"You will get world-class roads for sure: Government" ! Times of India article says "
Just one year down the line, your ride on Brigade Road will be a smooth one. With potholed roads chipping away at citizens' patience, the government last year announced that it would make key Bangalore roads world-class
"
Like to understand what is the definition of world class here ! If no
potholes, there sure will be speed breakers at every 100-200 meters, and that
is considered world class. If no potholes there will intersections that cannot
be managed even with an army of traffic police constables (see this). Testing every day commuters patience is okay
(anyway he/she is used to that !!), just imagine the plight of ambulances and
fire force vehicles negotiating speed breakers at every 100-200 meters in a
situation where every minute counts.
Improving traffic management and reducing congestion on roads is not just
about widening the roads, after all how far you can widen the roads, you cannot
keep on widening roads every time when the traffic on the road doubles. It need
long term planning (Metro is a right direction I agree, but running a bit too late) and
there are smarter ways to build the roads and manage the traffic better. We
construct fly over on top of fly over, but never care to design the
intersections for smoother flow of traffic. We widen roads and try widening
further, but never think about building alternate routes for easing congestion.
An example would be reaching from BTM/Jaya Nagar/JPNagar/Bannarghetta
Road/Banshankari area to hosur road and electronic city side. There is already
a road connecting these areas directly to hosur road other than the route
through silk board. This alternate road goes through not so populated areas and
upgrading it to a decent road (say 4 lines) is less of a task as compared to
cost and effort (and the trouble for public) that is required to widen or build
a fly over on already congested BTM-Silk board- Electronic city roads. Another
example is the road which connects Sarjapur road to Hosur road which I would
call as a lost opportunity with plenty of construction already happening in the
area making it kind of difficult to upgrade, There are still alternate routes
for sure, but who cares isn't it, until the roads are chocked with traffic and
no room to move around ?
Our folks will never learn, but to visit countries such as US, Germany,
China etc to make merry, to come back follow the same old stuff. And once in an
year then there will be a week which is celebrated as "Road safety
weeks", with big hoarding blocking signals and your view leading to
accidents then and there only.
