As part of the journaling exercise, the urban space I would like to study is Bellandur Junction. It is one of the junctions in Bangalore, where it runs without traffic signals. The junction generally will be managed by one or two traffic police with little control over the traffic management due to criss-cross pattern of the service road crossings. As the junction is near the IT hub, during the peak hours, especially late evening, traffic jam is not an exception. Street vendors, auto stands, informal parkings, meeting conversation, etc can be found at that junction, which is under Outer ring road Bellandur flyover.
My wife is working in Eco-space, which is 500 metres from the junction. So I get a chance to visit the junction frequently and also with the learning from the course, the place looks interesting to do a study. Without dedicated foot path, which is difficult to provide in a traffic loaded place, the pedestrians found difficult to walk or cross the road. The negotiations happen between traffic polices, commuters, pedestrians, etc., are interesting to observe.
Hope the journey to study the informal setting of everyday city throw some interesting learning experience in the dusty traffic junction.
– Ranjith
The Everyday City 