1. Where do BTP stand on the issue of levying fees on private vehicles for parking on Bangalore roads?
2. What are the practical difficulties BTP sees in a paid parking regime and does BTP have an opinion on the method of parking fees?
3. What role will BTP play & what are the challenges BTP foresees for itself in a paid parking regime?
4. Where does the BTP stand on congestion charging & other private transport disincentives & on method for the same?

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This a picture I took at 5th Main, 5th Cross, Malleswaram - in front of a BBMP Service Point and opposite Malleswaram Police station. I see no hope.

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Few more things to understand, BTP vs BBMP

• Does BTP work with BBMP to enforce parking bye-laws?
• How are the parking rates determined? By BBMP alone, or BTP have a say?
• Beyond BBMP, who else will we have to go meet/lobby with for producing a status report cum proposal for managing parking in the city? BDA? BMRDA?
• Experience with "outsourcing" parking fee collection - does BTP have any role?

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I think enough questions have already been raised.

One question (discussed previously) is to enquire the possibility for RWAs /shop assns /comml bldg assns to enforce parking restrictions & parking fee collection within their areas. Though this may be a subject for BBMP, we can enquire about what BTP has to say.

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Nowadays reflectors are put along the lane markers in main roads - like reflectors placed along hosur road expressway. These reflectors placed enforce lane discipline since vehicle makes sound when car tyre goes on them. "dhad dhad dhad" and car guy follow lane discipline.

Another advantage of this is it is more troublesome for auto guys. They have 3 wheels, so more difficult to go over lane divider markings. While 4 wheelers have 2 tracks, autos have 3 tracks. So auto guys being lane jumpers this will stop them.

We should ask Sood to implement this reflectors wherever double lane road is there in city.

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1. what is the enforcement plan to restrict two wheelers to park in their own reserved lot.

Most of the time, they park in four wheeler slots. This leads to further chaos as the four wheeler will  try to squeeze  in leading to heated arguments when removing/entering.   

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Hello,

This is the question I want to pose for the traffic police. I don't know, people intentionally or ignorantly, park their vehicles just under and around the No-Parking sign, I have seen these kind of scenes a lot of times, probably a lot of you people will also agree to that.

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Does BTP have any plans to have physical dividers near the junctions where the traffic diverts to different directions. 

Ex:  Near Junctions as shown below, traffic moving towards right will be on the left lane and thus blocking the entire traffic which has to move straight. 

Build dividers so as if they end up in the wrong lane, the vehicle should not be able to take the turn.

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Please guys, keep it to parking. Is anyone else coming? Its a saturday afternoon after all!

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Too strict laws are difficult to enforce, bad for society. Dividers to enforce lane is bad idea. In my area i regularly park my car under a no-parking pole. Wide road, less traffic but still why no parking there? So here are my questions:

1. What is the procedure to remove unnecessary and no-longer-required no-parking signs?

2. Wheel clamps they started use to lock cars parked wrongly is a good initiative. Less effort for police and no damage to cars during towaway too. What is the status? How is the response? Clamp notice tucked to car wiper is only in English, it should be in Kannda too.

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Had called Mr Sood's office this morning to double check. It seems today is a government holiday, and as a result our meeting is postponed.

Will reschedule, but let us keep the topic going. Like the picture from RS above shows, BBMP or Police need to take this parking problem a lot seriously.

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Confirmed next Saturday, Sep 25, same time (3 PM) with Mr Sood. The govt holiday was declared only this morning, thats why the last minute change.

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I dont know if its clear from the picture - but the cars parked belong to `Maruthi Driving School'  - which is  why I think there is no hope. On some earlier occasion when I was passing that way I asked a student, who was in one of the parked cars in the driving seat, what the blue sign with a red line accross meant - he very happily said -` No Parking' without even realizing what he had done ! I went in and asked the people if they teach Rules of the Road - they proudly said - `Yes they do !'. Then I asked them why their cars are parked before the No Parking sign - they claimed they had permission from the police. At which point I left.

Ramesh

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Wonder if the parking policy paper has been utilized any by the btp?

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This meeting is on, few folks are going to meet Mr Sood.

Agenda: start work on the subject of using parking fee/congestion charging/cordon pricing as means to control traffic (and promote PT) in the central areas of Bangalore.

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I will join.

K.V.Pathy

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@ Mr Pathy or anyone else

I'll pass Shanti Sagar, Domlur, by around 2.30 PM. If any one wants a ride, contact on 98450 75543.

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Thanks for asking my question about clamps. Law and enforcement are different, a strict law makes enforcement difficult and increases corruption. Clamps reduced effort required for enforcement, thus law becomes more effective.

Paking fees should be applicable only for 4 wheelers. This is politically correct as we can say only rich car people are levied parking fees - and thus very less opposition from public. Car parking is a problem, two wheeler parking not causing so much problem. We could have suggested it to Sood, though he doesnt have power but he can definitely recommend BBMP regarding this.

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 Where do BTP stand on the issue of levying fees on private vehicles for parking on Bangalore roads?

BTP believes offstreet parking is the ideal scenario as onstreet takes away much needed bandwidth from carriageway. However there are unavoidable scenarios which need to be addressed via on-street parking , not just here but throughout the world, so as not do destroy the economic ecosystem especially in CBD areas. Roads were identified in the BBMP council approved parking plan for onstreet parking

What are the practical difficulties BTP sees in a paid parking regime and does BTP have an opinion on the method of parking fees?

Parking fees & provisioning are a BBMP subject. Traffic police do not have a role to play currently. Fees setting is defined in the BBMP parking policy.

