Last month I had posted about the BMTC installing cycle racks to the front of their buses. I had also mentioned that the BMTC and BBMP were setting up dedicated cycle lanes across the city including a pop-up cycle lane along Outer Ring Road next to the existing pop-up bus priority lane.
Thanks to Twitter user Nihar Thakkar (@Nihart1024), I got to see some of the work being done. Here are some images and videos of the cycle lanes.
For starters, here is a cycle parking stand under the split flyover at Agara Junction on Outer Ring Road.
This is on the Service Lane of ORR near the junction of the road bound for Whitefield. You can see the under-construction section of the Purple Line bound for Whitefield.
Here is a video of the section in question.
Here is a picture of a cycle lane built as part of the TenderSURE program in Central Bangalore.
And now, getting back to Outer Ring Road, some imagery of the lanes being installed.
Sadly, BBMP is using plastic reflective bollards. These bollards are pretty flexible and can easily be damaged. Someone on a joyride in the middle of the night can just mow down these bollards. I do wish, more sturdy ones or even a fence similar to the one that NHAI uses to separate the service lanes from the main carriageway on Hosur Road was used.
Here are videos and images of the cycle lane.
And here is a video of Nihar cycling on the Cycle Lane!
Since the Cycle Lanes are separated by bollards, the likelihood of people parking their cars on them is limited. Also, since they are on the right hand side of the service lane, it is on the side of the road where nobody would (hopefully) park. I sincerely hope that BBMP replaces any damaged or removed bollards to prevent cars from entering these lanes and also does something to prevent motorbikes from entering these lanes. I also hope the cycle lanes don’t disappear when the road is resurfaced (as it happened in Jayanagar) and that BBMP will maintain a uniform quality for the road surface.
That being said, I hope pedestrian infrastructure is next in the pipeline.
Bums on the Saddle, everyone!
Also Read:
Reclaiming The Pavement For The Pedestrian: Ten Ways To Implement This by Srikanth Ramakrishnan on Swarajya
How Pune Plans To Cycle Into A Smart City by Srikanth Ramakrishnan on Swarajya
Featured Image: Cycle Lane on Outer Ring Road by Nihar Thakkar
Love your writing! Happy to be featured in the article 🙂
Good news: BBMP and DULT are testing out a new bollard/barricade design that is expected to be rolled out in the next couple of weeks. Will post about it once it’s installed.
Brilliant! Can’t wait to check them out.