the subway between city railway station & KBS where it is working excellently, despite the absence of escalators, & in spite of long walks. Churchgate station (in Mumbai) is another example for good utilization.

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 Much of our crowd prefers taking risks across streets.

Like anything else it must be a less expensive option (not monetarily) to take the skywalk. If one got off the metro and found the skywalk at the same level to where he wants to go without having to go to the street level he will take it. If you make him go down to the street only to climb back up again its is wasted time even if there are escalators etc, and he will prefer to cross the street from where he is. This is the trick we are missing in skywalks pick people up from buildings before they got on to the street and save time then they will choose. Dont make them go to the street if they have nothing to do there. This makes maximum sense where there are public buildings like bus stands, stations, shopping malls etc. At other places where people are already on the streets, it is better to have a surface level ped crossing. So the places must be carefully chosen.

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 The spots that the BBMP has identified are Christ College, Commercial Street, Devaraj Urs Road, Himalaya Theatre, Lashkar Road Forum, MS Building, Richmond Road, Shivananda Circle near Desai Hospital, SMS Railway Junction, Subramanyanagar Police Station, Webb Junction near MG Road and Rajaram Mohan Roy Road."

I dont know if ANY of these places make sense for a skywalk. Whats wrong with having a ped crossing in these places? Cars dont have brakes? They are not exactly highways or expressways. Commercial street is the most comical. 

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Perfectly assessed.

Though such designs would be easy at Metro stations (elevated or underground), railway stations & at bus stands, it might not be possible to design them at road intersections /traffic signals, & this is where much of the pedestrian movements take place & facilities are much needed for getting across streets.

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Earlier Minister for Transport R. Ashok  had announced during  Sept'2009 about the various projects for Bangalore. In this they had announced construction of 200 skywalks along the signal-free corridors (Rs. 600 crore).  When these will be put in place or just announcement.

http://beta.thehindu.com/news/states/karnataka/article15863.ece

Where ever major Trafic junctions or TTMC are coming ,  Detailed study to be done. Take the case of  Yesvanthpur or Hebbal, Silk Borad,  Cantonment Station where crossing of Rail track / platform, National Highway / Major Road and for changing over to other modes of transport with distance to cover nearly  500 to 800 M. We need allow the public to use these system &  publicity by BBMP or Traffic Police  need to be done.

This  to be achieved  by integarting  Foot over bridge, Escaltors /  Elevators or  Walkalators.   Usage of these will improve over the period and trafic disturbances on the Signal free Corridor  should come down.

In Mumbai,  Footover Bridges  are in full use.  In Navi Mumbai its really helped passangers to use Local Trains & Suburban Buses.  In Navi Mumbai,  these were put in place way back  1994-98.

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Skywalks are required to ensure pedestrian safety. Cars dont have brakes? They do have but sometimes the same do not seem to work at signals itself where will it work at pedestrian crossings. But I feel proper subways will be better than skywalks with proper security being posted. The reason for the same is for a subway a maximum of 7 feet deep is required as against 15ft height for a skywalk to ensure the tallest of vehicle passing under it. And as rightly pointed out proper barricading and other work is required. More than stairs if they construct ramps similar to the one at KBS it will ensure more usage.

wherever there is an underpass or subway it is required to have a pedestrian walkway. One can never cross the road at BTM near the Jayadeva flyover due to continous flow of traffic. similar is the case at silkboard,Mekhri circle,IAF and places along the Devanahalli airport Road wher eit is a high risk too considering that the dividers are quite high and narrow. BBMP must ensure better security of pedestrians at this place too.

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When BBMP has failed to even begin construction of most of the skywalks it had planned earlier, I am extremely cynical of any of these  - with even grander plans for escalators et.al. - coming up. The ridiculous choice of locations - barring Richmond Road - does not help improve the impression of lack of seriousness on the part of BBMP.

@ IDS: Well said!

And in the midst of all this, locations that really need skywalks - Tin Factory, ORR, and New Airport Road - continue to languish. So much hope in the new decade.

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 Whether people choose to use it or not, there has to be an option for people who want to to cross safely.  

IDS - have you ever crossed that stretch of road at Christ College.  The flyover at Dairy Circle brings a steady stream of traffic to that point and one has to cross it risking limb if not life.  100s of students cross that road.  Forum - on the Hosur Road going to Dairy CIrcle same story.  

Richmond Road - there are two crossings for that whole stretch.  And there are lots of schools.  

MS Building - probably on the road from Gopalagowda Circle to KR Circle.  Needed.  

At many of the junctions they should put up 4 way skywalks so that people can go from any corner to any other corner without getting off.  

