[sustran] Less than 10 seconds to save your life / // Disappearing sidewalks of Peenya /// Bengaluru City's 'pedestrian' footpaths

[Vinay Baindur]

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/392337/less-10-seconds-save-your.html


Less than 10 seconds to save your life
Prashanth G N, Mar 15, 2014, DHNS :
[image: PTI file image for representational purpose]


*Not able to cross the road comfortably is a perennial problem all over
Bangalore. You have to save your life from speeding vehicles by running
faster than usual and if you don't make it, expect death, no less.*
The most glaring examples of difficult road crossings are in the central
business district. Try the one between Bishop Cottons school and St
Joseph's College junction on Residency Road. The ends have pedestrian
crossings, but in between there's none, no subway, no skywalk. You see
scores of people in front of Sweet Chariot restaurant trying to cross over
to the IBM building on the Konark Hotel side. You get less than 10 seconds
to cross. Two-wheelers charge at almost 50-60 kms per hour, followed by
autorickshaws and buses.

People are unable to cross first time, even the second time and third. In
less than 10 seconds, the light turns green for traffic coming from St
Marks Road onto Residency Road. Then again, Residency Road traffic is given
green, again in less than 10 seconds. This is a repetitive process at very
frequent intervals that doesn't permit relaxed crossing in the middle of
Residency Road. If you rush, trip and fall, there's no saving the person
from certain death.

Thirty-year-old Mohammed Siyam, a software engineer, agrees Bangalore's
most pressing problem is traffic. "In the central business district,
there's very little time to çross roads. People risk their lives to do so."

A section of the traffic on Residency Road turns towards Museum Road.
Crossing Museum Road a little away from the pedestrian crossing is
near-death experience. As soon as vehicle flow from Residency Road is over,
in less than four seconds, vehicles from Hosur Road converge on Museum Road
at great speed leaving just two to four seconds for people to cross the
Museum Road. The situation is no different on St Marks Road. There is again
less than four seconds to cross the road near the SBI junction. The only
saving grace is a road hump which slows down traffic to enable pedestrians
to cross.

Apart from the hump, there is no signal to stop traffic. People have to
walk all the way till St Marks Road and MG Road junction to cross.
Typically people don't walk all the way from SBI junction to Anil Kumble
Circle to cross over. Twenty-six year-old Akhilesh Chetty, software
engineer, agrees road crossing is difficult in Bangalore.
"The cause is our attitude problem. In Sri Lanka, motorists stop, let
pedestrians pass. They respect walkers, we don't."



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http://www.deccanherald.com/content/392339/disappearing-sidewalks-peenya.html


*Disappearing sidewalks of Peenya*
Niveditha Jain , Mar 15, 2014, DHNS :
[image: POOR MAINTENANCE: Pavements are in bad shape even in the city's
Central Business District. Broken tiles, potholes and filth are everywhere.]


*Residents and pedestrians in Peenya face a tough time walking on the
foothpaths as they are in bad shape and at most of the stretches, they do
not exist. *
For Umesh Kumar, walking on the footpath near Peenya 4th Phase, 3rd Main
Road is a nightmare. Pointing towards the busy lane, he says, "It is a two-
way road wherein vehicles come from Shivajinagar, Majestic and go towards
Peenya 2nd stage, 1st stage and surrounding areas. Similarly, on the other
side of the road, vehicles from Peenya area go towards Majestic, Hebbal, KR
Puram, Jalahalli Cross and other places. Either a skywalk needs to be built
or the road needs to be widened."

The stretch from Peenya 2nd Stage to Jalahalli Cross via Nettur Technical
Training Foundation (NTTF) Circle also has a similar problem. Subhash
Shetty, a resident of Nagasandra, complains about lack of any footpath in
Peenya 1st stage, 10th cross and Tumkur Road, MEI Factory.

"A few months ago, I wrote a letter to Peenya Traffic Police Station and
National Highways Authority of India  (NHAI) to make provision for zebra
crossing and traffic signal lights at Tumkur Road, NH-4, Nagasandra. It is
a service road and moreover, the ongoing project of Peenya-Nagasandra Metro
line has left the lane even more messy. Especially, children and women face
problems while walking on the road as there are no footpaths," adds Shetty.


*According to the Peenya traffic police, skywalks should be immediately
built at Jalahalli Cross signal and 8th Mile, Hesaraghatta Road since these
are the most congested junctions in Peenya. *
Here's what a traffic police official from the area had to say: "It takes
more than 15 minutes for a person to cross Jalahalli cross signal during
peak hours. For pedestrians, it is a risky affair as there are no
footpaths. There is a footpath along 100 feet road towards NTTF, but it is
in dilapidated condition. In fact, the footpath has turned into an
autostand. We have written letters to officials including those of the
BMRCL, BBMP and NHAI, but they do not seem to care."

Evening peak hours between 4 pm and 8 pm is when the traffic congestion
peaks at Jalahalli Cross signal and also at 8th Mile. The nightmare for the
pedestrians only gets worse then.

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http://www.deccanherald.com/content/392343/city039s-039pedestrian039-footpaths.html



City's 'pedestrian' footpaths
Rasheed Kappan, Mar 15, 2014, DHNS :
[image: RISKY CROSSING: Senior citizens find it extremely tough to cross
the roads. Traffic constables are rarely seen helping them get to the other
side safely.]



