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Sky-walk, literally
Written By murali772 - 28 November, 2010
Bangalore BBMP Planning Bellary Road Citizen Reports Skywalks Transportation Infrastructure Pedestrian Infrastructure
The BBMP, it would appear, likes to impart literal meaning to the term sky-walk. This set (pictures below), coming up at the High Grounds junction (facing the Sophia school, and behind Basava Bhavan), has a ground clearance enough for a BMTC bus to pass under, even with a full grown adult standing erect on top. The question however is will anybody, however energetic, ever use it, even with the four landings that have been very thoughtfully provided for each flight? Not only is it user unfriendly, its ground structures have taken up almost the entire width of the footpaths, forcing the pedestrians (including the Sophia school children) to go on to the carriage way.
The entire purpose very obviously is just to provide prime advertising space targeted at the high-spender airline passengers, a large majority of whom have to pass that way everyday. Another instance of revenue-oriented approach to governance - pedestrians be damned!
Muralidhar Rao
COMMENTS
rs - 28 November, 2010 - 17:42
The other point with this skywalk is that they must have spent a couple of crores on it - and nobody will ever use it. This is not a high pedestrian zone - in fact, i have hardly ever seen a pedestrian here. On the other hand, at Yeswantpur near the station, there is tremendous need for a pedestrian crosswalk. Instead, poor people risk life and limb trying to cross Tumkur road. God save Bangalore !
Ramesh
rs - 29 November, 2010 - 01:21
There are kids near the school in the mornings and afternoons, but the Skywalk wont really benefit them. They have no reason to cross the road. Besides, the same thing could have been better achieved by having a traffic cop maintain traffic for a couple of hours when the kids are entering or leaving school.
Anyway, I think it is important that many schools adopt the policy of making all kids use school buses - as they have done in Bombay in many areas. I live near Cluny convent and every morning and mid afternoon there is a huge jam and unnecessary noise and honking caused by the vehicles coming to pick up kids.
Ramesh
idontspam - 29 November, 2010 - 02:20
They have no reason to cross the road.
You should spend some time there.
Besides, the same thing could have been better achieved by having a traffic cop maintain traffic for a couple of hours when the kids are entering or leaving school.
This is the current practice and it throws the traffic out of gear due to the sheer volume of vehicles passing thru and the volume of kids waiting to cross in all directions. The security assists the cross over directly across the school but not the other sides (sankey road & palace road) it reduces throughput as well with sankey road being a corridor. Also the traffic jam by vehicles double & triple parked runs all the way around to the golf course side on sankey road.
So while the skywalk being there isnt an issue its too high and doesnt reduce the jam caused by the parked vehicles. It does however allow for safe crossing of children. If lets say basava bhavan was a designated parking area then the one arm of the skywalk should land inside with parents being asked to pick up kids there. The skywalk also blocks the entire sidewalk on all sides and the sidewalk now needs to be built around it thereby destroying the geomety of the road.
Ravi_D - 29 November, 2010 - 03:46
.....but not the ones that are built.
This seems to be a common theme. We need something, and something finally gets done, but only that it doesn't work the way we expect. Underpasses on Nrupatunga Road are another example.
How do we turn this tide around? Can we ever get to the day the majority would say - we needed it, and we got it just the way we need it.
idontspam - 28 November, 2010 - 17:52
This is not a high pedestrian zone
Very high usage by the students of the school for a large part of morning & afternoon. Now the thing is these overpasses dont lead the school children to a safe parking place where they can board buses or the hundreds of cars which clog the area to pick them up instead they just drop them on the other side where the same hundred cars will clog the same streets.
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