Five areas you don’t want to drive through 

BENGALURU: *Figures for 2017, till September

Nightmare for pedestrians but locality improving Peenya

One of the most accident-prone areas according to the Peenya traffic inspector is near the Parle G factory toll gate in Bagalagunte. “Many pedestrians crossing the road have accidents near the toll gate,” he says.  “There is an incident nearly every day here”. He however says a number of measures such as lengthening the road median and putting more sign boards are on the anvil to check accidents. Harish, a retail professional uses the road on a daily basis."It gets really scary during peak hours.

I have seen a few accidents myself," he adds. The traffic inspector says, “We have conducted at least around 50 awareness programmes so far and it shows in the stats, the number of accidents in the jurisdiction has fallen from 359 in 2016 to 199 this year. We have conducted awareness programmes on roads, a programme on weekly traffic rules and on safety measures in offices, colleges and schools”.

Heavy vehicles, lay of the road Kamakshipalya

Heavy vehicles are the bane of this neighbourhood. A traffic constable, who has been posted in this neighbourhood for long, says recently another cop was run over by a speeding truck.”Atleast one vehicle breaks down on the main Magadi Road everyday and they regularly jam up the traffic,” he says. There is also the lay of this road, he says, “Magadi Main Road has a lot of ups and downs”. But, according to this constable, the central problem is that people are in a rush.

“They drive rashly and have no hesitation in breaking rules like jumping a red light or speeding,” he says, adding that even people who are educated and own cars have no qualms about this. “During peak hours, there are too many cars and everyone needs to reach the office on time,” he says.

Steadily worsening stretch Yelahanka

The number of accidents have steadily increased in this area from 79 (2015), 140 (2016) to 185 (2017). Ravi S, traffic inspector, Yelahanka says most of the accidents are on the Airpot Road upto Dodbalapura. "We get as many as two major accidents on a monthly basis," he says.The area has three police statoins under its jurisdication - Vidyanarayanapura, Yelahanka and Yelahanka New town. The department conducts monthy awareness drives.

Speeding vehicles make this the worst stretch in city  K R Pura. 

K R Pura recorded the most number of accidents for any area in the city in 2017 with around 235 cases. According to Sanjeeva Rayappa, traffic inspector of the area, most of the accidents take place along the highway from Tin Factory all the way to Batrahalli and on the Outer Ring Road. "Most of the vehicles around this area travel at high speeds. At other times, the traffic is also very dense and may lead to a number of complications," he adds.

He however adds that the accidents are spread out across the jurisdiction at various places. Last year, the number of accidents stood at 299. Sanjeeva says that many accidents were prevented because of proactive measures such as barricading certain parts of the road, installing more street lights, stopping parking on the main road and adding road humps. "There have been no accidents on this stretch for the past three months," he adds. 

Narrow roads,  rash cars Whitefield

This locality, which saw a boom in population and number of vehicles from the 1990s, still lack wide roads. ACP South East (Adugodi) division, …, says that narrow roads and a hike in number of private cars is causing the accidents. “Bikes and other two wheelers are not the problem,” he says. Few months ago, BBMP Commissioner Manjunatha Prasad selected this neighbourhood for a bicycle-sharing project because it is considered two-wheeler friendly.

The ACP says that drivers of cars including the many cabs are “in a hurry and are generally negligent”. Therefore, he says, they regularly ram into another vehicle and end up blaming the traffic cops for any trouble. With the launch of the new suburban service, which connects Baiyapanahalli with Whitefield, traffic is expected to thin.