India's Worst-Behaved Motorists are in Bangalore

Adding misery to the plight of the Bangalore pedestrians struggling with poor infrastructure, vehicles hardly stop for people to cross the roads and you can seldom see any zebra crossing at signals as vehicles often halt on them leaving the pedestrians a very minimum or no space to cross the road. Footpaths are often taken over by bickers.

“Although the pedestrian fatality share at the national level is 13 percent, metropolitan cities like Bangalore New Delhi and Kolkata have a pedestrian fatality share greater than 40 percent,” the survey finds. Elderly people and school children carry a large share of the burden with 23 percent fatalities and 25 percent injuries. “Bangalore has drafted a policy paper for pedestrian movement in the Bangalore metropolitan region. The policy paper and the comprehensive traffic and transportation study envision a pedestrian mode share target of only 20 percent by 2015. With such a relatively small vision and target, the city may be planning for poor walkability, the survey suggests.

Walking path modal conflict, availability of walking paths, availability of crossings, grade crossing safety, motorist behavior, amenities, disability infrastructure, obstructions and security from crime were the parameters on which the survey was made.