[Chetan_Rao]

Metro without proper last-mile connectivity will probably make things worse. Metro stations will need parking facilities to cater for all the people driving their own vehicles for the short hop to/from their homes. But looking at the construction/design, there doesn't seem to be much scope for parking lots.

Traffic might just become a worse nightmare in the years to come if your regular route happens to pass by a major Metro line.

[zoombiee]

Originally Posted by Chetan_Rao

Metro without proper last-mile connectivity will probably make things worse. Metro stations will need parking facilities to cater for all the people driving their own vehicles for the short hop to/from their homes. But looking at the construction/design, there doesn't seem to be much scope for parking lots.

Traffic might just become a worse nightmare in the years to come if your regular route happens to pass by a major Metro line.

Actually all the major points have ample parking space. TTMC at Vijaynagar, Yeshwantpur have dedicated parking lots. Jaynagar 4th block bus stand has a parking lot and the station is about 300-400 mts down the road. They seem to have planned it at most big stops. While it may not seem sufficient, they have put some thought to it.

[sanjaykk]

Originally Posted by Chetan_Rao

Metro without proper last-mile connectivity will probably make things worse. Metro stations will need parking facilities to cater for all the people driving their own vehicles for the short hop to/from their homes. But looking at the construction/design, there doesn't seem to be much scope for parking lots.

Traffic might just become a worse nightmare in the years to come if your regular route happens to pass by a major Metro line.

Originally Posted by zoombiee

Actually all the major points have ample parking space. TTMC at Vijaynagar, Yeshwantpur have dedicated parking lots. Jaynagar 4th block bus stand has a parking lot and the station is about 300-400 mts down the road. They seem to have planned it at most big stops. While it may not seem sufficient, they have put some thought to it.

On the stretch that is currently operational (Byappanahalli to MG Road) only Byappanahalli and Swami Vivekananda Road stations have parking. MG Road has parking (non-Metro) but finding parking there is a nightmare. Trinity Circle and Ulsoor stations have no parking anywhere near. In Indiranagar you might find parking in the bylanes.

But connectivity (bus etc) to these stations is not an issue I suppose.

[zoombiee]

Originally Posted by sanjaykk

On the stretch that is currently operational (Byappanahalli to MG Road) only Byappanahalli and Swami Vivekananda Road stations have parking. MG Road has parking (non-Metro) but finding parking there is a nightmare. Trinity Circle and Ulsoor stations have no parking anywhere near. In Indiranagar you might find parking in the bylanes.

But connectivity (bus etc) to these stations is not an issue I suppose.

I concur. I said that they have looked into the problem and tried addressing. Lack of space could be a big issue, since land acquisition is very tricky. For MG road, there is an easy solution. Park the car at Shivajinagar TTMC and take a bus to Metro station. I think some issues can be worked around if people are a little pragmatic.

[Chetan_Rao]

Originally Posted by zoombiee

I concur. I said that they have looked into the problem and tried addressing. Lack of space could be a big issue, since land acquisition is very tricky. For MG road, there is an easy solution. Park the car at Shivajinagar TTMC and take a bus to Metro station. I think some issues can be worked around if people are a little pragmatic.

Land acquisition for parking is an issue, agreed, but it's a known issue and steps to mitigate that should've been part of the initial plan. There was never going to be enough land in Bangalore to have expansive lots, multi-level parking should've been (and should still be) planned aggressively for not just the Metro but the city as a whole.

Metro will be most effective if getting to it is made as convenient as actually using it.

[vinu_h]

I do Jayanagar to ITPL every day. BBMP must have been busy redoing the roads last weekend. Barely any potholes and 45 minutes saved.

Thank you BBMP.

[zoombiee]

Originally Posted by Chetan_Rao

Land acquisition for parking is an issue, agreed, but it's a known issue and steps to mitigate that should've been part of the initial plan. There was never going to be enough land in Bangalore to have expansive lots, multi-level parking should've been (and should still be) planned aggressively for not just the Metro but the city as a whole.

