Synchronised traffic signals on MG road.
The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Non-stop driving on MG Road soon
Bangaloreans who’ve HATED the very prospect of having to travel through MG [Mahatma Gandhi] Road, because of the 180 second waits that, at almost every other traffic signal.
Come a week, a “synchronised traffic signal” rule is going to be implemented, and hence, one can literally sail through the stretch minus those innumerable strategies one resorts to kill time, at the stops.
It will indeed be a HUGE boon to those who use the road during the clogged and killing peak hour traffic, time saver indeed.
I can’t help but wish new traffic lights can be installed, wherein, they change colour, and allow movement of traffic, based on the density of vehicles at any given moment. Too much to hope for? Probably. But at the rate things are going, its not an impossible.
But yes, I’m sure a ride/drive on MG road, after this “synchronisation of….” Is introduced, one word that’d strike the mind for any traveller would be, “BLISS”!
I only hope it works out well, and the cops don’t mess up. Just one thing that stands out… spend 38 lakh to make our lives a bit easier?
I have seen this system active in Bombay’s arterial roads. This is an immense time saver. Infact, we used to race ahead to the next signal to get into the wave of the “greens”. :-)
wow, hope they implement it soon – top priority here and near the GPO circle.
Chennai had synchronized signals even for small roads for more than 15 years now! And bangalore administration decides to wake up NOW? And then they make such a big deal about a few signals on MG road, whereas rest of the city would still be languishing. This is something that needs to be implemented quickly, comprehensively and quietly, no big deal. Now I bet they will even invite the president to “inaugurate” it. Shows the pathetic lethargy that is characteristic of Bangalore administration, and even the smallest tactical task is made a big deal!
I dont know if it was by design, but there WERE and are synchronised signals in Bangalore. You just need to travel on different routes to find it out.
Way back in ’97, for example, the West of Chord Road, I discovered had synched signals – and if you could maintain/average a 60kmph – you’d get a green signal for at least 4 km stretch.
The MG Road thingy – I havent driven much on that road, but I have driven a lot on the High grounds-holiday inn/le meridien-windsor manor-sankey-malleswaram stretch. And that is also an all green zone at 60. that is a much longer stretch than the West of Chord Road one.
The things that generally rob you from that are slow movers right at the front – and generally most users who think there’s no way they’re co-ordinated and hence slow down enuf to prove themselves right. (“Oh! see? I came here and it turned red – not co-ordinated at all!”)
There is a perceptible delay in each of those routes I just described.
There’s also a stretch on the South, but the traffic there’s so humungous now, that its stupid to think you can even make it, even if they are co-ordinated.
People do not know, but they assume, it doesnt exist! Well folks, it does!
I meant:
There is a perceptible delay in activation of the signals in each of those routes I just described.
BTW, you can see it for yourself if you hit the routes I just mentioned.