The Impossible Chaos of Bengaluru’s Outer Ring Road: Can Space Design Fix it?

Spanning a stretch of 17 square kilometres, the Outer Ring Road in Bengaluru is notorious for its traffic congestion. While all of Bengaluru struggles with heavy traffic on a normal day, the Outer Ring Road takes the cake. The main reason behind this notorious traffic on the Outer Ring Road is the floating population. People accumulate over this road day and night, in all modes of communication. This constant activity never frees the Outer Ring Road from heavy congestion. So, how heavy is the congestion here? How bad is the traffic? Can any amount of measure solve this problem? Let’s find out.

On a bad day, the entire 17 km of Bengaluru’s Outer Ring Road is so congested that it might take 2 hours to cover the whole stretch. For short-distance commuters, even 5 kilometers may take up to an hour to reach. Nearly 10 lakh people use this road daily, yet its supporting infrastructure is subpar. This is the famous IT corridor between the Central Silk Board and KR Puram, located in Tech Capital.

Nearly 500 tech companies operate along this stretch, and around 8-10 lakh employees use the Outer Ring Road daily. This makes ORR (Outer Ring Road) one of Bengaluru’s Top 5 congested routes. The ORR is one of the most congested corridors in Bengaluru E-City Corporation’s largest area. The Bengaluru E-City Corporation is the richest among the final corporations formed under the Greater Bengaluru Authority.

It covers the largest area of 168 square kilometers and has the lowest population of 1.3 million. That makes it 7700 people per square kilometer. Despite such a low population, the ORR in this area is super-congested. This corridor is from Silk Road Junction to KR Puram Junction.

So, why and how did the ORR reach such a disastrous level in terms of traffic? The Outer Ring Road was originally designed to bear 4800 Passenger Car Units (PCU), whereas the road now carries 10,400 Passenger Car Units (PCU), as per Astram data. That is more than double the expected carriage limit of that road. This heavy burden has caused a problem that’s growing by the day. What’s worse is the potentially imminent danger of crumbling infrastructure.

➡️ Click here to apply: Space design course in Bangalore

Here’s what some of the passengers traversing this lane have to say about the many problems they face here:

A regular commuter by the name of Tushar had this to say about the many challenges he faces daily. He said, “The first challenge is, obviously, traffic. Even though the traffic is a bit disciplined… these bus riders and auto riders don’t care about personal vehicles going.” He further continued, “We have to be very careful when it comes to buses. Suddenly, they will take a left and suddenly stop, and without giving any prior indicator or something.”

Another commuter, a woman who uses this lane every day to go to her office, also had something interesting to say. She said, “I travel from the Judasandra area, which is close by to Sarjapur Social, to my office, which is roughly around 9 km, and it takes me around 45 minutes, which should hardly take 15 minutes for travel. And on the road, I witnessed a lot of potholes, which is very dangerous to drive, especially for the two-wheelers. In recent times, we have seen lots of accidents happening on the roads.” She continued, “First, the roads should be repaired, and traffic management should be proper to curb those traffic problems.”

 The development of the Outer Ring Road was primarily what spurred the IT growth. There was no expansion of residential areas beyond this IT stretch. It essentially meant that people had to come from far-off places to access their companies. Since the lack of public transport was even more prevalent back then, those traveling to their offices had to use their private vehicles. It meant an added stress on the same roads.

What’s more, is that subsequent governments failed to accommodate the growing IT companies, forcing more private vehicles on the stretch. But to truly get to the root of this problem, we need to go back in time to when and why the Outer Ring Road was constructed.

➡️ Click here to apply: Space design course in Bangalore

The Outer Ring Road was originally constructed as a strip development. It was a strip called the ‘Outer Ring Road,’ but the area around the Outer Ring Road wasn’t developed. This created a significant problem, one that got emboldened when all the land adjoining the Outer Ring Road got denotified. They are the campuses of today. Let us move to the ‘Road Density Per Square Kilometer’ of the Outer Ring Road.

