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BTRAC road divider menace
Written By blrsri - 1 February, 2009
Traffic Bangalore BTRAC Road Works Complaint IRC Dividers Pedestrian Infrastructure Mobilicity
Its slowly taking over all roads in Bangalore and this needs to be stopped immediately. In the name of BTRAC they are laying these road dividers which I am sure in not in any of the road design books.
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Its 2 feet wide. The roads that they are putting these on are low traffic ones and narrow lanes. For example is the road adjecent coles park. The road is so narrow that they have car parking to the left and that leaves less than one lane for normal traffic! What if people need to drop or pick kids from the park? They will block the whole road or even worst..what if a vehicle breaks down?!
Its 2-3 feet tall. whys it soo tall? to prevent jay walking? But these are being put in totally residential areas where old people and kids cross roads..by putting these we are forcing people to use vehicles to even go across the road!
They are immovable and of solid concrete:
Earlier we used to have deividers which can be shifted as needed..these are being cast in solid concrete and in case of accidents will not leave any chance for survival for people!
[flickr-photo:id=3243003931,size=m]
The above example is of the divider currently on mysore road..its 6 inch hich and 6 inch in width..this has done its job quite well and hold up well too..this is the best option for bangalore on roads where we need road dividers..
I cannot imagine Murali Sir and PS Ram Sir tryin to cross such streets
What are they trying to do here? Jayanagar roads are already spoilt with these and they are using these other places too..this needs to be stopped immediately!
COMMENTS
s_yajaman - 2 February, 2009 - 06:05
They have put up one long divider on Elephant Rock Road as well. Long needed - but they have forgotten a minor detail of pedestrian crossings. So you have one at South End and one at 9th Main. Not a great idea.
Srivathsa
silkboard - 2 February, 2009 - 06:15
It has annoyed "very local" drivers (they are now forced to drive a bit more and take U-turns), but seems to be helping longer distance traffic by preventing frequent interruptions due to vehicles crossing over. I thought the dividers idea is a good one as such, certainly has helped cut some unwanted action on the roads.
But why so tall all across the road lenght? Valid question. Perhaps to doscourage pedestrians from crossing over anywhere they wish. When putting up these dividers, if they simultaneously construct:
- Either those new elevated speed-breaker cum pedestrian crossings so that peds don't have to have to literally jump over these small walls or a ped cross divider with bars (see picture below) at ped-crossing points
- Clear Markings and signs to guide pedestrians as to where they can and they can't cross the roads
Above two should help. But perhaps the stres is only on roads and vehicles as always, a strategy which won't pay in long run. blrsri's angry post is an example - he wouldn't have opposed if the job was done with clear thoughts for pedestrians as well.
Example from Pune (ped crossing cuts in the divider):
[flickr-photo:id=3004773595,size=m]
Exactly it helps the drivers only!
srinidhi - 2 February, 2009 - 06:38
Road manners as they say..we start emulating while driving outside India, like, as soon as we see some one waiting to cross the road..anywhere..valid or invalid..we stop the car and show the wave of the hand asking for them to cross..albeit waiting for them to acknowledge the gratitude..
thats not good for India?
The 6 inch dividers do go astray..but they can be placed back in place!
The question that remains is not actually how tall..but how wide too..2 ft is way too wide when the road width are constricted!
Its wide enough - but needs to be supplemented
narayan82 - 2 February, 2009 - 07:25
Srinidhi,
In most countries, even if you don't have a barricade, people will behave as if there was one made of steel! Here the 6 in dividers have proved that it merely divides the road, but is treated more like a pothole!
This divider is good - and serves the purpose. Pedestrians hestitate to cross, motorists prefer not running over the divider.
But, as SB pointed out dedicated junctions must be well planned and painted. So crossing the road is easier, elevated and at dedicated parts. We dont want people to cross and any point of the road even if its the shortest route!
Narayan Gopalan
User Interaction Designer
Bangalore
narayan82 - 2 February, 2009 - 04:50
On the contrary this has made my ride better. It has been errected on the Indiranagar - Domur Service road. And now I dont have to worry too much about menacing drivers cutting lanes/sides trying to over take.
The advantages of this mamoth structure are
- No Two wheelers/cycles try running thier bikes over it or trying taking a short cut to cross the road.
- No pedestrians try to jump across two often.
- No Car thinks he can do a james bond leap over it.
- I understand this is long lasting as those 6 In dividers suddenly become zig zag and a few stones are oftening missing. People tend to move it to create a gap so they can cross the road.
But, this divider has a gap every 100-200 meters. So pedestrians can cross by walking a maximum of 50-100 meters. Also since now they ALL cross at one place its easir for managing it (sometimes a lollipop man is present)
But your point about parking is valid too. After errecting such a divider the cops shoudl man it well so they enforce no-parking zones and make sufficent room elsewhere for drop off areas.
Narayan Gopalan
User Interaction Designer
Bangalore
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