By Aratrika Dey
The BBMP has proposed a plan to build a 1.6 kilometer-long integrated flyover for the junction near the Yelahanka police station. However, it provides a solution only for the vehicle users on the busy stretch. The citizens are miffed that there is no initiative to aid the pedestrians. Bengaluru has a big walking community, and this initiative threatens their safety on the roads.
Why is a signal-free corridor necessary?
The RMZ Galleria Mall is located opposite the Yelahanka Police Station. Shoppers usually park their vehicles outside the mall due to lack of parking space. And cabbies park their vehicles on the side of the road to pick up commuters. Besides, the presence of schools and hospitals on the stretch lead to overcrowding and traffic congestion near the police station.
What does the flyover have to offer Bengalureans?
The signal-free corridor should lessen the traffic on the roads and ensure better management and flow of traffic. Motorists traveling between Doddaballapur and the city will be able to skip the signals at Seshadripuram College and NES junction, near the mini Vidhana Soudha. However, flyovers are not a safe concept for pedestrians. Says Anusha Chitturi, co-founder of The Footpath Initiative: “Flyover is vehicle-based infrastructure. At their entry and exit points, there is a risk of speeding, and vehicles do speed up, leading to situations where pedestrian’s lives are at risk.”
The Outer Ring Road is the best example of road casualties as there are many flyovers. “In the case of the flyover near HSR Layout, people can be seen standing in the middle of the road waiting for a bus,” says Chitturi. “That stretch is sort of a signal-free corridor, and happens to be a very crash-prone street.” The irony of HSR Layout is that the proposed skywalk or overbridge at this junction (Teachers’ Colony and HSR Layout Sector 5) was inaugurated twice, but never implemented even after two years. Read the complete story here.
Hashtag Pedestrians First!
Netizens were seen praising the BBMP for such an initiative. A user tweeted saying that this flyover was a necessity – traffic was unbearable. But does this solve all our problems? “A #PedestriansFirst cultural mindset needs fostering, championing, and implementation,” says Kishori Mudaliar, walkability champion and founder of Bellandur Jothege, a civic changemakers organisation. “It is shocking that every government still forges ahead with ill-conceived, poorly designed ‘signal-free’ corridor ideas. When will there be a collective will to enforce people’s mobility and not vehicle mobility systems?” She has taken to Twitter to voice her concern about the consequences of such a project on the walking community.
Signal-free corridors are pedestrian-unfriendly and risk-prone. “When you build an elevated flyover like the one they are constructing in Yelahanka, it becomes quite hard for the pedestrians to cross the roads,” says resident Abhay M. “This is a westernized automobile-centric approach to city planning. They are not bothered about people who walk. The planning has to include some underpass or subway where people can walk across easily.”
The walking community and its persisting problems
The pedestrians of Bengaluru seem to have a never-ending list of problems. There is a visible lack of walkable footpaths in the city – they are either used by vendors or road-side stalls, treated as parking spaces by motorists, while some have poor infrastructure. While pedestrians lose their lives every day while crossing the roads. “Publish MORTH (Ministry of Road Transport and Highways) pedestrian fatality rates. 2,240 pedestrians died on ORR from 2011-2017. Bellandur Jothege was born out of this crying need for pedestrian safety,” Mudaliar told Residents Watch. “Incidentally, Yelahanka tops the list of high pedestrian fatality roads. Check the under-reported stats from the local traffic police station. The data says it all.”
What will be done for the traffic problems during the construction of the flyover?
A netizen raised his concerns on Twitter, regarding the traffic ‘snarls’ which are bound to happen as a result of the flyover construction. It’s time for the BBMP and the traffic police to chalk up a proper strategy before going ahead with this plan. Importantly, they should ensure that the pedestrians have easy and risk-free access across the road.