Road Density Per Square Kilometer refers to the total length of all the roads within a square kilometer area. Ideally, a density of about 25 kilometers per square kilometer is considered a healthy and sustainable road density. A greater Road Density allows vehicles to move between two points using multiple routes instead of depending on a single stretch.

Whitefield records about 8 km of roads per square kilometer, Sarjapur records about 10-12 km of roads per square kilometer, and both Vijaynagar and Central Business District record about 25-30 km per square kilometer. In comparison, New York City, a busy metropolis with one of the highest population densities, records about 37 km per square kilometer. The issue here on Outer Ring Road is prominent and in need of immediate care.

Some of the other reasons that pose a problem are the placement of skywalks and the placement of bus stops on the carriageway.

The skywalks don’t help. That’s because, while the skywalk is there for pedestrians to cross from one side to another, people only reach the middle of the skywalk and then get down and cross the busy road. For that, they need the help of traffic police officers. As the police are helping pedestrians cross the road, it creates more congestion. As for the buses parked on the carriageway is concerned, it just eats up more space required for free-flow movement of passengers.

All of these factors go strictly against any healthy Space Design norms. The traffic police have identified 18 choke points that experience heavy traffic, and along the stretch, there are multiple openings between the service lane and the main carriageway. Vehicles try to cut through traffic by overtaking other vehicles and entering the carriageway. This criss-cross of vehicles causes more problems on top of the already existing ones. Now, after being overwhelmed by the number of vehicles on the stretch, the police have come up with a temporary solution to accommodate the extra vehicles.

Enter the ‘Road Contra’ method. Police are using the ‘Road Contra’ method to accommodate more vehicles on the stretch that witnesses heavy traffic. So what is this Road Contra method?

Also known as ‘Contraflow,’ a Road Contra method is a temporary traffic management system where lanes are reversed to allow two-way traffic on one side of a road during repairs, construction, or emergencies, using special signs, reduced speed limits, etc. In the case of Outer Ring Road, there is a metro line coming up in Iblur. There is also a pillar put in place for that construction. This will naturally cause more traffic in that area.

➡️ Click here to apply: Space design course in Bangalore

To control that traffic and ensure the free flow of people moving in that area, the Police have created a Road Contravention. The cops are allowing vehicles on that lane to move in the opposite direction, and for that, they constructed barricades. This Contraflow will run from Iblur Upper Ram to Belandur.

But with all these short-term measures, will it contain the issue for a long time? Or will the issue persist for a longer period without any permanent measure? V Ravichander, a member of the Brand Bengaluru Committee, has a few ideas.

Mr. Ravichander suggests that whether it is the footpath walkability, or it is the overground foot-over bridge, or the metro rail, or the lanes for various vehicles and traffic to go by, they need to be of uniform length end-to-end. He believes lane discipline is the need of the hour. Only then can there be some improvement in this section of the road.

He further believes the U-turns need to be planned properly. They should do a U-turn where an extra lane on both sides can be provided, and not do a U-turn wherever they believe a U-turn can be done. It has to be thoroughly thought through and scientifically planned.

Another solution would be if urban planners and space designers of the city aimed for better public transport connectivity in that area. For example, the Blue Line Metro (Phase 2A), initially scheduled for completion in 2024, is now expected to open by the end of 2026. On the other hand, B-Smile, a special-purpose vehicle, has prepared a detailed project report for this facelift. B-Smile has prioritized bus priority lanes to ease the load on the main carriageway. This is a practical alternative to road widening in the absence of available land.

The Outer Ring Road in Bengaluru today serves as the perfect example of why Space Design is essential for a living, thriving city. It isn’t just about the aesthetics of that area, but also maintaining the health of those living and moving in it. New York City, whose example is mentioned above, is the best example of how a good space design can transform a city’s structure and help those living there live a better life. Bengaluru, and especially the Outer Ring Road, is in dire need of it.

➡️ Click here to apply: Space design course in Bangalore