Metro will be most effective if getting to it is made as convenient as actually using it.

While I agree with you on what should have been done, I dont think its practical. They actually had a pretty sensible plan, where major TTMCs had ample parking space. The TTMCs provide bus connectivity to a place close to you and also would have a major metro point. Its not possible that each and every metro station have a dedicated parking lot.
Ideally, they should be looking to not have us use our cars at all. That would be the better solution. A bus to a metro station should not need more than 1 km of travel. (walkable distance)

[Chetan_Rao]

Originally Posted by zoombiee

While I agree with you on what should have been done, I dont think its practical. They actually had a pretty sensible plan, where major TTMCs had ample parking space. The TTMCs provide bus connectivity to a place close to you and also would have a major metro point. Its not possible that each and every metro station have a dedicated parking lot.
Ideally, they should be looking to not have us use our cars at all. That would be the better solution. A bus to a metro station should not need more than 1 km of travel. (walkable distance)

Multi-purpose parking lots are the solution. With the chronic lack of parking spots in all busy areas of the city, these lots will break-even within a few years, and might even turn a profit if managed properly.

My better half is from Delhi, and whenever we visit her folks, we take the Metro almost everywhere we need to go. The whole point is to integrate the Metro with people's daily commutes, not the other way round. People by default gravitate towards convenience, it's upto the BMRC to make the Metro convenient for the users. As you mentioned earlier, a bit of pragmatism on the users' part will help immensely too. Even now, I usually find out probable parking options to the areas I drive to, and walk around or take an auto for the final short hops, instead of driving into small lanes and get frustrated, while annoying others too.

[Soumyajit9]

ORR ALERT !!!

Service Road between Sarjapur Junction, till Ballandur Flyover is jammed.
Drainage construction is going on in front of Central. Median gap closed.

Those who take the service road and join the Bellandur flyover infront of Central, cannot do so anymore.
You have to go under the Bellandur flyover and then meet the main road after Bellandur flyover, infront of Maruti showroom.

[chandrda]

Had bad evening yesterday while returning from office, just couldn't believe my luck as I was getting stuck in traffic jam after traffic Jam.

Left from Vydehi, whitefield office at 03:30 PM and reached home at 05:15 PM in Gottigere Bannerghatta Road. Usually it take less than 1 hour, but these are the reasons yesterday -

1. A water tanker had a breakdown at graphite India signal right in the middle of the road. Was stuck there for 30 Mins
2. A tipper was leisurely parked on the left side covering half of the left lane near Alpine Apartment and right opposite were some other lorries parked to unload. Result another traffice Jam
3. A tipper had a breakdown right in front of the Nanda's Hotel in HSR Layout on the ring road resulting in another traffice Jam up to Agara flyover.

Saw a accident on the service road in front of the HSR Apartment Stop (teacher's colony). A Figo's front right was in very bad shape and there was a huge crowd near the Volvo bus a bit further. Does anyone else know what happened.

Never saw any traffic police in any of the 4 places.

Regards

[D'Artagnan]

Been traveling on bangalore's traffic filled roads for a long time. As a car driver I've come to accept that no matter where I go there will be traffic pile ups and I must wait. It took me a while to realise that waiting ain't so bad either switch off the engine, play some music or talk to someone. I slowly stopped letting the traffic get to me, I mean I will eventually reach my destination if not earlier. If I'm in my car with my friends we all start playing car games like "I spy with my little eye" it's fun the weird things we start spying.

What really bothers me when I'm waiting in a traffic pile up is when people in two wheelers zipping across to go ahead, it's really scary when they veer so close to the car. I'd usually be thinking "yikes, don't scratch it" or "hey I'm driving in my lane stop cutting me". To negate this situation I learnt a couple of words from another language and mutter it out to him, this way I feel happy of knowing a language he wouldn't know and also when he hears the words he's usually staring at me dumbfounded.

