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TECHNOLOGY

Urban Mobility and COVID-19

A Case Study of Silk Board Junction, Bengaluru

After months long national lockdown, the state

governments have relaxed many restrictions including
the functioning of all offices and partial operation of
public transport. However many IT/ITES companies
are still continuing the Work From Home Schedule.
Educational Institutions are closed. Are these changes

really creating any paradigm shift in urban traffic? In
this article, R M. Alagappan, Chief Operating Officer
(Transport Planning & Data Services), DataCorp Traffic

Private Limited tries to answer that by taking one of
the city’s most congested destination, the Silk Board
Junction as a case study.

he rapid development of
the city of Bangalore with
many start-ups, major global DataCorp
& Indian IT companies and
Tunlimited employment
opportunities has led into an influx of
more private vehicles within the city
and has resulted in heavy traffic. As per
Tom Tom’s Traffic Index report, people
in Bengaluru end up spending an extra
243 hours, which is equal to 10 days
and three hours, every year in traffic. As
per the draft Comprehensive Mobility
Plan-2019, nearly 84% of household
owns the motor vehicles of which 60%
owned at least a two-wheeler and
20% of the household have one car.
Further, this is much more evident from
the average speed of core Bengaluru
city during peak hours, which is less
than 11 kmph. However, the mobility
restrictions over four stages of lockdown

54 April-May 2020 / TrafficInfraTech www.trafficinfratech-com-500653.hostingersite.com