Commute

Do you remember a time when Bengaluru’s streets turned into playgrounds? Children would be out in hordes playing cricket or football. Pensioners would be out on their evening stroll. Grocery shopping meant walking to the neighbourhood angadi and back. Those commuting to work would either catch a bus or even walk the distance if office was not too far away. The times are different now. The roads are almost always jam-packed, and spending at least an hour or two on commute has become the norm. In a move to improve mobility in the city, several government organisations including Directorate of Urban Land…

If you have travelled in and around Koramangala, you might have seen advertisements by ZipGo with pictures of maxicabs. In fact, many of you might have even downloaded ZipGo app on your mobile phones and commuted on these AC maxicabs by now. It has been only a month since four youngsters launched ZipGo maxicab operations in Bengaluru. ZipGo began its operation on August 11th and in a month’s time, the number of routes in which service is provided has been increased from two to eight. Two new routes are in the offing this week. The routes are mostly in South…

This is an idea of how Chalukya Circle (CC) Junction and surrounding areas can be made signal-free with existing infrastructure. The idea if implemented will make the following four bottle necks signal free and cross-traffic free. Chalukya Circle AG's Office signal on Palace Road Palace Road-Sankey Road Junction Miller Tank Bund Road-Sankey Road.  The following roads lead into and away from the circle.  Raj Bhavan Road - one way from Raj Bhavan to Chalukya Circle Race Course Road - two way Palace Road from Maharani's college side - two way Palace Road towards Cunningham Road - one way towards Cunningham…

A press note from KSRTC describes the arrangement of special buses, in view of Gowri-Ganesh festival. Here goes the press note: KSRTC has made elaborate arrangements for operating more than 1000 extra buses as mentioned below in addition to the existing schedules to provide transport facility to the traveling public from 15.09.2015 to 16.09.2015. Special buses will be exclusively operated from Bangalore Kempegowda Bus Station to Dharmastala, Kukkesubramanya, Shimoga, Hassan, Mangalore, Coondapura, Shringeri, Horanadu, Davangere, Hubli, Dharwar, Belgaum, Bijapur, Gokarna, Sirsi, Karwar, Raichur, Gulbarga, Bellary, Koppala, Yadgir, Bidar, Thirupathi and other places. Special buses from Mysore road Satellite bus station…

A two-wheeler collides with another vehicle, spilling its rider onto the pavement. An onlooker reacts immediately, pulling out his or her cellphone to dial the emergency number, 108. What happens next is a series of snap-decisions and hasty phone calls to ensure a medical professional arrives on site as quickly as possible. Depending on the location, the Emergency Disaster Management Unit call centre, being run by GVK-EMRI, sends an emergency vehicle. Since mid-April, a new type of vehicle has been added: the bike ambulance. For these two-wheelers, weaving through Bengaluru’s terrible traffic, is much quicker than their four-wheeled counterparts. If…

Here is an announcement from KSRTC: In view of Tiru Onam festival, KSRTC has made elaborate arrangements for operating extra buses as mentioned below in addition to the existing schedules to provide transport facility to the traveling public from 26/08/2015 to 01/09/2015. Special buses from Mysore Road Bus Station and Shanthinagar Bus Station in Bangalore will be exclusively operated in important places of Kerala State i.e, Cannanoor, Kozikod, Ernakulam,  Palghat, Trissur, Kottayam etc. Facility to book computerized reservation tickets in advance for the special buses have been provided. Reserved passengers should note the place of boarding in their reservation ticket.…

Traffic at the Marathahalli-Sarjapur Outer Ring Road. File pic.  It has been two years since I wrote this on the sorry state of commuters and residents along the Outer-Ring-Road. Fast forward to the present, nothing much has changed. It might in fact have gotten worse as more and more bottlenecks have sprung up. In these two years, more people have added their own cars to the roads, more buildings have come up and more companies have moved in to the stretch between Sarjapura Road and Doddanakundi. Ecospace, a word that now mainly conjures up images of traffic jams when heard…

Hello Dr Saleem, At the outset a big thank you for reaching out to citizens on this serious issue that we face on a day to day basis. Just to give you the context, every day I travel from Jayanagar 5th block to Iblur in 30-40 minutes. It takes me another 20-30 minutes (there have been days when it has taken as long as an hour) from Iblur to Adarsh Palm Retreat in Bellandur. I am guessing a good 3-4 lakh people are employed in IT companies between Iblur and Marathalli junction and another 3 lakh people pass through this…

How long does it take you to get to office? 10 to 20 minutes, 45 minutes, a little more than an hour, or two hours? For those of you who spend long hours on your commute, what do you do? Read? Work on your phone? Listen to music? Read a book? Well, here's something else you could do... Vikas Tripathi, a resident of Whitefield, works in an organisation operating out of M G Road. The present condition of the infrastructure in Whitefield ensures that it takes him around one and a half to two hours everyday, to reach his office.…