Signal-free roads pedestrian-friendly?
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Some 40 trees were axed to make way for the signal-free corridor (SFC) on Sarjapur Road but such roads neither decongest cities nor are they friendly to pedestrians. The SFCs were to be restricted only to roads used by Big10 buses of BMTC and two Ring Roads (Outer and Inner Ring Road), but later the BBMP added other corridors to the project. “The city does not need projects like signal-free corridors since they restrict pedestrian movement on the roads and discourage other kinds of non-motorised transport. Already, road-widening projects that were taken up have proved to be a failure and now the BBMP is supporting SFCs,” pointed out Mr Vinay Sreenivasa, member of Hasiru usiru.
Dr Ashwin Mahesh, a member of ABIDe, believes that city planners are left with no option but to have projects such as SFCs because of poor city planning. “In Bengaluru, interstate mobility is not accessible to everyone everywhere. Even the time sensitive services such as railway station and bus stands are in the centre of the city,” he says. “I don’t want to enter the city to go to the airport. But the city is planned in such a way that we have no choice but to enter the centre of the city. Why cannot the government connect south Bengaluru with the rail network and decentralise the bus and train services to other parts of the city?” asks Dr Ashwin.
But the brains behind the SFC project say that since 80% of city traffic moves on the corridors that are proposed under the SFC project, making the traffic signal-free will free up traffic movement in the city.
Another ABIDe member, R.K. Misra says, “Only the through traffic will be allowed to pass through SFC junctions by creating grade separators. There will be no change in pedestrian crossings.”
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