[Added_flavor]

Place: Intersection of Sarjapur road and Outer Ring Road.

Issue: I came to work early to beat Monday morning traffic. I saw that traffic from Sarjapur road going towards Silkboard was jammed in the service road that leads to Iblur camp. So vehicles, led by a nincompoop in a swift dzire had started coming on the opposite (wrong) lane.

Luckily I did not get stuck in the mess. Not sure what the situation is right now. My guess is it might have led to a huge jam.

[Soumyajit9]

So, on Saturday I had been to Manyata Tech Park for some work.
I took the ORR route, SilkBoard > Sarjapur > Marathalli > KR Puram > Nagwara.

I had been cribbing about traffic from BTM to Marathalli, till I met the chaos at KR Puram and a few kms before Nagawara till MTP !! Horrible road condition, flyover construction and ultra HTV movement, all chaotic.
This all happened on a Saturday. I wonder and pity the condition of people having to use this stretch on weekdays, during peak hours !! Aargh..Duh.

In other news, just now I came across THIS.

The work on widening of Bannerghatta road will be taken up within two months, said mayor BS Sathyanarayana on Saturday.

Namma Metro and Road Widening !! Time to shift my house. This area is going to be a nightmare next year !!

[ampere]

Originally Posted by Soumyajit9

I had been cribbing about traffic from BTM to Marathalli, till I met the chaos at KR Puram and a few kms before Nagawara till MTP !! Horrible road condition, flyover construction and ultra HTV movement, all chaotic.
This all happened on a Saturday. I wonder and pity the condition of people having to use this stretch on weekdays, during peak hours !! Aargh..Duh.

- You should see KR Puram traffic from Kalyan Nagar towards Whitefield during peak hours. KR Puram also chokes at 6:30 in the morning! Just that the nature of traffic is different. Early hours its the interstate buses who stop there coming via Hanging bridge and trying to enter city. As the day progresses, it changes to office goers crossing for ORR or heading out to Whitefield. Summary : KR Puram is always choked!

- Nagwara ? The lesser said the better ! But the only saving grace there is that; I think the flyover work is going on at pretty good pace. It should open up fast.

- Also to reach MTP, if you are in peak hours, its better to drive through the city. At most points traffic keeps moving on, though its heavy. But still its deterministic in most cases. After Hotel Chalukya its free flowing traffic all the way through Bellary road to Hebbal and then there on till the flyover at BEL on the ORR.

[silversteed]

Of late, I'm seeing quite a few broken down tractor-trailer contraptions parked on the Fast Lane of the Hosur Road. Their strategic locations are:
1. The second pillar after Bommanahalli signal
2. Just before GB Palya signal
3. About 3 or 4 car-lengths after Kudlu Gate signal

Now for those wondering what's the significance of these locations:
1. There will be a chaos because of vehicles merging onto Hosur road from Service road, vehicles going onto the service road from the main road, numerous nincompoops on two-wheelers coming in the wrong direction from the service road towards the signal, and probably the greatest collection of suicidal pedestrians, most of them wearing some reputed organization's ID tag
2. After escaping/enduring #1 above, all vehicles would pick up speed, and the slow-pokes (trucks/BMTC buses (the older ones, not the newer ones or Volvos)/ricks/etc) would be overtaken through the right lane (which is the right way) and then move onto the middle lane as there's a signal approaching.
3. Situation is similar to #2. The chaos at Kudlu gate signal will drive almost anyone nuts, and the road will be relatively free after that, for a stretch of 2km before Hosa road signal. 2-3 car-lengths is sufficient to pick up speed to at least the legal limit.

Any guesses what these contraptions place to warn others? Granite stones! No warning triangles, no tail lamps, no reflectors. These stones will be placed about a metre away from the side, and just about a few feet before the vehicle.

Interestingly, I'm yet to see a cop anywhere near these lurking dangers.