Developing Bangalore Online

Town Planning - Ribbon and Ring development

2010-03-28T16:04:00.001+05:30

Towns existed many centuries before the Industrial revolution. The pre industrial towns were glorified villages in short for obvious reasons. The degree of urbanization increases sharply as industrialization increases. Even with an inherent flaw in the urban mechanism as opposed to nature, the urban way of life has definite irresistible advantages.

1. Man is a social animal
2. Economic drivers
3. Easy access to goods and services
4. Education and seat of learning
5. Safety

Development of a town without any future planning is called natural development of a town. Natural or unplanned growth is seldom desirable as any future rectification is prohibitively costly and undesirable. Even planned growth could be doomed even before it starts especially in a democracy with conflicting interests. It may be desirable to classify towns in to different categories.

1. Seat of power State and national capitols
2. Seat of learning
3. Economic
4. Industrial
5. Other

The Ribbon

The Ribbon development is road centric. This is characterized by people tendency to build as near to the main road. Example is the Kerala state. The whole state is a ribbon. The countryside in the entire state of Kerala is not visible to the major road users. The ribbon development though thought to be inferior the Keralaits did not think so. It may be worth researching whether it is due to the “Pramila Rajya” in Kerala.

The Bangalore ring road is currently witnessing the ribbon development phenomenon.

Town Planning - Ribbon and Ring development

2010-03-28T16:01:00.000+05:30

Town Planning - Introduction

2010-03-24T20:39:00.000+05:30

General:

The planet earth appears blue from outer space due to the huge amount of water covering the globe. The exposed land above this ocean water is only 30% the ocean water portion being the remaining 70%. India stands 7th nation after Russia and china in its extant of land which is about 32,263 Sq km. This land asset available to the earthlings, which is the fundamental asset, is limited in its extent. This asset belongs to the entire life system that exists at any point of time on this planet. It can only be borrowed for temporary convenience by any life that exists on the planet at any time period.

Successful Town planning is based on the fundamental principles which should take into account the envisaged roll of the town, its location, weather and topology. Hence Town Planning starts at the time of selection of a suitable site for the new town.

Any design is valid only as far as the assumptions that need to be made at the start and are valid till the life span of the town. It requires the planner to visualize as accurately as possible the town and its roll in the country which it belongs to.

Towns are different from the villages where agriculture is the main occupation. The towns have governments, their offices, and possibly industries. The Schools Colleges Universities are the other category of necessities that get added up apart from big Hospitals, eateries, malls etc. The main difference, in effect, a town has from a village is the population density. The population density of a town can be really high. This leads to increase in vehicular traffic and other resource crunches. Polluting Industries could be the added challenges.

Evolution of towns:

Towns are in existence since the days of mythology. Towns and civilizations are in synchronization. As such, their evolution and decline are in step with each other. There are new cities which come up and grow in maturity and glory to decline and obliterate eventually at the end of its life span.

What is Town Planning?

Town planning is similar to planning ones own residence. Architects are trained in designing spaces for peoples use. He is also one who designs the spaces and supervises the construction of buildings or other large structures, in general. In a residential building the spaces are like kitchens, bed rooms, toilets etc. In the case of a town it is residential, green, entertainment, work and commute spaces for entire communities that are expected to reside temporarily or otherwise. These have to be designed individually and integrated to serve the Town optimally for the complete set of all the communities. Architects are trained to contribute towards the spatial design with aesthetics and utility. Engineers on the other hand have the expertise in various technical areas like civil, mechanical, mass transport and sanitation which is required to translate the spaces designed / dreamt by architects in to reality in towns. It is this challenge that the engineers have to meet successfully to achieve physically the esoteric dream designs conceived by the architects.

Objectives
Should have:-

Esthetical value Convenience essential services water food entertainment electricity transport sanitation communication fire safety police education universities of learning movie / fine art theaters

Sustenance Requirements

Grocery Cloths Cosmetics Foot ware Travel Ware Jewels Art etc
Agriculture based food Cereals Pulses etc aqua and land animal flesh food Vegetable Fruits

Should not have:-

Pollution. Polluting Industries and Hazardous Industries should be in separate exclusive cities.
The Dynamics of a growing Town (uncontrolled) and Game Theory

The principles of non cooperative game theory, including strategic form games, Nash equilibrium, sub game perfection, repeated games, and games of incomplete information in a direct and uncomplicated style are the broad spectrum of the fields of a modern game theory.

The theory of non cooperative games studies the behavior of agents in any situation where each agent's optimal choice may depend on a forecast of the opponents' choices. "Non cooperative" refers to choices that are based on the participant's perceived self interest. theory that have been most useful in the study of economic problems. It also has some applications to political science.

While game theory is useful in competitive situations as is clear from the above points, Town planning is better and should be without competition. This is where the good sense prevails over ambition.
Principles

The main principle is that a town is like a living organism. It has a purpose and cannot or should not grow unplanned haphazard manner. Taking a leaf out of nature is perhaps in order. Each species of a town could be classified depending upon its roll. - Seat of power, Industrial, commercial, a business hub etc.

Combining these is normally resorted to for increasing the land value which invariably results in unmanageable competition and should be avoided.

Dr. Baidya a Refugee from Bangla Desh

2009-08-05T18:25:00.001+05:30

He came to India at the time of partition in 1947. In the past 62 odd years he has spent a useful and satisfied life in Independent India. He will be 70 years on 19th November This year. He is a renowned social activist, who enjoys marriage counseling as a past time.

Dr. Baidya joined IFS and did work with Dr. MS Swaminathan at Shastri bhavan as a Director. He has visited several countries during his studies while in IFS. Currently he stays at his own house in Defense colony. In IFS he availed of all opportunities for acquiring more and more knowledge and a string of Phd degrees.

Environment was a hot subject of this venerable man and continues to be so even at 70. He has known Suresh Heblikar (Film actor director) and also Dr. Devishetty the renowned Heart Specialist. Dr. Shety who is famous for his many successful operations had a few failures too. This is no reflection on his genius.

Dr. Baidya as a conserver of Forests had close brushes with Veerappan. However he lost one of his deputies Mr. Srinivasan. The IFS officer feels many of us talk about environment a lot but practice precious little.

Flourishing Travel Business of Bangalore

2009-07-28T19:30:00.003+05:30

Vishwanath is the son of Satya a Driver at ADE a DRDO organization. I should know Satya as I was at ADE for 26 years till I retired in 2003. Vishwanath a Tall well built man of 29 years is engaged to get married shortly in November 2009. He is a very satisfied person in life with his travel business. He has a regular contract with CISCO. CISCO offices are at Ring road Devabisana halli, near Intel Offices.

