rock on sri!! awesome post.
here is some proof by example that 'you cannot widen your way out of congestion'.


jakarta


seoul


beunos aires

Most cities in the US have a stagerring 30-60% of the city area dedicated to roads and parking and they still have congestion.

All cities have a certain level of congestion irrespective of the level of public transport in the city. different cities have played with different percentages of pub trans infra to priv trans infra to achieve that level of acceptable congestion. boston is slightly road heavy,  nyc is metro heavy. but congestion levels are more or less similar. but it must also be said that cities like los angeles, atlanta and houston that are very road heavy have higher than average congestion levels. a respectable level of pub trans is needed to be near the averages.

but irrespective of the level of pub trans, a certain minimum level of road infra is needed for blr. what that is has to be directly addressed rather than all these circuitous debates on trees & pedestrians. if tree lined roads are bangalore's heritage then get very serious about it. acquire land for trees.
see either way we are spending money - directly or indirectly(burning petrol in jams). might as well do it, directly. my dream is 3x3 signal free roads, with half lane markings(to regulate autos and bikes) along all the arteries + orr + icrr with footpaths, magic underpasses for street crossing, bus bays and trees on the median. fix the minimum design standards and repeat them on all the above mentioned roads.

we can curse our autos, bikes, cycles and our heterogenous modes till the buses come home but it is also true that there is no city of the size of bangalore that does not have congestion, irrespective of what model the city has adopted or how homogenous the city's traffic is. theories based on nice and convenient fluid dynamics is fine, but our reality is completely different from those theoretical models and we need practical solutions to help palike engineers not ammo for inteligencia to diss hapless auto drivers, bikers, cyclists and walkers.

thanks
tarle

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While it is true that "road widening doesnt always help!". But lets face it, our existing road infrastructure is definitely below the standards where it should be. I do accept that alternate public modes of transport available in Bangalore are grossly inadequate. But people should be encouraged to use public modes of transport. Apart from BMTC, there is not mass public transport system available in Bangalore. Putting rail lines definitely will take another 5 to 10 years. So atleast we should try to enocurage people to use the existing BMTC system. There are 2 problems facing BMTC now. i) Not enough services available ii) Takes too much time to travel from A to B. One of the solutions to problem ii) is road widening. Just widening of the roads will not help. City roads should be moulded in a way that they cater to all kinds of traffic and especially bicycle riders wherever possible. And also there should be proper classification of roads between highways and city roads. I believe Bellary road is a part of NH-7 and there is noway it should have entered the city, or the city around NH-7.

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bingo christopher!! right on the ball.

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we have seen this before..technology wise we moved to mobile phones much faster than the US which was still wondering what to do with all the pagers that they had with them.. similarly we need to identify and adapt to the needs of the hour.. Seoul's subway network was the most comprahensive one that one can see. http://hoonoong.compuz.com/bari/attach/1/1371168768.jpg It was discussed earlier in Praja itself. Even with that the above photo from their roads is a really alarming!

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The problem with Los Angeles is almost similar to Bangalore. Both cities have experienced very fast growth rates. In LA they have developed a very vast freeway network neglecting the metro rail/subway systems. Bus services are available but will take thrice as long as a car ride. I took a ride from USC in downtown Los Angeles to Arcadia near Pasadena and it took me 2 hours with two transfers. But a car ride would have taken me half an hour to 45 minutes at the most. Hence people prefer to travel on cars and the freeways are full of cars. While LA traffic is bad cosidering other US cities, it is a lot better when you compare it to Bangalore. The saving grace being the freeway system which is decent enough and constantly upgraded. A good rail/metro system would have reduced the road traffic problem in LA. Bangalore has a very minimal road network and zero rail system. And the growth rate it is experiencing is phenomenal. A lot needs to be done. We are at a stage where our infrastructure are 20 to 30 years behind. Bangalore has outgrown its infrastructure. Roads, metro rails, mono rails, BRT everything should come up. Road widening of course is one solution and just road widening alone will not help. If it stops with road widening, in no time the roads will be filled up.

