Of late, it is not the authorities who seem to be deciding where a bus should stop. Instead, public and private buses are arbitrarily stopping at busy junctions or before key flyovers so that passengers can disembark at their convenience.
This has a domino effect on traffic flow. The most notorious spots are K.R. Puram bridge and Sirsi Circle flyover on Mysuru Road.
The traffic jams caused by buses are a nightmare, say motorists, who have to deal with this every day. “Plenty of private and public transport buses stop exactly at the beginning of the flyover causing massive traffic jams. There is a designated bus-stop a little further, but that is barely used,” says Abhay Koushik, who regularly commutes on the K.R. Puram bridge.
It doesn’t help that several Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) bus-stops are located just before flyovers. This has resulted in buses halting at such locations even when there is no designated stand. Motorists say often the driver even stops in the middle of the road.
The city has a little over 41,000 buses. Of this, 14,000 are stage carriages that make multiple halts. And with most flouting the rules, there is a serious problem. The problem is exacerbated when such violations happen at the beginning, the end or even in the middle of busy flyovers.
Sirsi CircleThe Sirsi Circle flyover, which has two exits, sees buses stop in the middle of the flyover to allow people from K.R. Market and Chamarajpet to board and alight from them. The already narrow lane gets blocked. With no bylane or any other place where the road widens, the motorists behind are just forced to halt till the buses move.
The BMTC, which operates more than 6,000 buses in the city, is also guilty of allowing drivers to break rules. Seeing the BMTC buses stop on the flyover, private services have started following them.
The traffic police admit that unauthorised halts play a role in adding to traffic bottlenecks. “We have identified 122 bus-stops which need to be shifted. However, there are buses that halt even at places where there is no bus-stop as it is seen on the Sirsi Circle flyover. Enforcement is just one part of what we can do, eventually there needs to be awareness about this as well,” said Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) R. Hitendra.
'Technology can come in handy for BMTC'There a clear problem of jurisdiction when it comes to shifting bus-stops. The BMTC cannot decide where buses should stop. It is the responsibility of the BBMP. But, this should not stop the BMTC from taking corrective measures. “What the BMTC can do is train its drivers to stop at designated spots. They have GPS tracking systems now which will help them pinpoint where the buses will stop,” Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) R. Hitendra said.
The BMTC, which recently inaugurated its Intelligent Transport Solution project, will be able to start analysing the data gathered. This data, which includes real-time updates on bus positions, could provide the solution to this problem. However, private bus services will have to be discouraged the old-fashioned way, with policemen chasing them away.