What role will BTP play & what are the challenges BTP foresees for itself in a paid parking regime?

As per the parking policy approved by BBMP the contract takes care of enforcing the payment for parking

Where does the BTP stand on congestion charging & other private transport disincentives & on method for the same?

They are for it but see practical difficulties which if not sorted out will make it difficult to implement. Mr Sood believes we are quite a while away before going for congestion charging when we cant even decide to charge for parking especially with the BBMP parking law already approved by the council

Does BTP work with BBMP to enforce parking bye-laws?

BTP enforces only no parking violations. Provisioning & enforcement of the payment for parking is done as a part of the parking contract

How are the parking rates determined? By BBMP alone, or BTP have a say?

Opinions are always taken but it is set in the BBMP parking policy approved by the council

Beyond BBMP, who else will we have to go meet/lobby with for producing a status report cum proposal for managing parking in the city? BDA? BMRDA?

BBMP mainly as the policy was approved in the council and paid parking is a subject matter of BBMP.

Experience with "outsourcing" parking fee collection - does BTP have any role?

No

Wheel clamps they started use to lock cars parked wrongly is a good initiative. Less effort for police and no damage to cars during towaway too. What is the status? How is the response? 

Enforcement levels have shot up with the wheel clamps. It is far more effective for police to use this than trying to tow cars. While they were able to tow 500 cars in the 10,000 towings that were done this month as against 50,000 car wheels that where clamped in one month alone with 500 clamps doing the deed

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IDS has elaborated about the meet & the limited role played by Traffic Police in the city's Parking policy. Some more thoughts dwelled upon by Mr Sood were :

1) Traffic has reduced & has now become somewhat better manageable in the last 2-3 years due to increased enforcement & less private traffic due to better quality volvo buses, as alternative for commuters.

2) Parking enforcement is best done by involving local associations (such as shopkeeper assns) & RWAs or business assns on individual roads.

3) Many problem junctions have been sorted out whilst work is on to sort out few more. A few intersections continue to remain problematic for which solutions are being searched.

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@Naveen

I am not in any way saying that BMTC's Volvo operations have not contributed to reduction in car/ two-wheeler usages. Though, of course, I'll certainly maintain that their smarter deployment could have made a lot bigger contribution, and that's where BMTC seems to be suffering from all kinds of limitations, which matter has already been discussed elsewhere (here's one example)
 

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Thanks for the interesting updates from the meeting..and the clamp thing is indeed a very good move..but unfortunately with past experiences  was wondering if govt really got 1 crore Rs for the 50,000 cars clamped in a month..thats loads of money..

Coming back to parking issues..permits for area wise parking should be an interesting project that corporators can take on..if not all areas it can be piloted in well defined localities like Jayanagar..where street parking is a complete nuisance especially around the Maiyyas restraunt and near Adigas (wonder if a coffee can justify the queues there)

I pity the residents there who have to face the ruckus every day and night because of coffees and rave idlis..!!

Same will be the case in other places like Malleshwaram too..

All we need a strong progressive corporator who is open to thoughts..anyone knows someone?

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 permits for area wise parking should be an interesting project that corporators can take on.

If you know the RWA's lets talk to them as well and go to the corporator with them. It need not be an entire ward. It could be a single street as long as there is an association which is ready for onstreet or offstreet parking. One thing is sure, it is never a losing proposition money wise. This works best in areas where mixed use has created a mess this can bring some semblance of order. 

If each of us did it in our wards we may get all Bangalore covered with the govt stance becoming irrelevant. I will talk in my ward as well. Lets see who can get there first. If you know NGO groups who wants to take this on we can incubate this with best practices, get them connected with both the equipment vendor side & the govt side to evaluate feasibility. 

On the overall parking scheme for Bangalore which has gone into cold storage, we are trying to line up a meeting with BBMP, but thats a different story.

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Traffic has reduced

I don't think that's what Mr Sood said, or meant to say (Traffic can't have reduced, even with improved ridership of Volvo's, since it's getting more than compensated by the addition of another 1300 vehicles a day onto the roads). What he said was that whereas gridlocks were a regular feature earlier, they have become rare now, because of better traffic management. And, ungrudgingly, the credit is due to him for effective use of technology in this regard. In fact, he gave us a demo on the large screen at his side of the live traffic flow at the important junctions across the city, as also on the ready availability of data compiled under various headings.

Very much as Mr Sood stated, policy making does not come under his domain - only enforcement of laws drawn up under policies decided by the elected bodies. But, he has his opinions alright, and most of them are in agreement with those of 'prajagalu'. And, it's upto the prajagalu (citizenry, in general) to mould public opinion, which will then eventually get reflected in the netas' thinking too.

He expressed specific appreciation of the role being played by PRAJA, amongst others, in this aspect.
 

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Traffic can't have reduced

Vehicle additions are on-going all the time, no doubt, but the number of vehicles on the roads at any given time in say, 2006 & now, has decreased - at least from what I have observed. I'm not certain what Mr Praveen Sood meant, but I gathered that he agreed with this. Others present can perhaps fill in with their views.

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 Car parking is a problem, two wheeler parking not causing so much problem.

Dont agree, all private motorized vehicles regardless of size cause congestion. The attitude & driving styles are all the same, chaotic, indisciplined. Cycles only should be allowed to park free because of not consuming fossil fuel or harming the environment.

 This is politically correct as we can say only rich car people are levied parking fees - and thus very less opposition from public

This is not about who is rich of poor but about using a motorized private vehicle when public transport options like train & bus are available.

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