Bengalooru's Traffic Saga-Signals and time lost

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Prakash F Madhwani

02 July, 2010

We normally do not figure in the time lost at signals due to stoppages, in our travel time, and this is important when we have to reach on time, especially to airports.

WHEN BIAL was developed as Namma Bengalooru's new airport, it was said that there will be uninterrupted traffic movement with no signal points, from the heart of the city to the new airport, making the average traffic movement at about 60 km per hour, in a city where you are considered to be lucky if you cover 20 km per hour, normally within the city on other roads.

However, while making a visit to the airport recently, I realised that you have to be mentally prepared for a traffic snarl near the celebrated Palace grounds where we have multiple functions everyday, including birthday celebrations and wedding anniversaries of our esteemed ministers and politicians, to trade fairs and exhibitions, to social programmes like weddings and other sundry private programmes. The time lost on this account could vary from 15 minutes to 30 minutes, depending on your stars for the day.

I also realised that from Hebbal lake junction to the airport, for a distance of about 20 km, there are as many as 12 signals, and invariably there is a traffic break at all of them. Considering a break time of at least 2 minutes per signal, we have to fit in an additional 24 minutes to our schedule for the stoppage time lost at signals.

If you add these to the actual travel time, against a projected time of 60 km per hour, you are back to an average of 30 km per hour; which is the saving grace for a city wherein otherwise travelling time and distance covered comes to 20 km per hour.