[hsroy]

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

..... but none of us have the right to ‘judge’.....

Aren't you doing exactly the same thing? Judging this person for what might have been an oversight or system error and labelling him as 'seemingly educated person lacking common sense' ?

How many minutes did you exactly loose on what is essentially an expressway where one can easily make up lost time? And how was he supposed to apologize/show contrition?

[Kosfactor]

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

Used the Tollway again today. Uneventful. Slowly I am actually seeing better lane and speed limit discipline across vehicle types. But there are some people who seem to be educated professionals who apparently don’t know anything about Fastag. They cause useless delays which is irritating to those behind them. And the worst is that they are totally unapologetic.

Some are quick to pay up but some tend to stop and argue about the 2X toll without Fastag, sometimes gets into a fight with the toll booth operators. The toll booth operators on their end are expectedly tired of many who try to show some form of ID etc to skip paying toll. This can be quite frustrating given the insane toll on that road, yet having to stick to 100 kmph nevertheless.

I have been on the receiving end of this fastag nightmare when ICICI had some issue with their servers, the damn thing was not accepting payments - I paid 2X toll all the way from Bangalore to Kochi, I sure did not argue or reason with any toll operators, just paid cash and moved on admitting my carelessness of not having recharged the fastag the night before.

Anyhow, other than regular highway users no one else recharges the Fastag, the once or twice a year highway drive is handled with cash, else they would have made the toll gates fully automatic by now.

[Turbanator]

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

He had No fastag/ blacklisted fastag.

There are no separate Cash lanes, at least here in North. Can't see if that guy had fastag or not, can be a case of an ignorant user who forgot to charge or simply didn't have one.

Surprising for a Private Car driven by a seemingly educated person, but one who also seems free of common-sense.

It's commonsense to get the fastag as else you end up paying twice the amount. As I mentioned, there can be some reasons: that person may have loaded, but the balance is not being reflected, or the fastag is not being read. It can happen with anyone.

Made everyone wait by taking a long time to find and pay cash.

It takes a while for anyone to fathom the situation before one pays twice the amount, unlike the old days when one kept change handy.

The same person is not here to defend himself; he can also say the same about you to have patience. What exactly would have changed in a couple of minutes he had held the traffic? Let's not try to be too judgmental, especially when we don't know about the circumstances of others.

[balenoed_]

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

He had No fastag/ blacklisted fastag. Surprising for a Private Car driven by a seemingly educated person, but one who also seems free of common-sense.

Do you know for sure he had no fast tag or if his fast tag was black listed due to no balance and not a mere system error? There have been several instances on the toll booths on this road, for myself as well as several people whom I know of, that the system incorrectly flagged the tags as black listed even though it had balance. Either due to a system error or deliberately by the operator to loot the 2x amount. Yes, this is true, they have done it purposely as well during the initial days of opening this highway.

Giving the benefit of doubt, can’t we be a little tolerant. Nobody is perfect.

[ninjatalli]

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

He had No fastag/ blacklisted fastag. Surprising for a Private Car driven by a seemingly educated person, but one who also seems free of common-sense.
Made everyone wait by taking a long time to find and pay cash. And after that, not even an iota of contrition.
It is purely a matter of opinion whether it makes sense to put his car pic there. I think it is fine to poke at the fellow a bit. You may not.
Each of us common members have the right to an ‘opinion’ but none of us have the right to ‘judge’.
I will prefer therefore to let the moderators pass their judgement and shall abide by that.
You are most welcome to report these posts if you so wish.

There can be multiple reasons for which a car stalls the ones behind in the line.
1. No fastag.
2. No balance in the fastag.
3. Fastag not being read by the scanner.
4. Fastag facing issues from the backend (@Kosfactor gave a scenario)
5. Driver is not aware of the 2X charge and either argues/negotiates/etc. right then.
6. Idiot in the car is arguing to not pay giving ID/locality discounts/etc.
7. Absence of a cash line (or if present, it's not highlighted clearly)
8. Other reasons that I can't think of now.

Given a wide majority of vehicle owners have moved to Fastag, and majority of our experiences at tollgates is mostly seamless; I generally try to give the benefit of doubt to the poor soul who gets the line stuck and is honked at like crazy. Some (or many) cases are actually the driver's fault but such faults are quite less once you consider the driver would not be interested in repeating it multiple times at every toll during his driving. In my experience, it's generally 1 out of 10 vehicles (or even much lesser) who has an issue at the toll gate. I'm very much okay with those odds; given the 1 vehicle being stuck means an extra minute or two of delay at most.

Let's not be so judgmental and suggest we come down from our high standards/expectations on this matter. I have had the experience of being stuck behind cars in expressways in developed countries too; and also very recently being the car causing the delay to the line (my fastag was not being read by the scanner for some reason). Shit happens.

