Pedestrians risk lives under expressway

Kumbalgudu residents have a tough time navigating the junction under the Bengaluru-Mysuru Expressway due to lack of traffic police and traffic lights.

Residents are having trouble crossing the road at the Kumbalgudu junction under the Bengaluru-Mysore expressway flyover. With no traffic lights, students, workers and commuters run across the road amidst heavy traffic, including buses and trucks. Malashree, 22, and Abhi, 20, who rushed across the road and jumped into a bus said that the junction has not had any traffic lights for a while. “There have been no functioning signals for the past six to seven months,” Malashree said.

Abhi added,“ I commute from here every day to college, and I see two to three accidents every other day.” Uttaresh, 28, a restaurant employee who has resided in the area for five years, said that vehicle accidents are a common occurrence and he has observed at least one accident every other week.

Aqheeb, 28, a local garage owner who has lived in the area for seven years said, “I have seen at least five to six people get into accidents every month. Lorry drivers drive very recklessly and BMTC buses follow suit in their attempt to catch up.”

The Kumbalgudu traffic police, however, have not reported any accidents. Head Constable Manjunatha P.N, from the Kumbalgudu police station, said that zero accidents were reported at the junction but accidents have occurred 50 metres away from both directions of the junction with one accident being reported this year.

The traffic police also said that they post police officers to monitor the junction. Pravin, 24, a traffic police officer said that he was posted to monitor the junction for 12 hours. However, he crossed the road and headed off in another direction. There were no traffic police officers at the junction from noon to1 pm.

Two yellow blinker lights are installed opposite each other under the flyover, but one is not working.

The Bengaluru-Mysuru access-controlled Expressway is a part of National Highway 275 that starts from Bengaluru and ends at Bantwal, while passing through MysuruThe expressway was inaugurated on March 12, 2023.

“Flyovers are never a solution to a traffic problem,” said urban planner Vikram Bhatt. “Studies have shown that flyovers are only a short term solution that divert traffic but make things worse by inviting more private vehicles that only fuel traffic congestion further.” He referred to an article by Kashmira Dubash for the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP).

Mr Bhatt recommended public transport as the most viable solution to traffic congestion. “Development of good public transport is the best solution, we should make it so great that you don’t have to rely on flyovers,” he stated.

He further elaborated on how to deal with existing flyovers by recommending additional traffic calming measures. “Since the flyover already exists, we can adopt traffic calming measures along with traffic lights, such as pelican crossings and rumble strips and also increasing waiting times at traffic stops.”