Satya the Father of Vishwanath is an introvert indulging in occasional drinking. Vishwanath shuns drinking. However Vishwanath has the smoking habit. I could not resist my temptation to advice Vishwanath to quit smoking in favor of occasional drinking. Vishwanath promised to come and tell me shortly about his quitting the smoking habit. However he is avers to drinking habit due to the bad experience of his father.

The secret of Vishwanath happiness is his travel business which is flourishing well. He owns a Quails apart from the present Innova which will be his in 2 years when the loan on it will get cleared. The current recession is a reality evident to Vishwanath. However we both agreed that better days are ahead after the current recession. Vishwanath has the ambition of owning a bus and setting up a travel business of his own.

On line Wiki Communities

2009-07-26T17:17:00.003+05:30

Wiki communities

WIKI is an acronym defined as "What I Know Is". By definition WIKI is a collaborative website whose content can be created by a collaborative effort of a community. There can be a hierarchy of increasing rights to perform different levels of controlling content and its effective delivery etc. This hierarchy can be visualized as tree structure with root having the controlling share holding. Software which facilitates such open hierarchical editing tree structure is called Wiki technology [from Hawaiian Wiki-Wiki quick] Wikipedia for example is an online collaborative encyclopedia with absolute controls with Mr. [?].

Online groups of people with interest in intellectual pursuits of any kind single or multiple which are inherently binding in nature, with no considerations for monetary gains can form Wiki communities. Praja, Flicker, Face book and India together for example are some of the Wiki communities. These communities in tern can generate soft online material like photos in Flicker, Personalities in face book, which could be shared easily. The names of these communities are innovative enough to capture the essence of their presence on the internet.

India together is a online Magazine with an exclusive editorial board for Internet empowered Concerned Citizens of India Providing (1) in depth Information about public Interest matters and (2) live Understanding of Social, political and Policy matters as well.(3) Facilitating the Sharing of Expert knowledge towards above. Mass media cannot allocate much space for depth because advertisement revenue is the key. Commercial media primarily provide news of a perceived immediate utility for a mass audience. Common denomination is mass interest. While the inherent driving motivation for WIKI communities are intellectual.

Praja community is an Indian citizen centric community extending to all of the Indian cities.

Land Development, with a Modular road network Design Concept

2009-03-28T09:30:00.018+05:30

Introduction

Development of land for use involves Infrastructure development like road, rail, sea and air transport systems, with suitable terminals for embarking and disembarking of passengers and other passenger support systems like catering, rest rooms, warehouses, etc. Sustainability of these transport systems is an important issue, in general. With Urban economic development there is a possibility of the local vernacular culture being threatened. There are certain tools developed which would be suitable for preserving this local culture. The three types of anchors which preserve the vernacular culture are (1):

1. Markets
2. Ethnic areas
3. Heritage sites

It is also important to preserve or improve the Ecology of the area being exploited for economic development. The present modular design concept developed for road networks, is independent of type of development be it Rural or urban community developments.

Motor Vehicle Traffic congestion and environmental effects

An Urban environment entropy model has been successfully proposed for urbanization environmental impact assessment (2). Substantial increase in urban population, household incomes, and industrial and commercial activities are the cause of urban transportation chaos in many countries like India. Studies made for building suitable future city growth prediction models for the Indian subcontinent are interesting(3).

Solutions proposed in such studies mainly aim at reducing owner driven motor vehicles and congestion by

1. Encouraging use of public transport
2. Building new mass transport systems like Metro Maglev etc.
3. Widening exiting roads and building new ones.

None of the above options are sustainable, as in no time the number of Motor Vehicles tend to overtake the increased capacity of the infrastructure.

The case for non motor Vehicle transport (NMVT)

Conventional urban land development planning practices often consider walking and cycling as minor transport modes, which leads to a planning bias (4). Mobility normally includes a walking link at both at start and end of daily commuting in every person’s life. This start and end transport link should be pleasant, non-irritating, healthy, safe and in a clean environment devoid of any pollutants. This link is an important factor in encouraging people to the use of public transport.

The pedestrians, cyclists and hawkers are a neglected lot due to lack of lobbying for infrastructure for this mode of transport. This option is a viable and effectively combative to the unchallenged motor vehicles lobby. Thus providing safe, healthy and conducive green atmosphere infrastructure for NMVT can be an effective MV Transport systems sustainability tool.

Often the question “Whose Roads” (5) is put by many people who believe that non motorized modes (Walking and cycling) have an inferior right to use the public road compared with motor vehicles. However since motor vehicles impose significant risk on pedestrians and cyclists, it is prudent to segregate them from motor vehicles traffic by having separate foot paths, cycling and hawker tracks. As majority of roads are developed and maintained by general taxes, it is worth while to allocate portion of these funds to development of exclusive foot paths and cycling cum hawker tracks. It is necessary to include Hawkers in the category of cyclists in 3rd world countries (6) like India.

A case for Greenery

The carbon foot print of the motor vehicles needs to be compensated by good green area ratios. It is a good policy to have enough greenery to alleviate the damage caused by motor vehicles not only due to their carbon emissions but also due to the road asphalting related ecological damage. The roads, foot paths and cycling tracks need to be surrounded by greenery, to maintain or improve the ecology of the terain. This green belt which houses the foot paths and cycling tracks has to be planned in parallel along with any road networking existing or newly planned.

A case for signal free MV Road Network

It is not uncommon for genuine apprehensions like

1. A signal free road may result in a nightmarish traffic.
2. The number of vehicles will always increase and eventually succeed in defeating any move for a signal free road network.
3. There should be more signals to control traffic!
4. Signal free means no control possible over traffic!

While the apprehensions are genuine, perhaps they should not exclude any attempt to visualize and design a road net work which is signal free for a given MV density pattern in a city. It is possible to estimate the number of vehicles which could ply comfortable in any stretch of a given road at a given speed, at any instant of time.

The Aim

With the above considerations we propose to develop a new signal free modular road network design concept for a vernacular land development with active segregation of Pedestrian and non motor transport like cycling and hawking carts. A network consisting of major and minor arterial roads are dealt with in the proposed design.

The Various Stages in the growth of a city

The Early days

Normally the traffic in any road is in dual direction, one direction being the opposite of that of the other. The dual way traffic is a default option due, to the freedom of movement it provides. However this initial freedom could be a potential bottleneck, for any organized growth in land connectivity. Unless this phenomenon is well understood and enough care is taken to avoid such bottle necks in future any city development will be an unpleasant endeavor.

A city Road Infrastructure is planned for an expected sprawl of the city and the expected traffic density applicable to each of its main boulevards, in fairly foreseeable time at the time of conception. L Kempegowda (7) the founder of the city of Bangalore in India, for example had erected Four Towers to mark the expected growth of the city of Bangalore, when he laid the foundation stone of the city, in early 16th century. The city crossed these limits in a couple of centuries.

