‘Ditch car, catch bus’ — Bengaluru begins fightback to reclaim its roads from traffic jams

A citizen movement is brewing in Bengaluru that's pushing for public transport, particularly buses, after the state govt introduced bus priority lanes.

People protesting in Bengaluru against traffic | Twitter @BBPVedike

Bengaluru:  It seems Bengaluru’s residents have had enough of the city’s now-infamous traffic jams.  

A citizen movement is brewing in the city against the use of private vehicles and pushing for public transport, particularly buses. 

On Tuesday, members of a consortium of citizen groups  — Bus Prayaneekara Vedike (Bus Travellers’ Forum), Whitefield Rising, Bellandur Jothege (With Bellandur) and Citizens for Bengaluru (CfB) —  took a bus ride along the highly-congested Silk Board junction to K.R. Puram using the Outer Ring Road in Bengaluru.  

Holding placards such as “Ditch the car, catch the bus”, the members sought to impress upon people to use the bus to commute and leave their private vehicles behind.

The members, IT professionals and local residents, have also decided to intensify their fight against Bengaluru’s traffic-choked roads by asking CEOs of IT companies to adopt public transport so that their employees follow suit.  

The movement comes on the back of the Karnataka government’s decision to earmark ‘Bus Priority Lanes’ (BPL) to allow buses to zip along the outer peripheral roads that connect most of the IT hubs in the city. 

The government launched the pilot project three weeks ago from the Silk Board junction to K.R. Puram, the route that members of the consortiums traversed Tuesday. The success of this bus lane will determine the implementation of 12 BPLs across the city.  

“Many people do not take the bus as they believe it is slow. Buses are stuck in the same traffic as the other vehicles. So if private vehicles are reduced, the buses can travel faster,” said Srinivas Alvalli of the Citizens for Bengaluru.

“This dedicated bus corridor will help people commute faster. When people see buses moving faster than their cars, we hope they will shift to the buses.”  

Calling it Bengaluru’s fight back to reclaim its roads, Srinivas said there is a need to change the attitude of commuters and make them understand that public transport has a far more positive impact on the growth of a country. 

“A country can be called a developed nation not when poor people drive cars, but when rich people commute in buses or trains,” Alvalli quoted the former Bogota Mayor Gustavo Petro to make his point.  

Most hope that the initiative will reduce commuting time in the city. 

“On average, it takes me 1.5 to 3 hours to travel from my home in Indiranagar to Whitefield where I work, a distance of around 17 km. During peak hours, we just stand still,” said Sathish B.R., an IT professional working with a multinational company. “It has become a nightmare and is a lot of mental stress.” 

The Bus Priority Lane

The Bus Priority Lane is expected to incentivise commuters to switch to buses and is aimed at not only reducing stress while travelling but also help productivity at homes and offices. 

The state government also hopes to reduce pollution in the city. The project, NimBus (Your Bus in Kannada), is being implemented by the Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation, the Bangalore Police, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palika and the Directorate of Urban Land Transport.

Its primary aim is to reduce the stress on the city’s roads, which caters to nearly 83 lakh vehicles as of this year. 

According to the Transport Commissioner V.P. Ikkeri nearly 1,750 new vehicles, both cars and bikes, are registered every day. 

While many IT companies do encourage car-pooling or engage buses to pick up employees, it has not reduced traffic snarls in the city.  

M.A. Saleem, the additional director general of police (Administration) who has also worked as the Bengaluru Traffic Commissioner, feels that the dedicated bus lane would help reduce traffic but warned that it would have to be restricted to wider roads in the city. 

“The central part of the city has narrow roads and a dedicated bus lane would not work as it would reduce the width causing more congestion,” he told ThePrint. 

Urban evangelist V. Ravichander feels that projects such as BPL can be a success only if the governance structure is held accountable for the city’s transportation. 

He cited Singapore where he said there is a unified body to handle transportation and its problems. “Bengaluru too needs an umbrella body that can coordinate all urban mobility modes and integrate all transport agencies,” he said. “The Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority (UMTA) that is mentioned in the Niti Aayog will help solve the issue, but who will implement it?” 

“The problem in the city is that there needs to be end-to-end connectivity,” he added. “The BPL is a trunk line system but the question that needs to be resolved is how do you join the trunklines.”