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I believe that more than road widening, improving the road network is the need of the hour. By this I mean, a drastic shift from the current "ribbon development" (I think Pranav had a post about this sometime ago in silkboard.wordpress.com)

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Today, a car without a chaffeur (and a mobile phone for him) is a dead liability. You can waste hours together finding parking space, and thereafter retrieving your car. If efficient well-connected bus services are made available, I will happily dispose off my cars.

And, most certainly, a monopoly BMTC cannot be relied upon to provide efficient well-connected bus services. We need to have TVS's and TATAs in the picture.

Muralidhar Rao

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I Think its more than time to realise that traffic problems are best understood this way:

Traffic is like a baloon you hold one end and there another end that  swells up
Simple as that!
So if you want to manage/regulate traffic you need to add more road (!) OR get the singe drivers and the vehicles off the road, get them to use public transport.

Am from Bangalore and we know fully well that public transport/mass transport is a dream that we all want to have soon enough.
Quick Fix solutions dont work sadly but quick fixes probably get votes and then its some one elses problem.

--
Praveen
AkA PhotoYogi

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As against your comment that "there are two problems facing BMTC now", I wish to submit that BMTC itself is the problem - rather, its monopoly status. Read more at
http://traffic-transport-solutions.blogspot.com/, and
http://bangalore.praja.in/blog/murali772/2007/12/12/better-bussing-green-bangalore

Muralidhar Rao

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Lot of people have bought cars which were their dream and this dream is becoming reality because of high earning salaries and easy loans. On the other hand, this has become curse to Bangalore. In IT companies, in the lifts, lot of rumours and gossips will be about new cars that are released. Only car sellers come to IT companies and not the 2 wheeler companies. This type of interests and campaign is the problem causing the congestion and thereby demanding wide roads.

Few of my friends who bought cars after doing lot of research on Autocar, Overdrive and BSMotoring were using cars with high passion which only lived for short time. Their travel time became almost 1.5 to 2 times than their commute with their 2 wheelers at the cost of 3-4 times of fuel of 2 wheelers. They switched back to their original 2 wheelers as they felt it was just luxurious inconvenience introduced to ourselves!!. They are just starting their cars for a while daily and going for nearby rounds to keep the car battery healthy. Most of them go in the night drives near their homes. Car batteries are not getting charged enough because of headlights draining out batteries. Their and even my car battery is drying out if the cars are not started continuously for 4-5 days!!  My car mechanic also told the same thing and the battery charging customers are increasing.

Car is good only for weekend family drives,  not for daily office commut, but, unfortunately, car needs to be taken out for keeping the battery healthy. For this reason few drive the cars to office. Having a car itself is a problem except for rainy season , late nights and early mornings during cold season and ofcourse for a family together outing. It would have been better if we could have had car rentals for self drive at nominal charges like US for weekend and family together drives instead of having our own cars which has become very difficult to use in the Bangalore's traffic conditions.

One thing good about this is few people are loosing interest in cars which is good sign for the Bangalore roads. 

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I have been travelling to Hyderabad frequently on work the las few months.  They have (and have been) embarked on a road widening program which has turned the city into a nightmare for pedestrians.  There are no pavements left near Panjagutta, SP Road, etc.  There is no debottlenecking done.  Some parts of the road are probably 10 lanes wide and then these merge into a 2+2 lane flyover (Begumpet station).  Absolute bedlam.  Traffic does not move.  New flyovers look like parking lots!

Not sure how many of you have heard of Peak Oil.  Some people predict that we are close to peak oil or maybe past it.  Others think it is a few years away.  It does not mean we are running out of oil.  It simply means that the days of cheap and easy oil are numbered.  The people writing about it are not doomsday crackpots, but retired geologists from the big oil companies.

 Will post a write up about it with links.  I am not sure what the Indian government's position is on Peak Oil or even if they have one.  A car based economy is not going to work. 

Srivathsa

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I have lived in singapore and US I really admire how Singapore addresses its transport problem.

