BANGALORE: Bangalore roads, like many roads in the country, can be an unending maze for people who are not familiar with the city and for many who are, as well. In a city of innumerable ‘one ways’ and countless ‘dead ends’, the signage becomes the saving grace for many a confused commuter who finds himself lost in a new area with no idea of which direction to take to get to his destination.
“All of the BTRAC signboards are of the size and colour specification approved by the IRC, which is the normal blue and white boards that one sees in the city,” said R K Mishra, Member, Agenda for Bangalore Infrastructure Development (ABIDe).
However, plenty is often a bane. Mishra added that issues like too many signboards being placed in some places were defeating the purpose of introducing an uniform standard. “Contractors get paid by the number of signs they put up and as a result many conflicting signs are installed. Sometimes even in the middle of a footpath forcing pedestrians to walk around it,” he added.
Prof M N Sreehari, Traffic Expert, agreed to the problem of excessive signage. “In some places like on Mysore Road, there are as many as 20 boards at a distance of just five meters, confusing the drivers,” he said suggesting that a single signboard be put up instead.
Another issue that has cropped up with the issue of signages is of local residents and police stations taking matters into their own hands and putting up signboards of their own to indicate directions.
This can be seen in and around the Domlur Flyover where yellow signboards show the way to commuters and instead of the standard BTRAC logo they sport the name and phone number of the local police station.
“While this is a good measure and infinitely helpful to drivers who would be lost otherwise, it is sad to see that a police station had to take a step like this while the implementing authority did not deem it necessary to put up signboards,” said Manish, a resident of Murugeshpalya.
“It helps people not to get confused. We tried to get standard signs but it kept getting delayed and hence we took this proactive action,” said a constable attached to the police station.