I moved out of Bangalore more than a year back and recently went there for a week. After staying abroad (in US specifically) just more than a year and then going to back to Bangalore looks a punishing experience. First, the trip from Airport to the hotel in outer ring road. Being a Bangalorean for more than a decade, I know the real fact that traffic is going to kill me. But it became a torture after touching Hebbal flyover. More than 30 mins just to cross that 1 km stretch. And them comes the ring road.
Took almost another hour to reach KR purim and another hour to reach Sarjarpur road. There used to be a time, when from KR puram to Silk board didn't take more than 25 mins. It is gone by now, on the cost of what ? Blame it on the development. Development for what ? Making the life horrible for people of Bangalore. Looks by default everyone need to spend 3-4 hours in the road. Where is life after this ? By creating this horrible condition, they will make sure the people behavior change over a period of time. There is no point in blaming a person, who cuts through you in the front, honking unnecessarily, rash driving when there is a gap etc etc.
Whom to blame ? Happened to notice so many big building coming in both sides of the outer ring road, especially near Hebbal fly over. Did they really think about the number of vehicles going to add mess to this current situation. Think about the advertisements for these building with the fancy words "heaven", "paradise" , "heart of the city", "live in green" what not. Come on guys, just check outside your window before coining these terms.
When the traffic is in chaos in the outer ring road, the metro runs almost empty except the few hours in the morning and evening. Yeap, you need connections to the heart of the city, but where is the crowd. Common sense should have told you to make the first phase in the outer ring road and in electronic city. There is still no plans for the same.
Just feel super sorry for the people who need to spend most of their times in the road. Likes of traffic constables, taxi drivers, auto drivers, bus drivers etc etc. Smoke and dust, heat and rain, chaos and honks, life without a rest, super sorry. After a superb effort from one of the top person in bangalore traffic department, I am not seeing those license and bribe incidents which we used to see 10 years before. Now I do have good respect for the traffic police. But their posts in the Facebook for filling potholes and repairing roads. Come on, do not expect rewards for this. It is not your duty, someone in the PWD failed already.
For sure, one need to spend ~10 mins for every km of travel. It is bulging and bulging and this can become 20-30 mins soon. Where we can travel after this ?
Do we have some solutions for this ? Sure, someone will come here and explain the visionary plans for Bangalore 2020, 2030 etc etc. We know, by 2020 or 2030 we'll still talk about the same or new problems for 2040 or 2050. Can they do something for the near future ? Hope banning the cars and mopeds in these main roads and promoting the public transport will ease this a lot. But do anyone has a gut to
