Wider roads equal more traffic: It’s a lesson learnt from London

Wider roads equal more traffic: It’s a lesson learnt from London
The decision to use the TenderSure specifications on CBD roads has supporters and detractors


RK Misra, BBMP TAC andDirector, Center for SMART Cities
This is in response to the recent article in Bangalore Mirror on TenderSure roads incorporating wider footpaths and uniform width of traffic lanes. In the process, at some places, the road width is getting reduced. Commentators who feel that this will add to traffic jams can't be blamed, as this is a common sense theory that you can reduce the traffic congestion by widening the roads. Unfortunately, this is not the case in real life.
In a fully-developed city, widening the roads is impossible as cost of land acquisition is 5-10 times more than that of road building. BBMP has been unable to widen any major roads in the last 4-5 years. Wherever they have managed to widen, it has been only partial and zigzag, like Nrupatunga Road, Kasturba road and Sheshadri road. Has traffic congestion come down on these widened roads? Every widened road in Bangalore or anywhere in the world is immediately taken over by additional vehicles and the congestion remains the same. It is a demand-and-supply mismatch: the more you build, the more will come to occupy it. We need to think differently. We have to manage the demand instead of just increasing supply.
In a city like Bangalore, where greater personal wealth allows people to afford private vehicles, they have very little incentive to use public transport. Another major reason for people shunning public transport is absence of walkable and continuous footpaths. Only way we can encourage people to use public transport and thus reduce traffic congestion is to provide high quality, safe and continuous footpaths and other pedestrian-friendly amenities such as bus bays, shelters and street lights. This is why we in BBMP TAC designed and approved TenderSure Roads.
CBDs are the best places to encourage pedestrian movement and public transport as has been done across the world. London reduced road width to encourage pedestrian movement and public transport and so did Singapore and Tokyo. People living or working in CBD usually move around with a radius of 1-2 kilometers and will be willing to walk or take public transport if they have safe and walkable footpaths and that will reduce the traffic congestion.
Not only Bangalore's main CBD, TenderSure should be extended to all local area CBDs of Indiranagar, Jayanagar, Koramangala, Whitefield, Malleswaram, Yelahanka and all other major live-work-play localities and suburbs of Bangalore. This is the only way to reduce traffic on Bangalore roads.
Bangalore is a mega city and needs to use the best global practices and expert advice in managing its traffic vows. Traffic management is a science and can't be managed by just using bureaucratic common sense.


I objected to it, but we have our orders


M Lakshminarayana, BBMP commissioner I am aware that roads in central business district are getting shrunk because of ongoing TenderSURE works. But I am helpless and I cannot do anything here. I have just been told to implement the plan that was submitted to the BBMP and we are just executing it.

“I was personally reviewing the project on a weekly basis when I was principal secretary of urban development department. In fact, at that time itself I had suggested the other agencies (knowledge partners) should allow the official civic agencies to function as they have the experience of executing major roads. But the agencies were firm on their plan and didn’t allow us to alter anything.

“We were aware of the problems which will be faced by two wheelers and car owners once they entered in CBD districts. But no one was in a mood to listen to our engineer’s plans and even the government told us to just implement the project. Now if traffic gets choked on these roads, then BBMP should not be blamed as this is not our plan. But the good thing here is that pedestrians get more space to walk.”‘



We are Caught in a crossfire



Basaraj Kabade, BBMP’s technical engineering cell’s executive engineer
“We are caught in a crossfire. While the High Court orders us to give priority to pedestrians the police have been demanding widening of roads to ensure smooth traffic flow. It is true that road size will decrease and it might create more hassles for the motorists and the traffic police. We had informed our higher-ups and members of technical advisory committee members about the possible traffic problem that the new design could cause.”



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