Mature days

When the traffic density increases beyond the early design limits, regulating the dual way traffic in the existing main boulevards in the older parts of the city becomes unmanageable.

1. More and more curbs on the traffic by way of introducing one ways
2. Manual Traffic regulation
3. Introduction of automatic Traffic lights
4. Introduction of intelligent traffic lights systems and
5. Introduction of Regular cycle of maintenance

Panic Days

The police and general public become more and more worried about pedestrians and increasing accidents at this stage. Apart from the above the other concerns would be:

1. Increasing commuter time of professionals and government officials becomes intolerable.
2. Ad hoc solutions like flyovers shifting the congestion to other junctions
3. Solutions like signal free smooth flowing traffic between important high densities routes with Road over Road option.
4. Multiple modes of transport

The Days of realization

The dark days of panic have to be followed by the dawn of realization that providing extra transport infrastructure solutions are not endurable in a fast growing economy. Innovations are the need of the hour. They are in the realm of

1. policies
2. land use planning strategies
3. Road Network Design
4. Road Building technology
5. Vernacular land Development
6. Land Ecology

The Current Scenario

Realization of enormity of the cities transport problems

A thought for Pedestrians(8)
The writer, Praveen Sood, an additional commissioner of police (traffic), in Bangalore, India, writes in the Times of India a reputed newspaper of the country:

In 2008 of the 810 fatalities, 60% were pedestrians. Their right of way has been snatched by distorted policies, skewed implementation, prejudiced mindsets and apathy. Popular statements like ‘signal-free drive’ without creating facilities for pedestrians are an antithesis to the right to life. Today, it's impossible for anybody -- forget senior citizens and children -- to cross a road without endangering his or her life due to absence of infrastructure. But all of us First, motorist-centric policies should be put aside and instead, pedestrian-oriented policies adopted.

The Chaotic prevailing road network management reality

After Independence and especially after globalization the growth in the city of Bangalore is so fast that the standard urban development concepts being followed would no longer be satisfactory. In Bangalore as well as in many other cities in India enough pedestrian infrastructures are not provided because of shortage in funds and in adequate or absence of suitable policies. The variety of chaos can be summarized with the following:

1. The list of designated one ways including their one way direction are constantly changing
2. The status of roads gets elevated periodically.
3. The two roads, with opposing traffic are separated by a median. The right turns are restricted.
4. There is no service road
5. No places earmarked for high voltage power and other communication cables.
6. There are over head domestic and commercial power cables running on electric poles.
7. The right to run TV cables on electric poles is sold to the operators causing unacceptable usage of these street light poles.
8. The bare aluminum power cables which are run on the street light poles are ugly, hazardous and badly maintained.

The traffic lights are placed as shown at suitable over head locations at the junction square. Without any police manning these traffic lights, motorists are prone to jump the signals.

Figure - 1 Two Dual ways crossing with Traffic Lights

These arterial roads attract commercial ventures on both sides of them. Parking, which is at best only an after thought, becomes a problem resulting in the hasty no parking signs.

The Pedestrians moving in and out of the commercial establishments on to the foot paths as illustrated in Figure 1. Above, results in heavy pedestrian interference on the roads. The foot paths alongside of the roads are used to grow huge trees, obstructing the pedestrian movement. They are invariably uneven and hazardous to walk on. Thus the walk ability of these foot paths is poor, which compels the pedestrians to step on to the road. Thus the main arterial roads as conceived to day, inherently not conducive to smooth vehicular traffic, by such faulty design. The principle of convenience resulting in the above faulty design therefore needs to be addressed, scientifically.

The present dual way road which is separated by a central safety median, the right turn due to the opposing road traffic is restricted. With the proposed innovation of “Discarding the median” it is possible to have unrestricted left and right free turns at any required designated locations.

The Discarded Median Innovation

With the arguments put forth in the preceding paragraphs, we now introduce the following innovation:

1. Whenever there is a requirement for a new road in the outskirts of a city, instead of building one dual way road, separated by a median, build new or modify existing two roads separated by a wide enough usable land as a pair of two one ways. These roads need to be barricaded, so that free NMVT access to roads is denied, except at the Bus Stations.
2. In the case of an existing arterial road being selected, the criterion should be based upon serving the needs of the entire city, optimally.

The idea behind this innovation is to save the obtrusive wastage of the median! A road should allow free access to both sides of its penetration in to the land, as shown in Figure-2. While a dual way road allows free left turns, the right turns do pose the problem. So why not have usable land at the right too! Hence it is wise to replace "the wasted obtrusive median" with a usable land. This usable land is a potential prime commercial land, served on both sides by arterial roads. We call this innovation as the "discarded median innovation" Further proper community planning either "Urban" and or "Rural" goes hand in hand with this dual road penetration. Commercial activities like food courts are first to arrive at the land sandwiched between the pair of two one way arterial roads.

The concept is illustrated in Figure 2. In the current practice as shown, there is a single road bifurcated by a meridian. The traffic on either side of this meridian is opposing to each other. The main bottleneck in this arrangement is the Right turn, which requires two slots for allowing the right turn for each direction of traffic, with a traffic lights arrangement. The proposed design, replacing the meridian with usable land is free flowing with no need of the traffic signal. The reason for barricading the road on both sides is the segregation of pedestrians.

Figure 2 The Discarded Meridian Innovation

The Modular Road Network Design Concept

In this article a modular design concept, for a conscious segregation of the vehicular Traffic from the pedestrians, is developed. This modular urban (or rural) road network design concept, allows us to deliberately segregate vehicular traffic from the pedestrians.

The concept

The road network in any existing city like Bangalore for example can be visualized as an assembly of only two basic modules.

1. A Road module (RM)
2. A Road Junction Module (RJM) with crossing of two Roads at right angles

It can be shown that with a combination of the above two basic modules, it is possible to build the entire road network of a city.

The Road Module

The road module consists of the following elements: 1. Left lane 2. Center lane 3. Right Lane 4. Two Service roads and 5. Two Barricaded Green belts. Free turning access to both left and right directions is possible due to the fact that useable land is made available on both the sides, due to the current design innovation. The commercial area is to the

Figure - 3 The Road Module

Right, where as the rural or urban communities on the left. Since the green belt is barricaded, the entry in to the road is only at allowed design points and hence is under control. The module is unaffected by the type of community either rural or urban the road is penetrating. The Land to the right of this module is a potentially valuable prime property, due the fact that a complimentary road with opposing traffic will be simultaneously built by design

The Barricaded Green Belt Module

The green belt is to be barricaded on either side so that pedestrian’s access to the belt is denied. In tern the barricaded green belt bars the pedestrian access to the roads too. Note that Pedestrians access to the road network is thus deliberately avoided through out the network.

The Service Road Module

The service road is where various conduits with easy access panels, should be placed underneath the service road surface. Service road can also serve as distress zone for vehicles in distress.