*Crossing the streets is a walkers' nightmare, as dangerous as risking a
stroll on the chaotic, encroached, uneven pavements.*Zebra crossings there
were none. Seventy-year-old Keshav Rao had no option but to climb that
towering skywalk. Out of breath and struggling, he slowly descended on the
other side. Two metres away, unseen by him on that dark, ill-lit pavement
lay a gaping hole. Blinded by the beam of an oncoming bike, he inched
closer...

Danger lurks at every turn for lakhs of Bangaloreans risking a walk on the
streets. For the civic agencies focused on hi-speed, signal-free roads, the
uneven, potholed, thoroughly encroached and narrow footpaths aren't a cause
for concern. They are a No-Man's zone, an area worthy of shocking neglect,
an immensely dispensable piece of land sacrificed for every road-widening
project.

So it is no surprise when global urban mobility expert, Gil Penelosa finds
that pedestrian-related casualties in Bangalore are over three times the
world average! If globally, only 14 per cent of road-accident victims are
pedestrians, it is between 30 and 40 per cent here.

The accident picture of Bangalore over the last three years is shocking
enough. Of the 647 accident casualties in Bangalore last year till
December, 330 (40 pc) were pedestrians. In 2012, as many as 358 of the 755
people who died on the roads were just walking! A year before that, 367
pedestrians died and a whopping 1,750 were injured.

If these startling figures don't goad civic agencies such as BBMP and BDA
into action, what will? Fancy road projects rarely talk about ways for the
pedestrians to cross the roads. There are no alternatives proposed to the
widely underused skywalks and underpasses.

*Walkers as victims *

Most accident victims, as the traffic police confirm, are women and the
elderly hit by vehicles while crossing the road or walking on the
periphery. Since pavement width reduces every time a road widens,
pedestrians are forced to walk on the road, severely jeopardising their
safety.

Architects and urban planners point out that Bangalore roads are rarely in
sync with the rules for pedestrian facilities specified by the Indian Road
Congress (IRC). For instance, IRC is clear that the minimum width of a
footpath should be 1.5 metres, and if the number of pedestrians per hour on
a particular road is high, the sidewalk should be four metres wide. In
shopping areas, this width should be increased by another one metre
(considered as dead width). When the footpath is adjacent to buildings or
fences, the dead width should be 0.5 metres.

Pedestrians' concerns had pushed the city traffic police to launch the
"Sugama Safewalk" programme in November last year. The objective was clear:
To focus on pedestrian safety through better designed roads and junctions,
and by raising awareness among drivers and pedestrians. The city's
Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic), B Dayananda had acknowledged
the acute vulnerability of the pedestrians in Bangalore.

*Footpath riding*

Poorly designed traffic junctions have meant extreme chaos at these
intersections. To get around the long line of vehicles, motorcyclists often
get onto the footpaths, triggering problems galore for the pedestrians. The
traffic police are finding it very tough to arrest this rising trend.

Peak-hour traffic completely stumps the walkers on the road. This couldn't
be more apparent than at Marathahalli, where there are no signs of any
zebra crossing for over a kilometre on Old Airport road, flanked by busy
commercial zones. After 4.30 pm every day, the road is packed with vehicles
between the city and Whitefield, ruling out any possibility of crossing. As
Chandan Sharma, a consultant, observes, not a single traffic constable
could be seen to assist pedestrian-crossing.

People are forced to wait for long periods before attempting to rush across
the road. Struggling to negotiate the uneven footpath with a walking stick,
72-year-old Venkata Kotaiah knew he would need enormous luck to get a brief
respite from the traffic to cross. "I think I will wait for a traffic jam,
and make my way between the vehicles," he finally decides with a sigh.

Rakesh Roshan is much younger than Kotaiah. But he too wished there was a
cop to halt the passing vehicles before the elders could get to the other
side. If crossing at the Marathahalli bridge is next to impossible, the
alternative is to walk a kilometre on either side for a junction. "The cars
parked on the road in no-parking zones also contribute to the pedestrians'
problems. Often these vehicles block the view for crossing pedestrians,
leading to accidents," notes Roshan.

For Harsh Srivastav, who works at an IT firm near Doddanekkundi, the
drivers' lack of any concern for the pedestrians is most problematic. They
need to be cautious and lower speeds, especially when passing through busy
areas. But poorly lit streets mean drivers too find it tough to spot people
crossing the road. As for the motorcyclists riding on footpaths, Srivastsav
suggests use of CCTV cameras to spot them and penalise them heavily.

*High-risk spots*

Hundreds of roads in the city are way below acceptable levels of safety for
the pedestrians. The city traffic police, taking into account parameters
such as narrow, uneven or damaged roads, one-ways and visibility, had
identified seven spots as high-risk for the pedestrians: Trinity Circle,
Siddapura Junction to 10th Cross, Madiwala police station junction to
Aiyyappa temple junction, Lalbagh West Gate junction, Havanoor junction,
Yeshwantpur junction and the area around Esteem Mall close to Yelahanka.

A panel comprising the zonal traffic assistant commissioner of police,
architects, traffic experts, representatives of residents' welfare
associations and NGOs was formed to address issues of pedestrian safety in
each of these areas.

If walking on the city's roads is tough for the able-bodied, it is scary
for the physically challenged. Bangalore's disability infrastructure was
rated the lowest (24 out of 100) in nine parameters set by the global NGO,
Clean Air Initiative for Asian Cities.

Here's the unenvious implication: Absence of ramps, lifts and tactile
pavements, coupled with uneven surfaces make the city roads extremely
unfriendly for the disabled, including the visually challenged and the
wheelchair-bound.