Bangalore, October 13: Bangalore City Traffic Police have failed to identify the root cause of congestion on the city roads, traffic experts have said. They said while the need of the hour is bus lanes, the police have instead introduced dedicated autorickshaw lanes on some roads in the heart of the city on a pilot basis.
While the police claim to have received a positive response to the project, autorickshaw unions and traffic experts have expressed their opposition to it.
Traffic expert M.N. Sreehari said that as most of the city roads were narrow, a separate lane for autorickshaws was not feasible. “No scientific study has been conducted to determine the autorickshaw traffic on the identified roads before setting apart a two-metre-wide lane,” he said, and added the main contributor to traffic congestion, at least in the central part of the city, was buses.
He said while a bus occupied more space and was also slow moving, it added to the congestion on the roads by making frequent stops along its route.
Bus lanes were the need of the hour and they could be implemented in most of the roads that had one-way traffic.
M. Manjunath, president of Adarsha Auto and Taxi Driver’s Union, alleged that the traffic police were harassing autorickshaw drivers. He claimed that while ignoring the elephant in the room, the police were trying to implement a slew of measures to keep autorickshaw drivers “in check.” He criticised the “failure” of the traffic police to implement Bangalore City Saptavarna Suraksha Sugama Sanchara (BC4S) scheme that was aimed at keeping illegal autorickshaws off the road.
Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) B. Dayananda maintained that autorickshaw lanes had been introduced on a pilot basis and would be reviewed shortly. He added that plans to introduce bus lanes were in the pipeline.