Introduction

The Lane Transit Zone Bill Board

Vehicles that need to go left, straight, or right at a junction need to be on their desired respective lanes while arriving at the junction. They should start aligning in the transit zone preceding the actual road crossing. This transit zone should be easily identifiable by over head display boards placed appropriate locations at the start of the zone. This is essential as a reminder to the commuters, to align in time.

Figure - 6 The Over head Transit Zone Bill Board

Two Road Junction Modules

Here we consider two types of junction modules. The reason for this is that these are the two basic modules which are least complicated and are elegant. The schematic with either of the road junction modules results in a signal free continuous flow traffic.

RJM(1x1)

Two one way roads crossing each other at right angles. These modules are placed at each junction of the entire road network. While the south bond traffic, in this example, crossing the junction goes below the north bound, it is able to take a free level left turn; to join the east bound traffic. Similarly the east bound traffic is able to take level turn to join the south bound traffic.

Figure - 7 The Road Junction Module (1x1)

Road Junction Module -(1x2)

As is evident from the two sketches a single underpass is used to grade separate the crossing traffic. Separate Pedestrian crossings are provided for each road at both road segments. The pedestrian crossing for the road going through the under pass has to be provided at the ends of the ramp. Thus the complete set consists of a total of eight entries cum exit booths, four on either side of one road. There are easy ramps provided for Disabled people chairs as well as for the Hawker carts, with central steps so that people can climb or descend with the carts or wheel chairs.

Figure - 8 The Road Junction Module (1x2)

Note: The two way traffic road shown above in the West East direction is the old Median Separated traffic which however is not advocated for Major arterial roads. It can be at best be adopted at Minor Arterial roads if so desired, intermittently.

Communities

A community is defined as the one served by arterial roads (one way) at all four sides of it. A typical community is encircled by one way roads. Entry and exit points are provided at central location on each side of a community. All the roads inside a community are dual way roads. Communities in turn are of several kinds.

1. Business
2. Commercial
3. Urban Residential
4. Rural
5. Heritage
6. NO Motor Vehicles Market Spaces
7. Amusement parks
8. Ecological Farms
9. and more

We exclude the Educational institutions specifically from residential category, in this discussion.

Business community

Figure - 9 The Mall

The Malls are places which attract big daily crowds who throng the big screens, shopping centers and food courts. They have multiple level parking spaces. As such the land served by four one way roads on all the sides is ideal locate them.

Commercial community

Commercial communities are in the in between two Malls. Thus there are four commercial communities encircling one residential community. Here one has to observe that the traffic flow pattern around the community is different. The traffic is not going round the community. However it is possible to go round the community including the two corner business communities.

Figure - 10 The Commercial Area

Residential community

A residential community is the neighbor hood where people reside and do not indulge in commercial activities, requiring a group of working people who do not reside at the community. This kind of activity may affect the tranquility of the neighborhood. The strategy is to provide enough space for commercial activities around each residential community insulated from it served by major arterial roads. Thus the innovation is to keep the commercial belt sandwiched between two one way arterial roads. Residential community needs to have land for RWA, club and recreation etc apart from that required for the residential buildings. Malls and business centers should surround the Residential communities as a policy to facilitate separation of the two. The residential and commercial land should have sufficient distinct foot path area as shown in the diagram as yellow space. Pedestrians can access the Mall, commercial and residential areas only by road crossing through the under passes provided. It can be seen that they do not have any direct access to the arterial roads at all. These arterial roads are as can be recalled are barricaded and restrict any entry of pedestrians, as such.

Figure - 11 The Communities

The Green Area

The green area in a residential Community is placed centrally and provides the land for Vegetation, RWA, Club and recreation facilities for the community

Figure - 12 The Green Area inside a Community

Conclusions

This article proposes a network of arterial Roads made exclusive for transit, by barricading both sides of them. The pedestrian’s access to these roads is restricted to bus stand areas only for transit to other locations. This new concept is valid to both urban and rural land development. The innovation of using these barricaded roads in pairs of dual one way roads separated by useable land in between provides for free left as well as right turns, which provides better accessibility.

The proposed network of roads encourages natural zoning of Residential, Commercial and Business land use by suitable land area ratios maintained among them. The concept is applicable in both Urban and Rural context.

Pedestrians are discouraged to mix in to arterial roads as they are made devoid of any buildings on both sides of the road. Foot paths are provided inside the Commercial, Business and residential areas, as the arterial roads are barricaded. Pedestrian access to shopping and business areas is facilitated by provision of pedestrian under passes at all arterial junctions.

Non arterial Roads are entirely interior to all usable zones like Commercial, Business and Residential communities. These are inter connected only at center locations of each of four sides of the quadrilateral boundary of any typical zone.

Indiranagar Project

2008-11-23T16:53:00.025+05:30

------(Blue)-------> Left Lane 25 feet wide
------(Yellow)-----> Middle Lane 25 feet wide
------(Red)--------> Right Lane 25 feet wide
------(Green)----->Green Belt(L,R) 100 feet wide
----(Orange)-->Other Utilities(L,R) 50 feet wide
-----------------------------Total-225 feet wide
The Standard Underpass with Two one Way roads crossing each other.

View Larger Map

A Proposed Traffic Plan for Indiranagar Project

A revisit to an ideal Traffic flow concept

2008-11-21T15:15:00.028+05:30

The guest may like to visit an earlier post of mine on Human Blood Circulation to guess what I am referring to as an ideal traffic flow. Taking the Human Blood circulation as an analogy, here we would like to obtain an uninterrupted flow of traffic devoid of any crossing. However we will restrict it to only the Arterial Road Network in the city of Bangalore and not to the entire road network, which may not be necessary, in practice.

The concepts are
1. One way Traffic is

a. ideal for connectivity
b. Efficient to manage
c. The inherent irritation is a manifestation of being unorganized.
d. Etc…..

2. Two way Traffic is

a. Inefficient for Connectivity
b. In efficient to manage
c. More Dangerous to Pedestrians to cross
d. Good for use inside communities
d. Etc…..

3. Business, Residential and Rural Communities Integration

a. Communities should be sized optimally on availability of suitable land for use
b. Existing Rural Communities should be developed “positively” not “intrusively”
c. Asian Communities in general and Indian Communities in particular are having an unfair population density and harsh economic conditions.
d. Etc....

4. Restrict access to the Arterial roads to an optimum level

a. Minimum one access per Arterial road
b. More for justifiable reasons
c. The basic concept being developed is that

Urban Development with zoning for minimizing traffic entropy

2008-10-20T08:24:00.074+05:30

Urban Road Network Development is an important integral aspect of any urban development. The standards of construction of State roads are available with Indian Roads Congress at nominal cost by mail. However these standards seem to refer only to the civil construction of roads as such without referring to various other important civic needs of a community, with an urban reference, in particular. Praja who is actively engaged in improving the lot of mega city dwellers, is very conscious about bridging this gap.