Transport should be a design parameter in the city plan itself.

We have to take  a holistic view of the situation treating the city problems on individual basis is a folly the more the city grows the more people will come from the villages.

The long term solution is to enable all people capable of buying land anywhere in India. Presently it is difficult for city dwellers to buy land in rural areas due to land laws.

 If we build a few new cities from scratch we can then hope to decongest our present cities and bring down land values so that common man can survive peacefully.

With current land prices an 1000 sqft apt in bangalore costs about the same as a 2500sft home built on a  5000-10000sft  plot in many US cities.  We could loose our global compettivenes very fast thanks to the rising land prices.

In new cities high vertical growth and small city size should be encouraged. Say 20+ floors for commercial buildings and 10-15 floors for residential buildings. Flats should be big enough so that people dont feel the need to buy plots and build single homes.  

govt should only aquire the land and give the planning specs. It should specify the building sizes, and other building parameters. It should allocate land for schools, hospitals, religious places, colleges, commercial buildings.   Goods hubs and transportation hubs should be provided. World class water, seweage plants should be made.

 the infrastructure costs should be added to the per sft that is built by private companies. Im sure with present costs in Bangalore it would still be a lot cheaper per sft than present rate in bangalore.

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It is said that the 2 wheelers are more polluting than the cars (not calculated mile on mile basis but on the pollutants released into the atmosphere).

So even the 2 wheeler option needs to be dumped! We were the 2 wheeler capital of India not so long ago..but there is a trend of cars buyin taking over!

Also the problem with cars is parking space..its become a norm that each street has some cars if not all cars parked on the sides of 30 ft road reducing the road to 10-15 ft wide 

Considering all this the best approach is for some one/ allof us to walk/ride bicycle to the nearest train station..park bikes there or carry them on the trains to reach our work places!

Mr Madhu..Resp. Guv sir..are you listening!? 

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photoyogi, what you call quick fix, can also be thought of the solution of least resistance. like the water in the hills, any unstructured, unsupported by supplemental energy, unconstrained, unaccountable body including bureaucracy will take such path.

the problem is congestion, there are p-number of causes, which are listed in detail by others. With p-1 of these being un-touchable or very very difficult to tackle, people will work on the lone remaining cause- widen roads.

widening the roads, is not a solution at all and is detrimental to the essence of bangalore, but just look around, the constraints on other solutions are basically unsurmountable.

the things is none of the constraints are artificial either. CMH road traders are the ones who are giving up their sottu, even if the alternative they are suggesting is more expensive for the rest of the city. nevertheless they stand to lose. trees are like that too. cutting sites and artificially increasing land value is also like that. we dont fix legal issues and we dont educate how are apartments going to catch up?

metroman, agree with you. we should have moved to flats' culture a long time ago. pune did it, we did not.

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Two wheelers also aren't great, but, better in terms of fuel savings, space savings on the road - 6 2 wheelers can occupy the space of 1 sedan such as Honda City. Atleast 6 members on a 2 wheeler can occupy the space of 1 person who is sitting in car.

All the 4 wheelers are 4 stroke and even 2 wheelers are 4 stroke now. The amount of fuel burnt in 4 wheelers is very much high which gives an average of 16 kmpl (best mileage in Bangalore conditions) as compared to 55 kmpl in a 4 stroke bike (average fuel effeciency of a 4 stroke bike such as HH splendor).

It is a dream to travel in bicycles to station and take metro to office. But, in reality Bangalore, which is existing today, it is a wise decision to use buses /2 wheelers. Fuel wasted in a Car that too with A/C on is just a national waste as well as waste to our own pocket.

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Just as i had gone to the BDA junction to watch the marking for the Magic Box flyover , One of the engineers told me that the High grounds police station is going down today... I said to myself Ummm..... Finally the recently renovated Highgrounds police station is goin down. Its possibly sad to see this landmark of Bangalore going down but i guess its a necessary evil to accomodate the fresh traffic towards and from the BIAL Airport.

