Bengaluru's traffic problem & half a dozen ideas

Hello good people,

Drafted this one 2 months back, just managing to publish it. Why the delay ?  - Stuck in traffic LOL! This seems to be the template reason for almost any event, especially in Bengaluru.

I'm one among those who believe that the Bengaluru traffic is not just due to the vehicle density but includes other few parameters. Like after being stuck in a t-jam for 30 mins,  we see that it is due to one SUV or Sedan taking an ambitious U turn,  blocking both the roads, and the road thereafter is almost empty.

Or a mini van waiting for a right turn, while a BMTC has 20% of it's body behind the mini van and is unable to move forward and blocking others behind it.

The idea of this blog, as visible in the title is not to sulk about the traffic or to make fun of it.  So let's see what can be improved - precisely, to look at some ideas which can be implemented with no or least investment.

 1. Bus stop where the bus stop :

Read it however you want, Forget that official bus stop,  that's for the auto guys and corporate cab pick up points.  So where does the BMTC bus stops?

• at the start and end of a flyover
• immediately after a turning,
• immediately after a signal

making things worse for the vehicles behind.

And one unique technology followed by bmtc is -  when one bus is already in the bus stop,  the next one stands parallel to the first one instead of standing behind. What an idea!!

This is for sure the easiest of things to change first up - remove all other boarding/drop points other than designated bus stops.

2. Shortcut to success :

No need to asphalt the shortcut or gully routes,  at least they can be leveled.  At least the two wheelers can use those roads leaving the main roads for bigger vehicles.

Recently Accenture Whitefield campus opened a 'back gate' that leads to cosmos mall,  saving 4-5 km and avoiding rush at graffite India Junction. More such routes could be opened through out Bengaluru.

3. Continuous signals :

Where we have continuous signals in a same road,  it can be planned to sync the signals such that the vehicles that get the green can pass all signals at one stretch.  Saves time, energy, fuel, avoids pollution and lot of chaos.
Example -  the 3 or 4 signals in Richmond road.

I hear that this was tested for certain roads successfully and will soon be in action., super.

4. Let the waste wait:

As far as I've noticed,  the BBMP corporation vehicle cleans up the piled garbage,  promptly between 8am to 10am , which as you see,  is the peak hours for office and school goers.
By scheduling this at 2 to 4pm,  garbage is not going to complain.

5. 1-way:

Narrow roads prone to huge vehicle volume could be made one-way. People should start accepting a mindset that travelling 500m more to save 15 mins time is a better idea.

Example - The triangle between Gopalan grand mall, big bazaar and DRDO bus stop can be made a one way to avoid unnecessary t-jams.

6. Restructuring U-turns.

Needless to explain, this is one other spot where traffic is held up. Avoiding or changing U-turns from crowded spots, like opposite to Malls, Metro, petrol bunks, schools, corporate campus etc., can help in a lot of ways.

Recently, a U-turn near Marathahalli was changed to a spot where the road is much wider, and this showed good difference.

And there are more ideas like rain water harvesting near under-pass, which recently created a mess in outer ring roads.

As you see,  these do not need heavy investment of funds,  but just the time and 'will' to do things.

As usual,  if you know of some simple ideas,  please add it in the comments.

See you later,

Ta ta

 
@ Special thanks to Chetan for well depicting the situations.

Beat the heat

Hello Good people,

While Bengaluru is trying to understand the meaning of terms like ‘summer vacation”, “air-cooler” etc., I just thought of publishing one more blog, understandably coming after a few light-years.

I started writing this blog last year April, and whenever I began editing or proof-reading, it started raining and went on for few months, making the content irrelevant.  This time though, the intent is clear. J

Idea is definitely neither to share same age-old suggestions like - eat cucumber and water melon, drink water etc., nor to sulk like oldies saying “this year, it’s worst-summer-than-ever”. Thought of sharing some different ideas to manage the summer. 

1)      Get the monkey off the back:

This is mainly for the office goers who use two-wheeler. Carrying a laptop bag on shoulder while riding is always a nuisance.  thollaya thol’la maatikitu porome, che.

And in summer, your formal shirt becomes a ‘sweat-shirt’ and sitting with it in A/C only makes things worse.  So, do consider fitting a side box in your bike, in which you can comfortably put your laptop and accessories. You can consider stitching a small cloth bag which makes it easy to carry. You get one from Aerostar brand from most accessory shops around JC road that fits a 14 inch laptop.

This will not be an obstacle to the pillion, in fact, it helps because the pillion’s thigh just lands on the box comfortably!

I did this in my Avy and using it for more than a year now. I can easily feel the difference – feels like God !

2)      Get the power:

If you check the Indian dictionary for summer – one of the synonyms will be “power cut”.  No need to explain this more.  So, I would suggest to get an UPS / Inverter installed. For a minimum of 2-3 fans and 1 light, you won’t require a heavy inverter. I guess a 600 VA would do. 

There are varieties of inverters and batteries in the market, and it involves a bit of Physics to understand what capacity you require.

To keep it simple – ask yourself two questions – what all appliances you want to run during power cut (like 2 Fans, 2 light, one Mixer etc.,), how long you want those appliances to run (depends on average duration of power cut in your area).

3)      Baby’s day out:

It’s an unfortunate pain that we always have a “summer” vacation for the kids. Problem is simple – Kids want to be outdoor, but outdoor has free offers such as dehydration, sunburn etc., No kid is in a drinking or eating mood. And if they are indoor, grazing them is a headache.

We can have some physical yet indoor games such as a basketball game, Dart, table tennis etc., except for TT, others don’t always need a partner but just a supervision.

4)      Put it blindly:

And yes, the blinds. One-time set-up. Very effective for the balconies. Just scroll down in the morning, and up by dusk. Blinds are available in various materials, models like for monsoon, sun rays etc.,

Other alternative is to have an old cloth like old bed sheet, wet it, and hang it in the balcony of windows to block heat waves.

5)      Wat ? er ..

This hyperlinks to my earlier blog on harvesting of water-filter outlet water. Summer also naturally means water problem in most cities. So, this water can atleast be used for plants, cleaning the floor, flush etc.,

http://kevivnajar.blogspot.in/2015/01/wat-er.html

I hope atleast one of these ideas help you. If you have more ideas, please feel free to add it in the comment section, or send a short note to me, I’ll link it here for the benefit of others.