Why Bengaluru traffic is among the worst in India

Medical professional Sandeep Kumar spends a quarter of his waking hours sitting in his car. Kumar lives in Bengaluru’s HSR Layout and works in two hospitals in two different parts of the city.

Travel to both of them involves passing through the infamous Silk Board Junction. The gateway to two of the city’s biggest information technology clusters, the junction is noted for gridlocked traffic that can leave commuters stuck for hours.

Kumar said it takes him at least two hours to get to each of the hospitals, one 10 km away and the other 15 km away from home. As a result of his, he spends at least four hours on the road each day. On some days, he spends as much as four hours one way.

“It’s absolutely horrible,” he said.

Darshan B, who works at an information technology firm in HSR Layout, also said he spends close to two hours trying to get to work. “Ideally, if there’s no traffic at all, it should take me only 30 minutes,” he said. “But I spend nearly four hours every day on my bike.”

Alankrita Srivastava, a resident of HSR Layout, used to commute to the International Tech Park in Whitefield on her two-wheeler – but health concerns made her switch to the...

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