High Grounds Police Station going down
[flickr-photo:id=2300014931,size=m] [flickr-photo:id=2300032917,size=m]
[flickr-photo:id=2300032919,size=m] [flickr-photo:id=2300032953,size=m]

BDA flyover work starts
[flickr-photo:id=2300014909,size=m] [flickr-photo:id=2300014913,size=m]
[flickr-photo:id=2300014925,size=m] [flickr-photo:id=2300014927,size=m]

--
Praveen
AkA PhotoYogi

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yogi mind if I cross this on a new thread for BDA junction?

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Sure its a good idea to have a fresh thread on this i already have fresh updates online feel free to add them in

Thanks! 

--
Praveen
AkA PhotoYogi

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Then there were days when the corportors and authorities around bangalore wanted to do their bit and made the roads broader, eating up the footpath space and cutting trees..

What did we end up with? Broad road in the middle streach which narrow down at the junctions. We have many examples of this. Instead of solving isues this has created more.

This will come with simple understanding of bernoulis principles where there is a preassure varitation when ever matter moves through narrow constrictions.. 

Time to reclaim footpath and get the trees back and plan our roads more scientifically! Has anyone observed..we can pass through hudson circle area (3-4 signals) with just one clearing? Thats close to what we need! 

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junction improvements does always help. one can always literally pick up a leaf from the tree one is felling and pay attention. [flickr-photo:id=2156692757,size=m] check out the coverage on this beauty. [flickr-photo:id=150997693,size=m] lets look at neurons. http://www.nia.nih.gov/NR/rdonlyres/4E12F6CF-2436-47DB-8CC5-607E82B2B8E4/2372/neurons_big1.jpg http://www.greenspine.ca/media/neuron_culture_800px.jpg instead of widening mid sections, they should widen intersections.

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The above picture captures the neural networks that encompass the leaf. The same science of neural networks is used in modelling traffic. This is a seperate field unto itself and not many experts exist for the same in India.

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[flickr-photo:id=2309254134,size=m]

Paris has it around arch de tromphe and so does region around cannaught place in delhi.

But what do we do with Blr? We are a group of 'global' halli's....we have junctions around temples and banyan trees..sometimes wonder how the gods feel about the pollution all around! The new layouts should really concentrate on the junctions. Also, some acquisitions around existing junctions to redesign them is necessary!

The other biggest need of the hour is to have the buss bays design in place. This will greatly reduce the traffic jams on all roads..there were days when the down ramp from the sirsi circle flyover was getting clogged in front of the gopalan mall (it was not even built then) everyday..and some one thought about getting the busses into the existing left single lane which was earlier marked for the now deserted toll gate..this solved all issues and there are no more traffic jams there due to bmtc busses. That is the example we need to emulate for all bus stops in Bangalore. Bus bays which can accomodate more than 4-5 busses at a time because we have too  many busses on road now!

Wonder what happned to the initiative to make bus bays better..hope it delivers!

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We should restrict use of buses in BBMP limits. Agreed buses are needed for short term to medium term, before alternative commuter systems are in place - like Metro, Mono and perhaps even CRS.

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here is a city of halli's. every dot(.) is a halli. ka-halli, ba-halli, cha-halli ... [flickr-photo:id=2313052476,size=m] now you pick a network ... [flickr-photo:id=2312243735,size=m][flickr-photo:id=2313052508,size=m] does not matter, they are duals of each other. one eats up more area than the other, still the networks function similarly. (the nodes in one figure are more interesting than the other, but that is my drawing skill, not a feature of the network itself.) but make sure that the artery network behaves like one. notice how the two networks are 'perpendicular' to each other. what does it mean? at the very minimum it means things like this cannot happen, how-ever grand the cause might be. there is a similar on-going tussle between UB city and bangalore, the mother city. networks are critical to the survival of the city. but i like the way this discussion is headed. even if it looks like a digression from the topic of the blog, it is clear that you cannot address the issue of roads without addressing larger issues about the city itself. next question: was it a good thing to have merged all those CMC's and to have formed a bruhat bengalooru?

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