Commute

Pavements in Indira Nagar 2nd stage are no place for pedestrians, only for construction material. Pic: Praveen S The 10th main or Water Tank road (Ward 89) and the 10th A main (Ward 80) road in Indira Nagar 2nd Stage are two parallel roads connecting 100 feet road and Indiranagar Double road. Both these roads are have ten residential crosses to their left, and the 4th cross road cuts across them, leading to the Indiranagar metro station on CMH road. Off late, many people who want to skip the traffic at the CMH road-100 feet road signal near KFC, have…

This is Akshayanagar Layout, situated off Bannerghatta Road (Note: Akshayanagar is also the name of another layout situated in Ramamurthy Nagar, Bangalore). Sandwiched between Hulimavu Lake on one side and Begur Lake on the other, Akshayanagar is an upcoming locality with several residential projects under construction currently. Owing to its proximity to Bannerghatta Road, Electronic City and Jigani, it is a much sort after locality by Bangalore’s techie population. Akshayanagar Layout can be accessed from Bannerghatta Road via the BDA 80 feet road (one of the many access points), which joins the Hulimavu-Begur Road, and further connects to the Yelenahalli…

Pic: Sameer Shisodia The vehicle-free street initiative being tried out at HSR layout as an experiment is a good idea, for reclaiming common spaces. Its success and viability, however, depends on ‘we, the people’, who are responsible for making it workable. It can be done, and I have seen it working elsewhere. In Cambridge (UK), car owners park their vehicles on the periphery of the city and take feeder buses so that the city centre doesn’t get clogged. No one grumbles; no one seeks exemption; no one tries to break the rules. No fare concessions are offered, either. Around Harvard…

If an accident is caused by the poor condition of a road, should the BBMP be held responsible? And should the corporation be forced to pay compensation to such victims? There's been a lot of heated debate about this following the unfortunate recent incident, in which a woman fell off a scooter and died as her husband swerved to avoid a pothole on the street. With the cops booking the husband for negligent driving, and the BBMP pointing fingers at BDA, it seems that we were only too ready to add insult to the tragedy, whereas what is really needed…

Pic: Prashant Kamat. Keeping the roads free of potholes is quite simple. Everywhere in the world, cities do this all the time. How? By doing three or four key things. First, they build roads of high quality. We build roads of low quality thinking that they are cheaper. But that's actually not true. They keep crumbling in the rains, and we keep rebuilding them, and as a result the expenditure on the roads is actually higher in the long run. It is better to build roads once, at higher cost and quality. Look at Vittal Mallya Road - it has…

Sunday September 20th was a day like no other at HSR Layout. What was different you ask? For one, residents in the area came out to enjoy the peace and quiet on the streets in the area. Buses, cycles and feet were the most commonly used modes of transportation. Ask most participants what they thought of the initiative, and you would most likely get a resounding yes to yet another edition of the event. All was not well however. Some citizens compared the day to a bandh of sorts, since their freedom of movement was compromised. Many had to walk…

Several citizens of Bengaluru gathered at the Mayor's office on September 23rd to protest against BBMP's failure to provide safe roads in the city. Dr Dominic Dixon, one of the organisers of the protest said, "Though civil society is paying taxes, BBMP does not do it's due diligence. We handed over a memorandum to the Chief Mininster, Mayor and BBMP Commissioner which lists out what action we want them to take. If they do not respond in seven days, we will take it further." Snapshots from the protest outside the BBMP office. Pic: Dr Dominic DixonCitizens handing over the memorandum…

For years the large Civic Amenity (CA) site next to the HSR Layout BDA Complex in Sector 7 has perhaps been jockeyed for by politicians and other 'privileged' and 'connected' citizens of Bengaluru. Given the dizzying number of zeroes involved in a property so 'prime' and so large, the CA site although ideal for the construction of a large public transport terminus (BMTC and other) in the area, will see no such outcome. Information we have is that the prime property has been handed away in three parts. One is to a trust created by a powerful politician, ostensibly to…

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…