Now, this post is triggered by Blogathon Topics list. Especially because I believe that Bangalore is chocked by maddening rush of vehicles and in my personal experience, I might have spent some hours caught in jams. Bangalore traffic steals the hot seat for any coffee time discussion and since Blogathon offered me an official reason for this rant, I might as well capitalize on it. 
Though I have been a Bangalorean since only 8 months, the tall, centennial trees and the sprawling greenery across the city has captured my loyalty. Its easy to crib about how life has become difficult while maneuvering through the Bangalore Roads, but I am really unused to applying thought to combat the traffic woes rather than opting for staying at home, that is.
For a hightech city, that once used to be known as retired people’s paradise, it is a huge shift from being a peaceful little garden city to the ultramodern silicon valley of India. We paid the price for this development through increased floating population, congested roads, longer routes, maddening polution, and increasing mercury levels that are making their presence felt during this hot sunday afternoon.
A quick look at Bangalore Traffic Website bought forward some interesting facts. We are a city with over 80 lakhs of people using more than 28 lakhs of personal transportation. Our public means of transportation (BMTC) carries over 28 lakhs of passenger trips everyday, and still bears the venom of public for being less frequent and inaccessable. Its a nightmare to navigate through M.G. Road, Bannerghatta Road, Jaya Nagar, Majestic etc. during the official hours. Yes, the idea of Metro Railway and Mass Transit Facilities sound easy on harrowed throats, yet they are still some years away. If I have to think about some interm means, these do come to my mind.
Multi Floored Parking Joints to ease the traffic woes in narrow congested roads like M.G. Road, Brigade Road, Sankey Road, Cubbon Park Road, J.C.Road, Kempegowda Road, Sheshadri Road, Richmond Road, and Residency Road. Hunting for parking slots on these streets is a daunting task and we can often notice people making rounds for dropping their vehicles off. Multi Floored Steel Paid Parking Joints can save a lot of space on these roads and can ease some congestion as well.
A Realtime updated Postit Website that reflects the current state of traffic on popular routes and suggests alternative routes is much needed in this techie city. If it has a facility to bring people together for car pooling or ride sharing, it would be just apt. Car Pooling is not a new idea, it must have been there for ages. And it requires some serious consideration for innovative implementation in Bangalore. As the ambitious plan to make Bangalore a Digital city with city Wi-Fi comes live, getting real time updates on the traffic status becomes much more easier.
SMS updates for telecom subscribers on their regular routes. Most of us have regular routes for frequent travel, either to office or home that we cannot avoid. However a realtime update on the traffic status over SMS or on FM would help us in either easing our blood pressure levels or making way for some intelligent planning.
Some Ownership from us, the citizens in ensuring responsible driving and sensitive attitude. I have seen some really insensitive drivers on Bangalore roads, who consider breaking traffic rules as their birth right and are truly inconsiderate for fellow drivers. I suggest carrying a newspaper and spending some time on Page 3 gossip or SENSEX updates, rather than enriching our vocabulary of expletives on fellow drivers or Bangalore Traffic. Getting cheesed off on things like inevitable Traffic Jams may not bring an earth shattering change to Bangalore, but would surely effect our mental atitude and stress levels. Be easy on yourself and those frayed nerves, switch on that favorite music of yours, twitter on traffic status and enjoy the chilled Bangalore weather while waiting for traffic to clear up.
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