Commute

Variable Message Signboards (VMS) have been installed to inform the motorist about safety messages, traffic diversions and road accidents to enable the motorist to plan their routes. Right now they have been installed at ten locations such as Hebbal Road - Towards Bengaluru City and Towards BIAL, and Basaveshwara Circle on Race Course Road The traffic police plan to install VMS at another 10 locations in the city. Bengaluru's traffic police department has collected 36 crores as fine amount between January to September 2010 compared to 23 crores in 2009 for the same period, registering an increase of 50 percent.…

One of the few surviving "circles" of Bangalore, which looks much the same way as it must have, when it was laid out, is the Ashoka Pillar in Jayanagar:It's one of the circles to have two names;"Mariyappa Rasthe":and "Ashoka Sthambha Vrittha":Shaded by trees all around, and bounded on one side by the wall of Lalbagh, it is a gracious landmark of Bangalore...still there, but who knows for how long! ⊕

Two months after their first auto boycott on August 12, Meter Jam - an initiative against menacing auto drivers - is organizing another boycott on October 12. In addition to Bangalore, the boycott will be held in Mumbai, Chennai and Delhi as well. Jammers in the city are hoping that the initiative will be successful, unlike the last boycott, during which autos were plying smoothly and many drivers did not even come to know about the initiative. "Last time the focus was on Mumbai, and Meter Jam was only starting to get popular in Bangalore. This time, around 40,000 online…

Vinay Sreenivasa and I organized a photowalk to document the last of the beautiful promenade known as Ambedkar Veedhi. One would think that a Government would have the aesthetic sense to leave this most historic of boulevards alone...but no, the Metro must needs run right through this last bastion of public spaces and greenery.So, to mark the murder of yet another public space, and the funeral of the greenery, we decided to photo-document the stretch of Ambedkar Veedhi...We started with the desecration that was a tree-shaded Minsk Square, not so long ago; now it's a desert of cement and concrete:We…

A new option to get your auto woes addressed is holding out promise for Bengaluru, thanks to the Transport Department's initial enthusiasm to respond. Auto Watch, an initiative by the technology platform Kiirti, is co-ordinating with the Transport Department to address the grievances of auto commuters. The complaints that the public reported have been forwarded to the concerned RTOs for action. Transport Commissioner Bhaskar Rao has instructed officials to ensure that each RTO should seize five autos against which there are complaints. The action taken by the RTOs will be updated in the site soon. Kiirti is an initiative by…

I was glad to see a training bus, with many drivers sitting in it, going past with one learner driver at the wheel:However, I was not sure if this was a training vehicle, and having seen the words "Tharabethi Vahana" on the bus, tried to google for the meaning of the word "tharabethi"...but could not find any free Kannada-translation website. Google does not translate from Kannada to English or vice-versa...but I am still amazed that in the home of the software industry, no one has yet designed a good Kannada-to-English translation site. ⊕

S Viswanath, from Outer Ring Roads Association shares the following information on the state of Ring Road at Bellandur junction. The U-turn at Intel junction after Bellandur is now completely blocked, so please drive carefully and move to the right lane after the Intel junction. The traffic police and ORRCA team is doing all possible to ensure smooth traffic. BDA work has created muddy messes at each junction. BDA has not cleared the sand/mud and this is blocking smooth flow of water at various spots. At the connections between service road/main road, the gutter is blocked and huge pile of…

Did you know that rail connectivity already exists between KR Puram and Electronic City? Or between Whitefield and Yeshwantpur? Bangalore has grown so large over the past decade that many peri-urban South-Western Railway stations are now within the greater Bangalore region. The prospect of introducing commuter trains between major city hotspots located along SW Railway's network has therefore been attractive to many and increasingly so today, with Bangalore's worsening road traffic situation. [Click on Image to Enlarge]. Praja and CiSTUP's report proposes these routes for commuter rail services. Image courtesy: Bengaluru Commuter Rail Service, Call to Action, July 2010 But…

Writing about something is better when one tries it out too. I wrote about the Free Shuttle offered by BMTC between the City Railway Station and the BMTC (Majestic) Bus Station, here so, when I returned from Hospet last Monday morning (13th September 2010), I decided to try it out.For a start, the Free Shuttle stand is right in front of the entry/exit point of the Station, and clearly marked. As you come out of the exit and face the Prepaid Auto stand, it is to the left of the stand. I had to wait about 15 min for the shuttle, and…

A swanky, new, maroon coloured car drove down from Madhavan Park towards the Jayanagar shopping complex in south Bangalore one recent morning, as I was walking along that stretch. This car had a set of large, cute-looking, black-and-white puppies painted on its side. A man who was driving past in another car, pointed to the  puppies painted on the maroon car and  exclaimed to his wife sitting beside him, as I stood waiting to cross the road,  "Look at that -" and while he was pointing he failed to notice the cyclist who was riding past on his right, and…