The Jayanagar Bicycle Project is in danger of being orphaned even before it is implemented. The BBMP and traffic police are yet to remove parking on the marked cycle lanes in Jayanagar.
While the BBMP has written to the traffic police to restrain parking of vehicles 50 metres from the junctions in Jayanagar, the traffic police have not done so yet. Cyclists in the city are fuming over the delay.
Additional Commissioner of Police (traffic) M.A. Saleem said that local traffic officers have been instructed to remove the parking as requested by the BBMP, “but there are some practical problems. We have asked the cycling groups to suggest alternative parking space in the vicinity so that the parking can be removed.”
“The police are not sure if they can enforce the ‘No Parking’ rule along the entire set of roads that have been designated for the project,” said Dr Ashwin Mahesh, member of ABIDe. “The suggestion was that they should break up the enforcement into three stages. First, there are roads that are already notified as ‘No Parking’, and enforcement on those roads can begin right away.
“Second, the MLA and the local police inspector and BBMP officials have agreed on a subset of 22 roads that can be notified as ‘No Parking.’ The notification for this needs to be issued by the police commissioner, and is awaited. Once these two stages are passed, BBMP can look at how to implement the full project on the rest of the roads also.” Dr Mahesh says that it is important that everyone work together for a better outcome “The DULT and BBMP should push forward with the second and third projects in the ‘non-motorised transport’ pipeline, namely the Madiwala lake circulator project, and the HSR Layout bicycle-friendly streets programme. We must show working examples of bicycle promotion in a few areas,” he added.
Srinidhi Sampath, from PRAJA organisation felt that the civic agencies and police must make designated bicycle tracks. “The tracks separates the traffic from the cycle lanes and allow the cycles to move,” he said.