Bangalore has experienced an explosive growth in a past few decades, which is chaotic and intrusive of rural land use. The type of development also known as vernacular type of development, in turn attempts to give a workable relationship between the urban and rural environments.

The zoning concept on the other hand, is a basic requirement important for urban development towards minimizing the traffic entropy. The entropy is a variable indicating the disorder of any system, and plays an important role in the second law of thermodynamics. The comparability between the environmental impact of urbanization and the thermodynamic entropy has been systematically analyzed, which has led to The Urban Environment Entropy Model. Thus the importance of zoning along with sufficient green belts cannot be under estimated.

The article on The Five Dimensions of compact city development evaluates the efficacy of five smart growth instruments in bringing forth compact urban development and nontraditional neighborhood design. The article first sets forth a set of quantitative measures that rationalize five dimensions of compact urban development and nontraditional neighborhood design:

1. Street network connectivity
2. Density
3. Land use mix
4. Accessibility
5. Pedestrian walk ability.

Using these measures, three study areas were evaluated to determine how well their urban development patterns meet smart growth principles. However, smart growth plans have not branched out into non-traditional aspects of planning to encourage mixed land uses and to improve regional accessibility.

Modern day cities in developing countries tend to become bigger and bigger as time passes. The size of a city depends on the land used for housing, Industries and the workforce, to keep the Industry going. The workforce in turn attracts additional support people, and additional land for use. The total area of a city is thus the land required for:

1.Industries
2.People
3.Public Utilities:
a)Parks
b)Malls
c)Busyness Centers
d)Transport Stations
e)Hotels and Restaurants
f)Schools and Collages
g)Road Network
h)etc.

In a growing city like Bangalore for example, bad road net work utilization and or bad traffic regulation could be disastrous.

View Larger Map

In the current blog, traffic entropy is visualized as a measure of wastage in fuel and time of total traffic participants on any given day in the life of a city.

It is proposed to restrict the area of interest of the city of Bangalore for simplicity to the area between 100 and 80 feet roads on one hand, and the CMH and 13th main roads on the other hand, as shown in the Google Map above. The area of interest as above will be analyzed for introduction of one ways, uninterrupted traffic on arterial roads, integration of Walk paths, cycle tracks and green belts etc, for presentation to the authorities for implementation.

This analysis post is Titled "A dream pilot project for a smooth flowing Indiranagar Traffic"

Open Communities

2008-10-14T14:34:00.008+05:30

Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) is a Government body, in charge of aesthetic planning and design of the city of Bangalore. From time to time it has made residential lay outs with enough green area and other amenities like electricity, water and sanitation. Private developers and Industries also approach BDA for their requirements. The BDA has been allotting huge chunks of land normally at the outskirts of the city, at the time of allotting. Provision of amenities like green areas, are integral part of the BDA planning. The demands for schools colleges and hospitals are also accommodated at the time of layout formation. However demands for businesses like Hotels, Restaurants, and shops with moderate land requirements come up only as and when the communities grow up. BDA also reserves enough land for zonal government offices, commonly known as BDA complex of the open community.

The layouts known as Indiranagar, Defense colony, for example, were planned and executed by the BDA in 1967. In these lay outs one can observe wide roads (80,100 feet) are planned as extensions of the then existing arteries connecting them. The naming of these layouts and allotment of the sites for residential purposes suggests that they were classified as and deemed communities. The zone planning was limited to making the biggest residential sites along the widest roads. After 40 years these bigger plots are getting transformed to commercial use. Thanks BDA’s forethought of putting the biggest sites along widest of roads for this very possible future Transformation. This can be credited as Futuristic Zoning Concept.

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At this juncture there is an urgent need to have a re look at these open communities, for the purpose of organizing the increased city traffic efficiently. These wide roads which are supposed to be continuation of older arterial roads could be made one ways with lot of benefits. It would also be beneficial to consider closing too many road entries on to these arterial roads. The closure of these redundant entries would be welcome real estate addition for better civic use.

Impact of gated Communities on Bangalore city Development

2008-10-12T16:38:00.035+05:30

Gated communities prevent public access around the clock, to their own private land. Fulbright Scholar Renaud LE GOIX Examines Gated Communities in Southern California in a theses submitted by him in July 2003. These gated communities include their own private utilities like gardens, community centers and even star Hotels behind these gates. He however refers to them as a manifestation of “Urban Pathology”. Pathology a medical term means a study of diseases. He also considers them as public space being privatized.
The point I would like to make right away is, “public place being privatized” thought is a myth. On the other hand it is in the public interest that the honest, capable, and well reputed builders of Bangalore should be nurtured and utilized for a planned growth of the city. Urban pathology is also a misnomer. The pathology part is universally applicable to showing off or is it same as making a “statement”!

“Palm Meadows” currently no 1 address in Bangalore, developed by Adarsh Builders contains Tennis courts, a club house, star hotel with swimming pool etc. It has 500 villas built on plots starting with sizes of 2400 sft to 10000 sft. These are exclusive Villas restricted to two floors. Palm Meadows project one of the earliest started in Bangalore, in the last decade of 20th century. Adarsh has something called signature Villas, which is meant to be life time “statement” one would like to make.

When city fathers of Bangalore gave these big chunks of real estate to builders it was a moot point whether or not it should have been given. In fact they went “head over heals” to provide the developers, water of the river cauveri and electricity. Now the BBMP is not in such an envious situation any more. Hope fully the BBMP will be more frugal in the future about the utilization of these scarce resources.

With the above discussions it is easy to comprehend part of gated communities in the development of a city. The most important point that I would like to make at this point is that the BDA should learn an important lesson from these developers and have a relook at their Open communities

Restricting the right turn for improving traffic flow

2008-10-10T20:21:00.031+05:30

The road traffic problems in Bangalore City are increasing day by day. The primary reason for the increase is the increase in Road Vehicles consequent to the increase in City Businesses in turn increasing the Population. This phenomenon is not Unique to Bangalore alone. The population in our country has grown from 0.40 billion in 1940 to 1.17 billion in 2008. The primary reason, for the increasing chaos in the road traffic, is this phenomenal population explosion.

Any road design is based on a given maximum traffic load. The load on roads can be reduced by having alternative mass Transport systems like Metro, Mono and suburban Rail systems. The design of the total system is in turn limited by the design total load.

Thus any city road system design can support a max load to which the road system is originally designed. Adding additional modes of transport can delay the ultimate load on the road system but can not avoid it.

It is important to understand this concept of “maximum permissible limit on total number of vehicles allowed in a city” will finally decide the limit on growth of any city, especially cities like Mumbai

Recently in a meeting with Bangalore City ACP Mr. Praveen Sood attended by a Praja team including me, expressed a view that it is the right turn that complicates the road traffic flow. This view of Mr. Sood sounds similar to that of the DCP of Pune.

