Wider roads could make for narrower communities

Are the roads in your area marked out for widening? Do you feel you have no option but to accept the BBMP’s offer of transfer of development rights (TDR)? Leo Saldanha of the Environment Support Group explains to DNA that road widening comes with some social consequences; that the fragmentation of communities that is caused by such ‘developmental’ activity could just change the whole character of the city.

Would you please explain what you mean by fragmented communities?
There is a need to understand that the TDR is only a devise. It is a method used to compensate those who stand to lose property. In fact, any road-widening exercise will cause fragmented communities.

Firstly, businesses that serve local communities get displaced. And the whole economic community that serves the neighbourhood is affected. Once that is gone, there is no viable commercial zone. The heterogeneity of the community, its social network, is broken. For instance, let’s say there are musicians who have set up schools in a particular area. If these have to relocate 20 km away, the whole cultural space that they represent is gone. Moreover, over time, each street develops a character. This is lost when roads are widened.

Secondly, there is a relationship that exists between street dwellers. That connection that has been built over years of staying in the same neighbourhood is affected. Take, for instance, Bellary Road. The widening of that road divided even families. I know of families that find it tedious to meet, as they have to get across roads with fast-moving traffic. People depend on traffic now to get around, and those who cannot afford to ride often stay disconnected.

So who, would you say, is most impacted by road widening?
Widening roads has a massive adverse impact on street vendors. These vendors are part of a thriving local culture. Large trees are cut to broaden roads, and the natural canopy is lost. This too causes losses to local vendors. The ghost town of Michigan is a good example of how a not so-well-thought-out project can go completely wrong. A motor company suggested widening roads there, so that more people could drive cars. However, that ended up just destroying the character of the city.

So what solutions would you suggest?
There are examples of cities that have corrected their mistakes. Boston, in the 1980s, did all those things that Bangalore is now doing. However, many of those mistakes were later undone. There is now an eight-mile-long walkway on Braddock Park. They tore down the flyover that was built there, similar to the Metro one here on MG Road. And they took it underground.

We could do similar things; we could make similar design interventions at Nanda Road or Sheshadari Road. There are certain indicators that road designers need to be sensitive about— about the pavement being 15feet, such that it can be used even by the disabled, for instance.