My musings for better Bangalore roads...

I guess this morning was one of those days when traffic was flowing smoother than usual, no traffic jams & I was able to get parking at work even though it was well past 9AM! All this due, in no small measure, to the fact that it is holiday season, all schools are closed and a lot of people have taken days off for a small vacation. So, I was thinking to myself - yes, Bangalore needs to do a LOT to improve the roads and traffic flow. In addition to adding more high capacity roads (the sad part of building any new roads here is that by the time the road is built, if built that is, the traffic density has gone way past what was originally planned, rendering the new roads rather ineffective), I thought there could be other things the city needs to do. I am wondering if there are any Citizen's Intiatives to drive things like this with the government. If anyone knows of such things, do let me know.

1. Ply the big buses only at city centers/big roads. Most of the smaller areas/roads of Bangalore just CANNOT handle the big buses, especially the longer variety. All internal traffic should be smaller vans, mini buses. So, they could have some kind of zones (circular perhaps starting from the center of the city radiating outward). You can change zones at key transit points and take other buses if going further, or mini buses if going to more interior areas.
2. Provide incentives to citizens to use public transport - make them on time, reach all parts of city, convenient timings, from early morning to late night. Most of the inconvenience of public transport is evident when it rains - buses dont come on time, or even stop in designated stop areas. Auto rickshaws take people literally for a ride asking for ridiculous fares the moment it starts raining.
3. Introduce car pooling - I am not entirely positive that this will work here, but this could be tried out. A lot of times, office colleagues commute in the same direction. But there has to be some benefits - I am not sure what kind of incentives we can have here, given that there are no car pool lanes on roads. Maybe discounts in parking lots, discounts on petrol? But then the authorities must ensure that people cant fake car pool passes or misuse them.
4. Make roads bike friendly. Maybe identify alternate roads all through the city that can be used by cyclists. I for one, would gladly bike to work if I can feel reasonably secure that no one is going to crash into me from behind, and there is lesser pollution.
5. Force convert (in phases) all buses and autos to CNG. I think this has worked well for New Delhi.
6. Enforce traffic rules strictly - the bigger vehicles are the ones that most often flout the rules - if a big bus is jumping a red light, everyone will get out of the way without asking questions. Regardless, offenders must be immediately prosecuted. One thing I have seen though - people will gladly pay lesser fine in return for not getting a receipt - this is a key encouragement to bribing the traffic cops. So, how does one go about solving this problem?
7. Emergency vehicles - Something MUST be done about this. On so many occasions, I have been stuck in traffic jams and have seen ambulances blaring away dolefully, all to no avail. There is JUST NO PLACE on the road for emergency vehicles. All the available space is taken up by traffic, and there is virtually no concept of lanes, so what can the emergency vehicles do? I am sure a lot of poor blokes have suffered delayed medical attendance, surely death too, due to these delays.

How are the other cities handling these issues - not just in India, but cities in other developing countries as well?

I will pen more such useless thoughts some other time.