Traffic police says walk, cycle or ride a bus to get priority on road

NT Correspondent

 Bengaluru

 To reduce traffic congestion in the city and across the state, the Karnataka government is getting ready to launch a pilot project in Tumakuru besides one Bengaluru zone. The state is going to be experimenting with an active mobility plan under which pedestrians, cyclists and public transport modes will be given priority on roads. The move is being implemented to bring down dependence on private transportation and reduce congestion in urban areas.

The city has seen an exponential rise of 350% in private vehicle ownership, one of the main reasons being the lack of reliable public transportation systems. Public transport system is still unable to present itself as an attractive mode of travel. When the time and cost required to travel from point A to point B in the city are taken into consideration, public transport seems like an unreliable option. “Buses run along with mixed traffic, increasing their travel time when compared to using a personal vehicle or hailing a cab,” said Dr Ashish Verma, a mobility expert from IISc (Indian Institute of Science). While city buses have a vast network stretched across the city, metro lines are still insufficient.

 A certain amount of increase in private ownership is also due to the pandemic. “Over a long period, the increase has been happening but in the last few years, especially during Covid times, it has further gone up,” said Ashish. Since the risk of catching the virus was high when on a public transport, and social distancing norms were in place, people found it convenient and safer to travel in vehicles of their own, leading to a spike in private vehicle ownership.

Now, the authorities want to improve things. Measures to add cycling and bus lanes to Bengaluru’s infrastructure have been taken up before. However, these initiatives have thrived only for a short duration of time and have been overshadowed by other public infrastructure and development projects taken up in the city.