BENGALURU: “Terrible” is the common retort to any talk about Bengaluru traffic. But if you wonder why, much of the traffic congestion on the city roads is because of motorists violating no-parking zones, shrinking the available space for free-flowing traffic. Erratic parking behaviour of the city’s motorists is the villain.Most of the congestion happens in residential areas where roads are narrower. And this is attributed to residents parking their vehicles outside for want of parking space within their residential compounds.
It is a common practice for Bengaluru motorists to just park their four-wheeler in any available space outside their residential compounds, without considering whether that space was marked no-parking or not. In fact, traffic signs matter little — or not at all — to the city’s motorists.
Which is why the state police thought it befitting to send its suggestion to a Parliamentary select committee looking into suitable amendments to the Motor Vehicles Act.
One of the suggestions is that a car buyer will have to show proof of parking space within his/her residential compound to the regional transport office (RTO). Failing which, it would be considered an offence to buy a car without prior arrangement of vehicle parking space under the Motor Vehicle Act, and the car will not be registered.
If the suggestion is accepted and introduced in the amendment, RTO officials would come to inspect your place to assess whether your new vehicle has a parking space within your residential compound. This is to ensure that you are not forced to park your vehicle on the roads outside your residential premises. Because, if that happens, your vehicle will shrink the available space for traffic movement on the road — a common trend on Bengaluru roads.
Traffic expert Prof M N Sreehari says that, in India, the car-buying spree is increasing by about 18 per cent every year. “This is an alarming sign. Alongside asking people to show proof of parking space, the government should restrict the number of cars per family. Government should also not allow roadside parking. Roads are meant for traffic flow. They spend crores of rupees on asphalting the roads; and after spending so much, why should one allow a portion of the road for parking? If they restrict parking on the roads, naturally the people would take public transport and thus the number of vehicles can be restricted,” he said.
However, as there is no provision for restricting the number of vehicles bought per household, the suggestion of making proof of parking space for new vehicles mandatory for car registration has been submitted to the Centre.As of today, there are 1.85 crore vehicles in Karnataka, of which 72 lakh are plying on Bengaluru roads. “Parking issues need to be focused on. It has to be streamlined. Bengaluru roads have crossed the threshold of holding its vehicle population. We do not have any police to restrict the number of cars or two wheelers bought per family,” B Dayanand, Commissioner, Transport and Road Safety, told Express.
The gist of it
WHAT IS THE PROBLEM?
With vehicle population shooting up in the city, there is lack of available parking spaces within residential compounds. This forces motorists to park their vehicles on the roads, shrinking the space meant for free traffic flow. This causes traffic congestion.
WHAT IS THE PROPOSAL?
Any new car buyer will first have to show the regional transport office (RTO) the proof that he/she has adequate parking space within his/her residential compound. If not, the new car will not be registered — which means it will not be allowed to play on the city roads. For this, a team of RTO officials will visit the car buyers place to assess whether parking space is allotted for the new car or not. Only on being assured will permission be granted for registering the new car.
over to select committee
The Centre wants to amend the existing Motor Vehicles Act. The Lok Sabha approved it, while the Rajya Sabha referred it to the select committee. “The select committee invited police authorities from Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka. We were the only ones from the South. We have given a few suggestions for amendment,” D Roopa, IGP and Commissioner for Traffic and Road Safety.
EXPERTS’ SUGGESTIONS
l No parking should be
allowed at all on roadside
l Restrict number of vehicles per household to just one
l Promote public transport as alternative to private vehicles
l Encourage multi-level parking facilities within premises, residential and commercial.
l Have separate parking enclosure for visitors, so they don’t park on roads when they come visiting.
CRITICISM
l The proposed system
could lead to more corruption on part of RTO officials who come to inspect residential premises for parking space. This may require more regulations to check that corruption.
l What happens if the RTO officials are convinced of parking space availability of a new car buyer and register his/her car, and the buyer then moves to a different locality where parking space is not available?
EXPERTS speak
This initiative is not implementable, and will only increase corruption and require a lot of regulation. Incidents of extortion by people who check the parking space is bound to happen. A better thing to do is have a parking substitution fee. Instead of targeting individual homes, the authorities should start with communities such as apartments, schools and commercial spaces. These communities should either allow parking for visitors, or pay extra if they do not want to use it for parking. That money can then be used to construct multi-level parking facility.
Ashwin Mahesh, Urban expert
The initiative has good intent, but I wonder how effective the implementation part can be. It can be done in the spacious areas, but not in congested areas. Significant change can not be expected from the initiative. The focus should be on implementation of the Metro project at the earliest, increasing the number of coaches and improving last-mile connectivity. Restriction can also be imposed on the number of cars a household is allowed to own.Lokesh Hebbani, Transportation expert
There are multiple targets of this initiative. The first one is to reduce roadside parking, and the second one is to restrict car ownership. But restricting measures have to go hand-in-hand with improvement in public transport.Ashish Verma, Transportation planning expert working at IISc