‘Hump’ty-Dumpty ride all the way!

Y Maheswara Reddy | NT

Road humps are meant to ensure smooth movement of traffic and avoid road accidents. While many road humps are constructed unscientifically, as per the whims and fancies of petty politicians, who have no vision for a planned city. The other problem with the city traffic police or Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Traffic Engineering Cell is that they are not aware about the very existence of road humps that were constructed with much fanfare and enthusiasm.

For example, Minister for Higher Education Dr C N Ashwatha Narayana, who represents Malleswaram in the state Assembly, had to take BBMP engineers to task for constructing road humps unscientifically on Margosa Road.

As expected, BBMP engineers swung into action immediately and re-modified the road hump on Margosa Road near Veena Stores on 15th Cross. It is not clear what has prevented the BBMP engineers from being negligent while constructing the road hump.

“Margosa Road is known for traffic density. It is also known for many shops that attract multiple footfalls. We cannot expect Minister Ashwatha Narayana to inspect all the road humps and direct BBMP engineers to re-modify those road humps. It is the responsibility of the BBMP engineer to supervise the construction of the road humps,’’ said Gopal R, a resident.

Later, in addition to altering the Margosa Road hump, the BBMP engineer also got white stripes painted on speed breakers at Ramamohanapura, Mahakavi Kuvempu Road, 3rd Main-Srirampuram, D Block-Gayatri Nagar, and Rajajinagar 2nd Block.

All of us are aware that it would be difficult for hapless motorists to rope in elected representatives of the respective areas to direct the traffic police or BBMP engineers to remove or re-modify road humps that are of little help to commuters.

“There are many unscientific road humps in and around Halasuru, especially on cross roads and narrow lanes. There is no one to monitor or regulate these unscientific road humps. One needs a concrete mix to construct a road hump,’’ said Naveen S, a resident of Saraswathipuram.

Unscientific and unpainted road humps are not confined to narrow and small lanes but also to sub-arterial roads. “The problem with the BBMP engineers and traffic police is that they are not constructing road humps where those are necessary. We have been requesting to construct a road hump to prevent accidents but in vain. There were three road accidents last year,’’ said Vinod P, a resident of 11th Cross of Maruthi Nagar in CV Raman Nagar.

It may not be an exaggeration to say that road humps in and around Whitefield and other areas in Mahadevapura Assembly constituency have become accident spots. It is said that a few motorists were injured when they applied brakes suddenly after noticing the road humps that have no sign boards or white strips.

“Unmarked road humps have become dangerous for motorists. Most of the roads in Mahadevapura are dusty. Who will clear the dust from the roads? It will be too much to expect the BBMP to keep roads free from dust. The BBMP has engaged mechanical sweeping machines to keep the roads clean but the purpose is not served,’’ said Sampath S, a resident of Kasavanahalli.

Ashish Verma, Professor, Transportation Systems Engineering, Indian Institute of Science said that while a road hump is a recognised technical intervention for traffic calming; however, its indiscriminate use, improper design and laying, absence of road marking on them, and improper and absent warning signs can lead to a lot more problems and undesirable situations, which is, unfortunately, the situation in the majority of locations in Bengaluru.

“Unscientific road humps lead to road accidents, damage to a vehicle, damage to human body owing to jerk (instead of speed breaker these road humps often become back-breakers). Moreover, there are other types of technical interventions of calming the speed and traffic, which are never tried,’’ added Prof. Verma.