At Bengaluru’s Racecourse Junction, people crossing the road had to spend longer than necessary among moving vehicles. One turn gave cars a generous sweep of the road, leaving pedestrians to find their way through traffic.

When urban designers Nishita Parmar and Vedanti Agarwal studied the junction, they discovered something surprising. Relatively few vehicles were using one left turn, while far more people needed to cross that stretch.

Why, then, was so much space being given to cars?

Working with principal designer Monik Shah and the team at Compartment S4, they helped redesign the junction to include a pedestrian refuge island, giving people somewhere to pause while crossing. The work was part of the Orbital project, commissioned by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and supported by the Sustainable Mobility Network.

It was one example of a question guiding their work across Bengaluru: how can streets and the spaces around them better serve people on foot?

Why did one left turn have so much space?

The team began at Racecourse by observing how people and vehicles actually moved. They counted traffic, followed pedestrian routes and noted where the two came into conflict.

“When we actually went and mapped that entire junction, we understood that the volume of vehicles coming from [the road] and going towards the left was much lower compared to the volume of pedestrians,” Parmar says.

That meant pedestrians were crossing a wider stretch of moving traffic than necessary.

“We call it pedestrian exposure time. To cross from A to B, it took a longer time, and that means you're getting exposed to the moving vehicle for longer,” she explains.

The designers proposed a more compact turn, changes to traffic movement and a refuge island to break up the crossing. For someone walking to college, work or another destination, spending less time among vehicles could make the journey easier.

This matters at a junction serving the Race Course, educational institutions and other destinations. Students and other pedestrians pass through daily, while events bring larger groups into the area.

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