A very active Praja in Pune is currently grappling with Banning Right Turns to Improve Traffic Flows proposal of its Deputy Commissioner of Police. The Pune author seems to be in confusion whether this move by the Pune DCP is scientific or other wise.

Any logical thinking conforming to known and proven scientific laws as of the day is scientific. Thus which is scientific to day could well be unscientific tomorrow, as the human knowledge improves by the day if not hours. Hence going by what we have discussed above, we have to consider logically the consequence of banning the Right Turn. The logic to be applied here is whether the gains achieved by banning the right turn are more than the losses due to the banning.

It looks like the Pune Praja is reconciled to the proposal of restricting the right turn made by DCP Pune.

Public Vs Private Transport

2008-10-06T21:40:00.020+05:30

On September 1 2008, Abhishek Upadhyay wrote that “People should be encouraged to use Public Transport.” I was busy on “Praja” work consequently loosing some time on developing Bangalore on line.

Yes Abhishek that is number one priority for us in Bangalore for that matter the whole globe. This is because the development is taking place at ever increasing pace which is mind boggling. No design can cater for ever increasing number of private vehicles.

However there are several ways to handle the situation of incresed number of vehicles:

1. Have some roads earmarked for only buses.
2. Have dedicated bus lanes instead in all roads
3. Discourage private vehicles by introducing congestion tax.
4. Remove subsidy on fuel totally on private vehicles.
5. Have additional local exclusive Cycle / pedestrian Tracks.
6. Strict Zoning in the future Bangalore city development.
7. Move towards Zoning in existing areas of Bangalore
8. Go for multi modal transport including Metro, Manos and suburban Rail
9. No parking of private Vehicles on public land, including roads
10. Close entry of all residential area roads on to arterial roads, except a few.

Bangalore Traffic Woes, avoid ad hoc solutions please!

2008-08-25T10:47:00.002+05:30

Bangalore, keeping in pace with other cities in the world, has grown exponentially over the past half a century. The Key question while planning traffic solutions for such a growing city obviously would be “how to account for possible future growth?” Bangalore has a very good example in the Kempe Gouda Towers. Kempe Gouda had in his wisdom estimated the boundaries of Bangalore and built the Towers known after him.

The lessons, what we in our time should learn are:

1 The boundaries of a growing city are not absolute. They will keep extending.
2 To take care of moving boundaries, the planning should be insensitive to it.
3 Such a methodology, insensitive to the boundaries, should solely cater to the current community traffic, without being affected by its future growth.
4 This requires a through analysis of the basic requirements of a community for (a) its daily needs and (b) its daily activities, at present as well as in the future.
5 The key now is to look forward for these requirements as and when they come up. This new requirements should be catered for without affecting what ever is on the ground.
6 Is such a design possible at all? Is there an example available from which we could draw some principles for such a growth tolerant design?

The examples are plenty in nature. A Tree for example germinates from a seed and grows being stationary at a location in huge proportion to its beginning. The whole blue print is incorporated in its seed for future Proliferation to newer locations. The Human being also grows from a few Kgs to his final mass in due course and so on.

Now coming to the current issue of Bangalore Traffic woes, it is required to address ourselves to Bangalore Traffic as a whole and not piecemeal to be specific. If we solve the problem at one junction the problem is transferred to the next junction and so on. Taking a leaf out of nature’s book there should be no hold up of traffic at all any where. The traffic lights should be made irrelevant. There should be no crossings in major roads at all. All major Roads should be one ways throughout the city. The city means that which is bounded by outer ring road. We should keep in mind this is a temporary assumption.

It is possible to make this model work. The additional incentive is if we make this model work for Bangalore it will be a unique experience in the whole world probably!

24th Prof Brahm Prakash Memorial Lecture at IISc

2008-08-22T17:27:00.002+05:30

This was a lecture arranged at the faculty hall of IISc and attended by a large audience. I was 5 years old in 1947 when Prof Brahm Praksh obtained his Doctorate in Metallurgy from the prestigious MIT in USA. At IISc he was the first Indian to head the Department of Metallurgy.

I had arrived well in time at the faculty hall to join quite a few who were already there. I was very glad to meet my old friend Dr. Murali Madhava who had returned from USA in 2006. We both sat together for the memorial lecture.

It was a great lecture worthy of the occasion by Dr. Baldev Raj Distingushed Scientist & Director, Indiragandhi Center for Atomic Research, Kalpakam. Beautifully printed full length paper along with a CD giving the power point presentation was distributed at the end of the lecture. The lecture on the whole was really a Success Story of the Indian S&T Fast Breeder Reactors! Lot of ground has been covered in FBR and remains to be covered, under Dr. Baldev Raj's Stewardship. One of the inevitable Queries came forth in the question and answer session which was "The control of the power genie which is being invoked to safe guard our planet against"

In the USA after long Mile Island mishap Nuclear energy option has been discarded. The Chernobyl accident was a near meltdown, the effects of which would be beyond comprehension.

After the lecture we shifted to the other hall for Tea. I could meet some more lost friends and had a good time in past recollections. I some how was missing Dr. Murali Madhava whom I was not able to locate. Finally I did find him talking to one of the Metallurgy Professors. I joined them. Murali had mentioned earlier about his not able to gauge his day’s progress in his technical Endeavour day after day, after coming to India, where as his daily contribution was so much more in the USA. The point being made by Murali to the IISc Prof was some thing like his offer of Free Technical consultancy is being utilized. He went at great lengths to convince me what kind of a loosing battle it was. I could not overcome my temptation to put across a lighter vein suggestion to Dr. Murali that he should charge for his consultancy.

Now at the time of writing I went through the CD of the presentation. The first slide Talks about Energy as the Key to development. India with per capita 660 KWH is the least developed. Is it a fallacy to say this really? USA is developed because it has developed the per capita 12000 KWH’s energy not vice versa. Is it that energy comes first before development? I am afraid there is some thing wrong some where!

Now mankind is dreaming of the possibility of traveling faster than light, by shrinking space and I think why not? (TOI report I am not able to lay my hands right now)

I appreciate the present trend of meeting the challenges being extended to the limits for ever. How about simple living and high thinking?

Road Map For Bangalore Traffic Optimization Initiative

2008-08-04T15:46:00.002+05:30

The First Step is to set the goals both long and short term

The enthusiasm shown in Praja postings on Bangalore traffic was excellent. However there is every chance of not making any progress if we collectively do not agree and quantify to what are our:

Objectives/goals
Constraints
The methodology of solution.

These are simple issues which can be sorted out by public debate. The execution, onthe other hand has several pit falls like

Making a proposal plan publicly transparent
Objections and impediments by vested interests.
Opportunism by not so selfless people in different walks of life.
etc.
etc.