Srivathsa

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Risk of accidents is very high at places like Christ college, Forum, Richmond rd, etc. as vehicles are very rash. An alternate could be a raised pedestrian crossing (to calm traffic) as also posting of pedestrian sentries.

If other countries can do this as routine at every intersection & throughout the day, I don't see why we cannot, especially with our 1.1 billion population !

A new cadre of pedestrian sentries (or wardens) must be a formally created out of traffic constables, who could man & monitor pedestrian safety at high-density crossings - Picture below shows this in action. As of now, such monitoring of pedestrian safety is only when (& where) necessary, & is not a regular routine.

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If car's drivers don't know how to apply brakes at pedestrian lights, then they need to spend some time in a jail, or surrender their licenses. We can't have BBPM spending money to work over bad habbits and manners of our drivers.

Skywalks with automatic escalators are fine, but without them, please, we don't need them.

Even otherwise, we need skywalks only on planned signal free corridors. All other roads just need pedestrian markings and regular signals. We are not gaining anything by "eliminating" pedestrians when traffic anyway has to line up at current or the next signal.

Further, magic-box type under-passes would work much better, as you just need to go 10-12 steps down amd up (6-8 feet?) as opposed to at least 35-40 steps up and then down to accomodate for heights of commercial vehicles and necessary clearance (18-20 feet?).

Someone show me a photo of a crowded skywalk from Bangalore, I am eager to see one. Exception - don't count the one over Majestic bus stand, it isn't really a regular skywalk, its a long bridge.

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JSL Architecture Ltd has designed, fabricated and installed over 18 kilometers of elegant stainless steel railings on Skywalks all across the city of Mumbai, at some of the most important railway stations like Goregaon, Santa Cruz, Vile Parle, Vasai, Kandiwali, Grant Road, Wadala, Bhayander, Dahisar, Cotton Greens, Khargar, Mera Road etc., right up to Ambernath.

Design of railings specific to each Skywalk

The design, fabrication and installation at each of these sites is unique due to the type of elevation required, traffic density and the chaos of Mumbai that is around that spot. The design takes into account the sensitivities of the architect responsible for that particular project, depending on the nature of the civil works

http://www.stainlessindia.org/UploadPdf/January-%202012%20(pdf.%201.50%20MB).pdf

In Mumbai Skywalks have made difference for pedestrians.

Today I was going via  the K R Puram Bridge to whitefield,  aBefore K R Puram Bridge one FOB which is used heavily by pedistrians.  But their is no footpaths arround the bridge even dangerous spots where box drainages are open which are 4 Ft depth.

At  Manyatha Park,  IT people have to cross road at the mercy of the vechiles.  I feel all Educated IT people at this place should stand up in the road during morning or evening Hrs and stop the traffic till dumb and blind authorities and politicians comes and gives deadline for FOB.

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5 years later 54 skywalks announced 

http://bangalore.citizenmatters.in/articles/these-are-the-54-skywalks-that-are-proposed-to-come-up-in-bengaluru

Take number 5 for example who wants to go from hospital to the ground? First whats in the ground for hospital patients? Second its only 7 meters across why isnt there a pedestrian crossing? I rest my case

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This is perhaps the n + 23 rd time the government is tendering out the contract. No takers previously; doubtful if it'll attract any now. Plainly too complicated and unworkable a PPP model (check here). Meanwhile, the roads at the junctions will remain dug up for years together causing bigger bottle-necks.

Besides, what are planned don't appear to be sky-walks. They are plain foot-overbridges. I feel the distinction needs to be made. Sky-walks you have plenty in Mumbai (check here). I don't think there are any in Namma Bengaluru yet, except between KG bus station and City Rly station, though Domlur fly-over junction (check here), Silk Board fly-over junction (check here), Yeswantpur rly station, etc, could do with them, and very badly too.

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These should be simple foot over-bridges with roof instead of hi-fi skywalks with elevators/escalators which are maintenance nightmares. Even after 2-3 months after a girl died near Kempapura Junction on NH-7, procedures are not properly laid out to speed this up for pedestrian safety.

Also, the list of places don't include places near Ecospace, Prestige Tech Park on the Outer Ring Road where there are crowds of people wanting to cross the road and running for their lives daily.

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I am a bit disappointed that my brilliant idea of sending vehicles underground was not appreciated (at all :-( )

Then I read Mr. Naveen's comment about Pedestrian Sentries and turned it upside down.

No. We need vehicle sentries - a person with a red flag will walk in front of every vehicle to warn other users of the approaching danger. No more deaths due to vehicles speeding and colliding. We will instantly create <fill in >  million jobs and the fortunate can have their luxury too.

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