At open house event organised by The Hindu on Saturday, as part of the #WhatsYourIssue campaign, citizens raised specific problems with R Hitendra, additional commissioner (traffic) and other top brass of the city traffic police.
Representatives from several residents’ welfare associations including HSR Layout, Indiranagar and Whitefield pointed to their biggest problem: parked cars on quiet residential lanes.
Rajesh from HSR Layout raised the issue of hundreds of taxis parked along roads near a cab aggregator's office in the area. Mr. Hitendra, assured him that action will be taken on from Sunday itself.
Waseem Menon, from Drive Without Border, spoke about the problem of parked cars clogging the roads on account of a marriage hall in Benson Town. Similar issues were raised by residents from Rajajinagar, who had attended the open house meeting.
Mr. Hitendra, batted for a pay and park policy, with steep fee in arterial and sub-arterial roads. “The parking policy that BBMP is bringing in is only for CBD and the parking fee is only Rs. 30, an hour for a car, which is insufficient,” he said adding the city can be saved of the parking menace only if a parking plan is incorporated as part of the building bylaws itself.
Residents of Indirnagar were also concerned about the increased vehicular traffic on 4th cross lane and other bylanes in the residential neighbourhood, making it unsafe for pedestrians. Abhishek Goyal, DCP (Traffic- East) assured them that will be action.
The problem of multiple u-turns and median breaks in Whitefield, Marathahalli was also tackled. In response, officials have promised to undertake an on-ground study of traffic flow and incorporate citizens’ suggestions.
Vinay Sreenivasa, from beedi badi vyaparigala okkoota and Narasimha, from BMTC Bus commuters forum batted for the promotion of public transport, and to stop harassment of hawkers. That said, many made a strong case for booking jaywalkers, but here Mr. Hitendra pointed out that pedestrians have the first right to a road. “During peak hours, most signals are manually operated by cops and the pedestrian signal is only 9 seconds,” said a resident, to which Mr. Hitendra said that he would direct officials to not leave out the pedestrian signals.
The interaction was followed by a guided tour of the Traffic Management Centre for all those who participated.
Traffic Police’s wish list
- Pay and park policy with a steep fee to be introduced across the city Parking plan to be incorporated in building bylaws
- Alternate road to KIA, from East Bengaluru.
- Moving out of Goodshed and ICD out of Whitefield
- Re-distribution of work places from South East to Northern parts and other parts of the city.
- Namma Metro to add around 30-40 km stretch per year
- Provide more manpower to traffic cops
“Our mandate is to manage traffic in the given infrastructure. While the city doubled itse vehicle population from 2007 to 62 lakh, road infrastructure is still the same. We have now moved from managing traffic to managing congestion.” -R Hitendra, Additional Commissioner (Traffic)
“HSR Layout seems like an island and we are cut off, as during peak hours we either cant leave HSR layout or we cant get into it, once we are out of it. HSR 27th main, 24th main, are narrow residential roads that are now seeing traffic from other areas not from HSR.” -Kavita Reddy, resident, HSR Layout
“A marriage hall in the narrow residential bylane of Benson Town, has ruined the tranquility of the entire area, with its parking woes, clogging up the narrow road. There are similar issues in many areas like HSR Layout, Rajajinagar and other areas.” -Waseem Menon, resident, benson town
