11.1 Traffic and Transport Scenario in Bengaluru
Bengaluru is spatially characterized by a ring-radial system of roads formed by five big axes, which converge towards the centre of the city. Bengaluru Metropolitan Area with more than 11 million people, travelling is getting more and more difficult as the city witnesses nearly 10 million trips a day. Traffic in Bangalore has become a scourge and is only becoming worse. Network speeds are dropping at an alarming rate as overcapacity of its junctions and links are being reached and traffic jams have become the order of the day. Being a victim of its own success, Bangalore’s traffic infrastructure has just not been able to keep pace with the fast growing IT industry to which Bangalore is associated with.
Today, home to more than 11 million people the strained network is loaded with more than 100 lakh trips per day. BMTC operates more than 6000 buses and carry more than half these trips, but this is hardly enough, the rest of the traffic has simply overwhelmed the network.
The paucity of public transport services, lack of road network, over dependence of private vehicles and a high growth rate with the city (in the past decade, the city has nearly doubled), has resulted in:
Traffic Jams/ Extreme congestion
Decline in journey speeds from 18kmph (2008) to 11kmph (2015) leading to severely overburdened Road Network and long commute times.
• Present trip rate 0.9 per capita per day – approximately 90 lakh trips per day
• Mode share 52% trips on vehicular traffic and 48% on Public Transport (includes private buses)
Absence of clearly defined road network hierarchy
• Network congestion hampers bus operations significantly - Share of Public Transport dropping further
Growing use of personalized vehicles
Intensification of existing economic nodes leading to traffic congestion
Deficient multimodal integration
Movement of Freight/ Goods inside the city area
Intercity Bus Travel Movements disorganized and is scattered all over the city
Non-Motorized Transport is inadequate with respect to provisions of footpaths and cycling facilities.
Parking is disorganized in most parts of the city.
A high car dependency has also added to high air and noise pollution levels
BANGALOE AUTHORITY ★
To address the growing concerns of the prevailing and anticipated traffic demands, it is imperative to understand the traffic related issues both at a macro level and a micro level. Hence, to respond to transport requirements of future more appropriately, for the first time in a master planning exercise in India, a transport model has been developed with a focus on integrating land use and transport planning. The model has more than 500 zones and includes 15000 road links and 2300 bus routes.