A no-brainer, right? Streamlined parking as a tool for traffic decongestion. However, Bengaluru’s roads have become chaotic and messy due to the absence of a parking policy, flawed pay-and-park system, and endless registrations of new vehicles in thousands. Can a recent High Court directive effect a change?
The court gave this period to the BBMP commissioner, Mr. Manjunath Prasad who is expected to deliver a detailed project report on the methodology of implementing the BBMP’s Parking Policy 2.0 within six weeks from then. The much delayed implementation of the policy has left numerous roads narrowed by haphazardly parked two-wheelers and cars with no regulation.
Big on objectives
As far back as February 2021, State Government approved it while it was known that what Parking Policy 2.0 wanted to achieve were: To transition from free-for-all parking and into paid orderly parking; To streamline this through more stringent implementation measures by robust active management where demand meets supply. Policy prepared an Area Parking Plan (APP) for multiple zones across the city.
The APP being zonal-level comprehensive parking plan focused on regulation of on-street parking in commercial areas and residential areas among others, off-street parking plans, special parking for disabled persons and cyclists, pricing for parking, management of parking et cetera.
To activate this plan sought out high demand areas; know which are existing supply facilities in terms of their utilization vis-à-vis gaps between supply and demand in Bangalore City Transport Corporation (BMTC). It sought to make road use highly efficient while increasing alternative transportation options.
Encroachments
This is one key issue that has led to chaos in the city’s parkings – encroachment into them by various buildings including commercial buildings besides institutions or even some residential ones also fell victims. According to mobility analyst Ashwin Mahesh who pointed out that “all these buildings were given permissions and plan approvals to construct and occupy only on the assumption that the spaces they have indicated for parking will be used for parking.”
He adds: The BBMP never imagined that ground +1 and +2 homes, which are meant for single families, would end up being triple family homes with one family living in each floor. “Most of those buildings were constructed showing parking space for only one vehicle. Now every family on every floor has one vehicle. It is physically impossible to park there. All have externalized their requirement,” he explains.
Consequently, this has led to encroachment into the road space. “Some people take their cars out every morning and park them on the street. The streets are not meant for that. You cannot leave your car parked along your street or any other road, even though it belongs to you. This has allowed an increased number of violators to reach nearly half a million. Half the cars in the city are parked on roadsides. Are you able to fight with five hundred thousand people?”
Unsafe streets
This matter had also been recognized by 2.0 Policy when it said: “These residential streets in neighborhoods were designed to promote local movement and a decade ago were safe havens for light play by children and leisurely walks by elderly people. However, today these streets are taken over by parking rendering them unsafe and at times inaccessible for ambulances and fire tender vans during emergency.”
The policy document points out that lack of any regulation on residential area on-street parking coupled with violation of zoning rules (ZR) as contained in master plan has led to a major increase in on-street parking demand. “Parking personal vehicles should be the responsibility of vehicle owners but not civic agencies,” notes the policy’s comment.
Road way St Mark’s
Messy Street Parking left St Marks Road which is located within the Central Business District (CBD) heavily congested. However a complete overhaul under TenderSURE project saw footpaths widened and parking slots limitedly marked . Owners were unhappy about this as they had changed their basements into offices leaving all cars on street side eventually everyone fell inline.
Strict enforcement together with smart road design here ensured efficient parking and traffic management especially after school opening hours and before closure time. “Basically, whether BBMP is willing to enforce whatever is required under its policies or if it simply refuses matters more than anything else.” Ashwin observed.
“Poor governance & enforcement have made not only CBD but also residential areas a mess”, says Murali Urs, a software sales director living in R.T. Nagar of Bangalore city. “Permissions granted for turning residence to office use too have aggravated the situation in residential parts. If BBMP were to allow commercial buildings, during weekends when there is huge shortage of parking slots at CBD, open their parking space for public at chargeable basis it will help,” suggests he.
Multi storied car park
Multi-Level Car Parking (MLCP) was earlier regarded as an unassailable answer to the problem. However, presently it has low usage even at any given point-in-time like J.C Road facility. Gandhinagar and its environs are soon getting another MLCP. It accommodates 600 four wheelers and 750 two wheelers.
Occupancy may be forced by compulsion. Notwithstanding that more people park here due to some street close by K.G road being declared ‘no-parking.’ The Bengaluru Traffic Police has also put a ban on vehicles such as cars being parked on the surrounding Hospital Road, Subedar Chatram Road and Tank Bund Road around Freedom Park.
Key is walkability
But every parking zone and MLCP has a walkability problem. After a driver parks his / her car or two-wheeler at the specified slot, the last mile walk becomes difficult. Ashwin notes that “For every metered parking spot, one can only penalize people for not using it. If the geography that it serves is walkable on a clear, well lit, safe and level footpath.” Then you may start charging people who refuse to use this place according to him.
Can a parking policy cause people to shift from private to public transportation? “Only if through smart policy you can manage private vehicle use. Anytime you park outside your compound, know that is public right of way,” says urban planner Vijay N. And when you leave your dead car in the street which isn’t wide enough; you are essentially blocking an entire lane.”
Disincentive in parking
Parking could discourage whoever owns private cars. In Vijay’s words, “In inner London buildings have no parking slots apart from few commercial outlets.” Therefore motorists have to pay and park along the road side. Due to high charges of parking, people are forced into reevaluating ownership of their cars as well as purchase of an additional one.
This according to Vijay “is a very clever way of strategically reducing congestion, private car ownership and increasing public transport use but we will gradually get there in Bengaluru starting slowly. However we cannot do this without increasing access to good last mile connectivity through public transport in Bangalore. Maybe 10 years down the line we might reach there but let us begin now.”
