On Saturday, 5th October 2024, an innovative action workshop titled “Urban Street Design: Fixing Iblur Junction” was held in Bengaluru, aiming to address the infamous traffic bottleneck at Iblur Junction. Organised by Oorvani’s Civic Learning Hub, in collaboration with WRI India and Socratus, the event brought together urban planners, community members, and experts to explore practical solutions for safer and smoother road infrastructure.

Iblur Junction is a critical intersection that connects Sarjapur Road and Bengaluru’s bustling IT corridor to the rest of the city. However, it has long been plagued by congestion and safety issues, creating challenges for both pedestrians and commuters. With growing concerns around traffic safety and increasing road usage, this workshop focused on understanding the root causes of these problems and identifying actionable solutions.

The workshop was designed to provide participants with an immersive experience in urban street design. The goals of the session were clear: to deconstruct the factors leading to unsafe roads and intersections, and to explore best practices for improving traffic flow and pedestrian safety. Participants were encouraged to engage deeply with urban design concepts and work collaboratively to develop solutions backed by data and on-ground observations.

This workshop approached junction design in a holistic, human-centric manner, focusing on identifying safety issues to make our streets safe, inclusive and resilient.

Students, designers and concerned citizens were taught how to employ design elements in a data and observation backed manner with the aim of creating both short-term and long-term proposals to improve the pedestrian experience for all users at this junction.

Workshop Structure

PART 1 – LEARN

The first component of the workshop was a training session presented by the WRI Road Safety Team on the importance or road safety, the processes and steps required in junction design and finally the local context of Iblur Junction.

PART 2 – SITE VISIT

The participants then toured the site for over an hour, documenting and observing pedestrian movement and infrastructure, vehicular flow, junction geometry and the overall conditions experienced by all users.

PART 3 – DESIGN EXERCISE

Participants were given a plan of existing conditions as well as aerial photos of the junction. After ideation and sharing observations, the participants used markers as well as Minimum Intervention, Maximum Impact stickers to propose improvements and modifications to the junction regarding its geometry and pedestrian infrastructure including quality of footpath, size and location of refuge islands, kerb extensions etc. The teams then presented their proposals to the other participants and the BTP personnel and BBMP engineer present.

Workshop Outputs

Group 1

SUGGESTED INTERVENTIONS

• Median extensions to direct vehicles in the right direction and avoid collisions at the junction
• Speed calming measures like rumble strips and speed humps to slow down speeding vehicles ahead of pedestrian crossings
• Paint markings to demarcate pedestrian crossings
• Access to existing refuge islands to be improved and median refuge areas to be created
• HRPCs to be added at free left to slow down speeding vehicles and improve pedestrian safety
• Bus stops to be shifted away from junction to reduce pile up of vehicles at the junction
• Location of signal poles to be reexamined and signages are to be added wherever required
• The size of the junction is to be reduced (compacted) to allow safe crossing of pedestrians

Group 2

SUGGESTED INTERVENTIONS

• ORR Median Extension and stop line for traffic towards Marathahalli
• Pedestrian crossing beyond this stop line connecting Shobha Garnet to Manipal Hospital via existing island
• Expanding that refuge island to increase space for pedestrians
• Kerb extension at free-left turn to reduce crossing distance and improve visibility of pedestrians
• Kerb extension before the Manipal Hospital side Bus stop to reduce crossing distance and better protect the bus waiting area.

Group 3

SUGGESTED INTERVENTIONS

• Managing vehicular entry and exit at Manipal Hospital by shifting access
• The junction should be made ‘No parking’, ‘No Stopping’ and ‘No Tolerance’ zone
• Footpaths should be made universally accessible through the provision of ramps and height of the footpath should be maintained at 150mm
• Provision of median refuge along the Sarjapur-Ambalipura Road
• Painting of road markings

Group 3 also had a 70 year old resident of Iblur expressing her concerns of crossing the junction, as a senior citizen. She suggested that the foot over bridge could become more accessible for elderly people by providing pedestrian crossings near the lift area.

Group 4

SUGGESTED INTERVENTIONS

• Extend the medians to streamline the vehicular flow and also provide median refuge.
• Redesign the Pedestrian refuge islands at the junction and make them accessible.
• Redesign the junction and make it compact
• Create contiguous carriageway and maintain uniformity of lanes (currently the lanes are converging from 4 lanes to 2 lanes)
• Reclaim residual spaces near Sobha Garnet for pedestrian usage
• Add speed calming measures like HRPCs and rumble strips and add signages to regulate vehicular speed.
• Ensure universal accessibility for vulnerable user groups like Senior citizens, children and persons with disabilities.
• Use materials that are long lasting and promote rainwater percolation.
• Relocate bus stops and provide necessary pedestrian infra around the bus stops.

Way Forward

IDENTIFIED ISSUES

Road safety hazards observed by participants of the workshop include lack of safe painted pedestrian
crossings, inaccessible refuge islands and lack of median refuges, speeding vehicles, lack of road markings
and signages, insufficient signal timing for pedestrian crossing, inadequate and uneven footpaths, lack of
universal accessibility, inefficient se of existing carriageway, inappropriate location of bus stops etc.

SUGGESTED INTERVENTIONS

In addition to the above, following interventions were also suggested

• Location of the existing bus stops to be assessed and bus stops to be shifted away from the junction
• Vehicular access to Manipal hospital to be reexamined
• Ramps are to be added wherever required to ensure universal accessibility
• Current signal phases to be reexamined and timing of pedestrian crossing phase to be increased
• The size of the junction to be reduced (compacted) to allow ease of access for pedestrians