Urban mobility which looks very simple to tackle is actually a classic example of a complex system. At the same time sustainable mobility solutions are amply clear within the fundamental and universal approach of promoting higher trip mode share on public transport, walking, and cycling. This approach can be translated into action by reducing the number of motorised vehicles, reducing vehicle kilometres travelled by all motorised vehicles, and fix energy mix of transport to renewal sources.
Unfortunately, 2024 has been an year of misplaced priorities for Bengaluru in terms of State Government’s continued focus on road infrastructure projects, like tunnel road, double decker, flyovers/underpasses among others, which only creates a pathway for the city to an unsustainable and unliveable Bengaluru, considering that their impact would be to decrease trip mode share of sustainable modes, increase tailpipe emissions, increase energy consumption (especially fossil fuels), increase traffic fatalities of vulnerable road users, and widen the inequitable access across gender and income groups.
This is inspite of proven experience of the city in the last few decades with such road infrastructure interventions not leading to any sustainable solution with Bengaluru still remaining as among the most traffic congested cities in India and world. This is compounded by slow pace of implementation of MRTS (metro and sub-urban rail) corridors in Bengaluru, with planning gaps on; integration of public transport modes, first and last mile connectivity, inefficient and difficult transfers, and absence of efficient passenger information system.
To top it all, lack of baseline provisions and poor workmanship in infrastructure execution, continues to hinder efficient traffic management. This includes uneven road geometry, pothole-ridden roads, absent/poor quality/encroached footpaths, absence of safe cycling pathways (cyclists have become an endangered species in Bengaluru), absence as well as disregard of traffic markings/signages/signals, and lack of traffic segregation at signalised junctions based on direction of movement.
The cherry on the cake in terms of misplaced priorities this year has been; non-operational Bangalore Metropolitan Land Transport Authority (BMLTA), continued fragmented governance of mobility, ad hoc based decision making and infrastructure planning by ULBs, dormant DULT, complete lack of public and stakeholder engagement on mobility infrastructure planning, and absence of push measures to discourage ownership and usage of personal vehicles (especially cars).
While there were genuine attempts by Bangalore traffic police to make use of AI, however it’s effectiveness will always be limited as long as the above-mentioned baseline issues remains unsolved. Moreover, traffic police as an organisation lacks technical knowhow and competence to handle the function of traffic management, rather, there role should ideally be restricted to traffic law enforcement.
This clearly leads to a dire situation of mobility towards an unsustainable state and its negative impact on Quality of Life (QoL) of Bengaluru citizens. As we enter the new year 2025, the city needs surgical interventions to fix these fundamental issues to correct the priorities, which will require the city to have; one single public transport operator across all public transport modes, fully functional and active BMLTA to handle both transport planning and traffic management function, role of traffic police to be restricted to traffic law enforcement only, complete overhaul of driver education and licensing system to create safe and environmentally conscious licensed drivers, standardisation of road infrastructure planning and execution for quality delivery and workmanship of road works. Only when we take these bold steps for Bengaluru, we will create a more sustainable and liveable future for Bengaluru.