Bright future for bangalore

"God can only improve the traffic in Bangalore"...
"Look at the fly over... There is a traffic jam on it. The traffic in this city will never improve"...
" This is fucked up man!"...
"I really love the Malls and Resturants and all the shopping places in Bangalore. I just hope I find a Boyfriend who has a car with a nice a/c to drive me around. I really HATE this traffic"...

I've listened to lines like these since... forever! I've heard these so many times from so many people that I almost start believing in it. The whining by these people paints a picture of some innocent bunch of people, all jolly and giggly, driving an LML Vespa on a road with "Yeh dosti..." sounding in the background and all of a sudden some unknown evil force of nature puts traffic around them and goes MUHAHAHAHAAA! Come on! We're the fucking traffic! If you use the road and say 'I hate the traffic', its like your penis getting up and saying 'I doesn't like you anymore Rodney'. (Remember the Penis Song by Rodney Harrington?) We're a part of the traffic and we're a part of the problem.

Is this how it will be in the days to come? If an acquaintance of mine wants to move to Bangalore should I warn them that they're coming to a place that's going to be overrun with Auto-Rickshaws (like the scene with the nomadic ants in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of Crystal Skull) in the next few months and therefore should run in the opposite direction?

I don't think so. I see a nicer future for Bangalore...

Bangalore is young


Unlike cities that are well established with current infrastructure (I have NY in mind) Bangalore is still very uneven. The depth by which technology and updated infrastructure has penetrated areas in Bangalore is very uneven. Evening this out is when young Bangalore starts moving towards adulthood. NY for example has awesome young and interesting people in the city, but the city by itself is like a 50 year old. Changes there take time, paper work, union workers... Its like asking a 50 year old to run. They wont run... Bangalore is still malleable. Its upto us to give it its shape as an adult.

We'll find better fuel


The current city we see runs on fuel, with prices shooting up everyday, close to exhaution (either because its naturally exhausted or because the prices are so high that we just can't afford it). In the coming months the govt. is going to remove the subsidies on diesel and people will stop using diesel. Petrol is a much better option. Petrol may not dry out in the next few years but its price is going to get so high that we will consider battery powered vehicles. And viola... no more smoke on the streets! No more jerks driving auto-rickshaws spewing thick black smoke into your face at a traffic signal.

Awesome mass transport

As I indicated in my previous post, the Bangalore metro is going to kick ass! I can't wait to get drunk on a Saturday and ride the metro back home. (That's when I really appreciate the usefullness of Metro)

People will cycle more

Listen to the radio about fitness experts. They ask you to cycle to work. But we're Indians. We're lazy. We won't cycle will we? Wrong~! I am seeing an increasing number of people who train to be fit. People jog in the morning. People work out. Once we have battery operated cars and less smoke, we will definitely have more cyclists in the city.

There are a lot of pessimists around. But bitching about your own home is really pathetic if you don't do anything about it. Don't bitch about the traffic if you don't follow the rules yourself. Don't overtake vehicles from the left. If you want to solve the traffic problem, start by driving better. If you want to solve a problem, be a part of the solution, or shut the fuck up!

Bangalore Metro 10 years later (maybe)

This is an addition to my prevous post. This is a nicer representation of what the metro will look like after the completion of Phase 2 and the completion of Moro/LRT. (Open in new window/tab for a nice large view)

I had the Boston MTA (the 'T') map in mind when I did this. This brings together the existing commuter rail, the metro and the Mono/LRT lines together to show the connectivity between the stations. When you're coming to bangalore from Mysore, you can get off at Kengeri / Nayandahalli and board the metro through an underground walkable route for passengers. Same will be at the Whitefield/Cantonment station when you're reaching bangalore from Chennai.

I was driving by Marenhalli road in Jaynagar and I saw the 'namma metro' safety partitions on three places on this road. This would be the Yellow line that goes from RV Rd. to Electronic city through Silk Board. Looks like Phase 2 is going to start before the completion of Phase 1. The metro is going to run on the left of Marenhalli road (a.k.a. Inner Ring Road, a.k.a. RagiGudda Rd, a.k.a. BTM Rd) if you are driving towards Silk Board. That's good news.

oncrete structure (whatever it's called) on the pillars and the rails on it. The side parts are remaining.
- Also, a small progress report on the metro construction I have seen:
- The curve on the green line at the northern end of RV Road (Minerva) is almost complete. They've laid the cThe puttenhalli part seems to be coming along quite fine. A drive down Kanakpura road shows an 'almost complete' metro from Sarakki signal till Puttenhalli stop.
- RV Road has gone back to being awesomer after they've removed the blockades they had for the construction and re-metalled the roads. Only the parts of the road under the 4 stations are remaining. The divider between the roads is being done now as well. The few parts, where the divider is constructed, painted and some bushes laid, look very pretty.
- The Mysore road part is going on but very slow. The ORR, Mys Rd double fly over construction is in full swing to compensate for the slow metro construction.
- I read that the northern part of the green line - From Kuvempu Rd to Peenya is going to be functional in a few months. (Will update the post with a link to the article later... Maybe)