Let us first agree to what we mean by "The ideal Bangalore Traffic". To start the ball rolling,The ideal Bangalore Traffic means:

The daily consumption of transport fuel (carbon foot print) should be the minimum.
The total daily time of all the commuters in Bangalore should be the minimum.
The cost of implementing a master plan should also be the minimum.
Traffic hazards should be eliminated

Obviously there may not be one single solution for this problem. We can only have a set of "seemingly" best solutions. We can then choose any one from the available candidate solutions.
Your vote in this regard as shown along side at the top of this post, will be of valuble.
Happy Voting!

Function honoring the distinguished Octogenarians of IISc Alumina.

2008-08-02T18:03:00.001+05:30

To day I attended the IISc meeting honoring senior distinguished Alumni. On arrival I handed over my two photographs at the desk, before entering the IISc Senate hall. The IISc convention hall is an excellent piece of design by one of the Octogenarian Alumnae being honored. Prof Dattaguru, the President of the IISc Alumnae association and also the Director of IISc himself both were at the dais. Mr. KR Srinivasan an NAL Scientist and currently an entrepreneur was introducing the distinguished guest. I was in a different world all together listening to the intellectuals narrating their experiences with the Octogenarian Alumnae being honored. Later The Octogenarian himself got up and addressed the gathering.

I can not but narrate the story told by Prof BS Ramakrishna Octogenarian Alumnae. He and Prof Satish Dhavan were at Cubbon Park where they saw Sir CV Raman searching something on the road below a florescent lamp. The Duo went and offered their help to the Nobel laureate, Sir CV Raman, who readily accepted. He asked them to collect the wings of light fly. They collected the same and gave them to Sir CV Raman. He started staring at the florescent lamp, holding the wings to his eyes and asked them to do the same. They were amazed at the spectacle created by the light passing through the insect wing. Now Sir CV asked prof Dhavan whether he had designed any of the finest aircrafts having similar wings.

I could not but believe how lucky I was to day. I got the inspiration to take up the threads of my previous post of July 18 2008 on Traffic Optimization. Hope to make my next post, continuing the same thread of Traffic Optimization where I had left it earlier, a good one.

The "Use Priciple" in action for Bangalore Traffic Police

2008-07-31T14:43:00.001+05:30

My good friend Mr. Nanjappa was mentioning some time back his interaction with Mr. Kumaramangalam of world space networking about the parking problem, we the residents of HAL III stage face every day. He, Mr. Kumaramangalam wanted to give a representation to the Police Commissioner (His Friend) Jointly with some residents of our association. The commissioner cannot listen to one individual’s problem, even if it is his friend. Fair enough I thought.
I went to Mr. Kumaramangalam’s Office. I could talk to him very briefly from the road, as he was reluctant to invite me in to his office, as he was very busy, that day. It was not possible to meet him for the whole week too. When I mentioned about Mr. Nanjappa having discussion about the parking problem with him, he was kind enough to let me know that he wanted to give a joint petition to his friend.
Mr. Madhava Rao, who is also a resident of HAL III stage, had a similar problem. Many Taxis were being regularly parked in his road causing nuisance. He could convince the Taxi drivers about his stand on the issue viz “Road side parking in a residential area is only for visitors to the concerned resident’s visitors only per se.” The people of Bangalore including taxi drivers are very reasonable. So is every body else, in any country for that matter. It is only how the citizens put across their point, matters. So now we see that all the taxis have shifted to other roads. Some time to our roads too causing the same anguish Mr. Madhava Rao had.
Now putting the Police Commissioner’s hat let us think
1. A visitor to any person has to park as near by as possible to that person’s residence he is visiting. Be it be on the same road or otherwise.
2. It will be for a reasonably small time, depending on his visit.
3. The Taxis too have to park when they are on duty in that road or when they are not engaged.
4. When Taxis are not engaged the time they park can be longer.
5. Though the Road side parking slots in residential areas are for the public visitors, the Owners Visitors should get the preference.
6. The Ownership of the parking slots rests with the corporation/Government
7. So I (the Police Commissioner) have jurisdiction to regulate the same.
8. But I (the Police Commissioner) am having many other pressing problems.
9. Let the problem get solved by it self.
10. I wish there is some solution. But I don’t have time to find the best.
Now putting a resourceful common man’s hat let us think
1. I want preference to my visitor’s vehicles to park in front of my house.
2. I do not mind others using it at other times.
3. How do I insure my visitor finds the slot empty when he arrives?
4. I can create a parking slot and lock it up.
5. Do I ask the commissioner’s for permission?
6. Is it legal? Can I do it any way?
7. Hay I heard about the “Use Principle” of taxing people!
8. I will join hands with the Commissioner BBMP and we both end up making Money!
9. We share the cost of making a parking slot and the parking fee we charge per hour 50:50. With the BBMP.
10. Problem solved.
-----Ananthram PS A Senior Citizen

Indian Institute of Science Alumni meet

2008-07-27T15:33:00.001+05:30

To day I attended the IISc Alumni meet held at "TERI" in Domlur. This venue was the first to be chosen out side the IISc campus. IISc being in the midst of celebrating its Centenary year, this Alumni meet had a greater significance. I attended the meeting as the venue was very near to the place where we live. The organizers were very happy to note that their decision brought the expected result. IISc which undoubtedly is a premium institute of its kind in our country has upgraded its view on its Alumni Association by appointing one of its serving senior faculties to head the association. The break fast was sumptuous with Rava Idli, Masala Dosa, Upma and coffee with Badam Halva to boot. The Quality was that of MTR too.
Professor Dattaguru opened the meet and gave an update on the activities. Ram Akella, Professor and Director, Centre for Knowledge, Information Systems, and Management of Technology, University of California, Silicon Valley Centre, who happened to be visiting Bangalore was very happy to share his thoughts.
The organizers in the year of centenary celebrations had a special invitee to this meet. He was V. Ravichander former member, Bangalore Agenda Task force (BATF).
Mr. Ravichander spoke on BATF which was formed in the SM Krishna days. Those were very difficult days as such, with Veerappan. After Veerappan terrorism has gone to the next dimension keeping in pace with the Internet! SM Krishna a computer savvy Chief Minister Set up BATF. As Ravichander told every CEO takes pride in one up man ship, government too is of no exception. BATF was wound up for good in no time with the change of the government.
With the brief talk which I had with Mr. Ravichander, I got the answer to my doubt as to why it was necessary to change from Self Assessment Scheme (SAS) system of Property tax to that of Capital Value System (CVS):

