BENGALURU: How does one keep the city’s traffic moving? Key opinion leaders have suggested getting back the Bike taxi as one of the possible solutions. They suggest having it as a pilot in some narrow congested areas to strengthen the last mile connectivity with public transport.
Opinion leaders, MLAs and industry stakeholders submitted recommendations to Deputy Chief Minister Dr C N Ashwath Narayan through a virtual town hall on Bengaluru Mobility on Saturday. The focus was to increase the adoption of public transport.
They pointed to the government that as around 48 per cent use public transport and 80 per cent use two-wheelers, having bike taxis could help. Revathy Ashok, CEO, Bangalore Political Action Committee (B.PAC), said the government officials took note of the suggestion to constitute a unified authority comprising BBMP, traffic and transport departments to look at decongesting Bengaluru in a holistic manner on the London transit model.
It was suggested that TOD (transport oriented development), the Revised Master Plan and the City mobility plan be integrated and aligned so that traffic and infrastructure are equally distributed across the city. The recommendations are a result of the #BengaluruMoving campaign.
Dr Ashwath Narayan said: “Building a transport system that is beneficial for both commuters and the environment is the priority of the government. In line with this, we are taking steps to increase adoption of public transport from 41 per cent to 73 per cent through a regulated public-private partnership model. Your report will give us insights into what each stakeholder needs.” Anjum Parwez, Principal Secretary Transport, said the government was working towards improving coordination between various agencies. “We are also taking innovations that have worked elsewhere, such as the TrinTrin bicycle system in Mysuru and seeing how we can make them work in Bengaluru too,” he said.
Ravikanthe Gowda, Joint Commissioner of Police, Traffic, Bengaluru, said, “We have installed over 1,500 cameras across the city to monitor vehicular movement and have collected enough data to predict traffic hotspots.” The virtual town hall was organised by Bengaluru Needs You, Environment Support Group, Young Leaders for Active Citizenship and B.PAC. Those who participated include Prof. Rajeev Gowda, former MP, N A Haris, MLA (Shanthinagar), Nandeisha Reddy, BMTC Chairman, Rajiv Aggarwal, Head of Public Policy South Asia - India, Uber, Pawan Mulukutla, Director, Electric Mobility, WRI India, World Resources Institute, and others.