It was BATF according to him who proposed SAS, in line with Income Tax (IT) Assessment, which we file every year. We file our income tax return as per the current IT levied by the government from time to time. There are charted accountants who help us to file our Tax returns as per law. The onus is on the IT department to maximize the revenue for the government by unearthing tax evaders by working hard and honestly. It is a crime to evade taxes. This system of putting the onus on the tax payer to first file the returns as per the requirements avoids the IT department’s indulgence in colluding with the tax payer for personal gains. How this is different for the city corporation when BATF proposed SAS which is nothing different than IT returns Scheme which Citizens are following through out the country? Why should Bangalore Corporation have accepted SAS only for 5 years? Did they require 5 years to do research over and above the self appointed expert committee BATF?
This clearly shows the fallacy of the law makers, who want the corporation to be on the bargaining side by having the opportunity to collude with the public for obvious reasons.
At that time when BATF whom the then government had appointed, proposed SAS probably they were in a fix to reject. So it appears they accepted it for 5 years as a law.
After the 5th year SAS would become illegal automatically!
The % of honest to not so honest citizens is an astonishing 40:60 ratio
It requires hard work for the corporation to raise enough money.
Citizens are not averse to the fact that Government requires more money for Development.
The use principle, comes in handy for this purpose.

Ravichander also mentioned that traffic optimization was also burning issue addressed by the BATF, apart from other issues like infrastructure. He talked about the Metro rail project and Bus route optimization etc.
After the talk was over all the Alumni were so excited that the time flue without any one noticing other than the organizers.

There was an excellent suggestion that bus fares should be subsidized which would provide enough incentive for people to use it instead of using their own transport. There is no point in having too many vehicles and optimize the traffic.
Develop Satellite towns on the Chennai model etc.

The rain god had to intervene when the meeting abruptly ended.

Property and Other Taxes: The Use Priciple

2008-07-21T14:38:00.001+05:30

I was updating my good friend, V Madhava Rao (he is an Engineer, MBA with about 40 years of industrial experience) about the meeting I attended on Property Tax. He started passionately describing the “Use Principle” as the basis for levying taxes. Rao had a totally different and radical view on the subject. Hearing what he was telling, I was dumb struck.The principle is that use of a facility should have a major weight and ownership a minor weight in the quantum of taxation. Since CVS relies only on ownership and a notional or a virtual inflated value for the property, it is unjust and could be often unaffordable. Any taxation should be based on usage, and on realized profits like rental income, and capital gains on disposal of property.Also, Municipal Corporations should look at revenue models beyond property tax like a levy on vehicles using the road, and hotels and other establishments who generate bulk of the garbage. Definitely, the Corporations should have adequate resources but it should come from a multiple set of usage based measures like Motor vehicles using the road. A good measure could be to collect a Cess on petrol, diesel, which would be a direct measure of usage, and also parking fee. Similarly a service tax can be levied on rentals, which the user pays.This concept of Use can be further applied to many other aspects.CVS is an economically inappropriate tax proposal and is disproportionate to economic benefits that the property generates, and hence not viable.

What has A Metropolitan City Traffic optimization problem to do with Human blood circulation?

2008-07-19T09:51:00.004+05:30

A city like Bangalore whose successive governments undertook ambitious development projects without commensurate thought regarding simultaneous Infrastructure development, are facing acute problems due to inadequacy of the same. Some Media players like Times Of India (TOI) do initiate public dialog on topics like “unplug Bangalore” with some interesting participation. However the Traffic congestion problem which is a “Mathematical Optimization problem” needs to be tackled with suitable programming techniques, a well defined objective function and governing constraints. The Media Campaigns like “unplug Bangalore” conducted by TOI provides factual, but at best a chaotic ground realities faced by the public. In the absence of participation by the city planners, Traffic police and other agencies concerned one is afraid that the seriousness of the problem is lost.

If I think about it our own body’s blood circulation system perhaps does inspire me to adopt it to the solution of the Traffic problems of Bangalore. Our body’s blood circulation has some basic functionality relevant to the present traffic problem like:

1. Procuring food from the intestines
2. Procuring oxidants from the lungs
3. Supplying them to the whole body after collecting both
4. Collecting the waste products dissolved in water.
5. This impure water is extracted at the kidneys and dumped as urine in the bladder in particular.
6. It is also excreted as sweat in general
7. Most important the human body grows gracefully (you have to maintain your health)
8. The system is thus growth oriented.

Coming to the Traffic Optimization problem, all elements can be visualized as to have extreme similarities in common. You must be wondering why I am carried away by the above basic line of thinking? Let me explain. My belief is that we being part of nature we can hardly out smart the whole. Can we?

I could get a single reference Traffic Optimization some time ago at present. This would be augmented in later posts I am planning.

I would like to continue later with the similarity visualization when I tackle the real world problem.

Property Tax and Illegal/Legal construction in Bangalore

2008-07-17T09:15:00.001+05:30

Yesterday I attended a public meeting called by the sub committee headed by R Ashok Transport Minister in BSYs Cabinet at 10:30AM regarding Property Tax collection in Bangalore City (extended recently). A second agenda was legalizing illegal constructions in the Metropolis. I arrived at 9:30 in the morning by an Auto. I was afraid to use my car as I felt apprehensive about finding a parking place. (I should have used the BTS Bus instead to save on carbon foot print). To my surprise I found a lot of activity at the venue where a big demonstration was being rehearsed. I tried to find my way to get inside the auditorium when I was accosted by an official whom I found later on to be representing a residents association or so. He suggested mildly that perhaps I should be considering joining the protest organized at the gate for the minister’s benefit, to impress upon the minister, the gravity of imposing Capital Value System (CVS)! After joining them for a moment I went inside to find a cozy seat in the auditorium.

The “mega” city chief Mayor (“Ayukta”) Dr. S Subramanya took pains to explain the CVS and the old (Illegal!) Self Assessment System (SAS) of levying the tax. He concluded by saying both the systems would net almost same revenue, but CVS would be easier for the officials in the collection. We are all selfish aren’t we? Officials are human after all or more so as they have to work very hard than the common man who has to only pay as a law abiding citizen.

The next program as I remember was when R Ashok took over the mike and directed the public mike’s movement to the participants to voice their comments. There were lots of disappointed participants not getting the mike. Ashok was the boss most of the time. The most important voices appeared in my paper TOI today. There were avoidable repetitions galore. I believe that is what politics is all about. I stand to be corrected please.
R Ashok reiterated that the elected representatives will take the decision on the matter.
Some fallacies conspicuous by being conveniently (Give and take) un-noticed were:
1. All illegal constructions should be legalized till date. After that they should not be allowed.
2. 40% of property owners in the mega city are paying tax remaining 60% are not.
3. Government wants x amount for development so increase tax.
4. Each party (Tax payer/Collector) talked about their own problem.
5. The Ministers did not question the Officials/Residents about respective lapses.

I joined my Morning Walk gang in a hilarious laugh (We knew it all before hand) to day morning.