[shankar.balan]

Ok thanks for the brickbats everyone!
Im not perfect. Yes.
Maybe all of those who revile this rant are Saints. I am not. And I see nothing wrong in ranting a bit.
The man did pay cash after a fashion. He held up everyone for about 8-9 minutes. Not only me but several cars besides. Some reversed and went off. I could not. Yes I was and am irritated by this. And as for contrition, all it would have taken is a wave of the hand or holding up a hand as an act of acknowledgement.
So thats that.

[binand]

In this case, what one sees stuck on the windshield, above the passenger-side headrest, is the Fastag surely?

[Capri89]

Originally Posted by binand

In this case, what one sees stuck on the windshield, above the passenger-side headrest, is the Fastag surely?

Who would stick a Fastag on one side of the windshield?

Isn't the common practice to stick it at the centre of the windshield, just below the rear view mirror. Isn't that the recommendation also?

Regards

[nareshtrao]

Originally Posted by Capri89

Who would stick a Fastag on one side of the windshield?

Isn't the common practice to stick it at the centre of the windshield, just below the rear view mirror. Isn't that the recommendation also?

Regards

Caution: Off Topic

While the recommendation originally made when Fastag was being introduced was to have it in the middle of the windshield, it was not based on any science or logic. Nor was it binding. You can stick it anywhere you like.

Most of the scanners on Toll booth lanes are on the right in an angle. A very few that I have seen have them on top in the middle. Wherever the scanners do not work, for whatever reason, the staff too uses a manual scanner from the driver's side. We being a right-hand drive nation, the booths are almost always on the right side.

I have seen the attendants at times struggles (or frown) whenever they are unable to reach the tag with manual scanners in case of wide windscreens and the wrist angle they need to hold the scanner to get the scan right from that distance.

I have pasted the Tags in all my cars since 2016 on right side top and works well for both fixed and manual scanners. I recall one of the attendants told me on the way to Goa that the location I have it pasted is so convenient for his hand scanner and he has seen very few do it. Albeit he said many trucks do paste on the right side.

As a purely personal opinion and choice, I think sticking the Tag in the middle of the windshield looks ugly. No disrespect to all those who have done so. I just find it more practical from usage and balanced from visual perspective given the left is already full of stickers of Housing Society, Office STP/SEZ, Clubs parkings and the OEM stickers. Add to that now we also have HSRP joining the sticker-fest.

[binand]

Originally Posted by Capri89

Who would stick a Fastag on one side of the windshield?

It is stuck in the top left corner in both my cars. Basically a cluster of stickers (Fastag, parking and now the HSRP sticker).

There is no binding rule that the tag has to be stuck at a specific location. Each owner can place it as per their whim.

[PreludeSH]

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

Ok thanks for the brickbats everyone!
Im not perfect. Yes.
Maybe all of those who revile this rant are Saints. I am not. And I see nothing wrong in ranting a bit.
The man did pay cash after a fashion. He held up everyone for about 8-9 minutes. Not only me but several cars besides. Some reversed and went off. I could not. Yes I was and am irritated by this. And as for contrition, all it would have taken is a wave of the hand or holding up a hand as an act of acknowledgement.
So thats that.

Have been in such situations. Somehow the driver and toll collector keeps arguing about something. I have always felt they can ask them to move over to parking area and continue the arguments. They just hold everyone lined behind.

[narayanang76]

Took the new Bangalore Mysore 'expressway' for the first time. Not sure if we can still call it that way.

Liked this new road very much and compared to our previous experiences of travelling to Mysore on the old highway, this is indeed a comfortable and pleasant road experience overall. I kept it within speed limits throughout and the journey was so comfortable, a relaxed and pleasant journey.

We started on 30th September Saturday around 930 AM from Whitefield Bangalore. It took 3 hours approximately from Bangalore home to Mysore accommodation. Except the Bangalore city traffic hurdles and Nice road traffic delays due to road work in progress, rest of the journey was fantastic. We didn't stop anywhere en-route and reached Mysore for a comfortable lunch in the place we were staying. There was a manual speed camera near Maddur where many speedsters were getting stopped for their donations. Also saw one cyclist, few motorbikes etc. Some of the bikers were stopped by the patrol cars as well.

Return was on 2nd Oct and I was a bit worried about huge traffic due to long weekend, but the new road was awesome throughout till it was over and nothing more to talk about the rest of the drive within usual traffic holding places within BLR city. Took the same time of 3 hours to reach back home on return journey too, that was great. Didn't see any speed checks on expressway on return, but still saw the speed check near Maddur on the other side towards Mysore.

Overall, saw people driving more sensibly, and overtaking and cruising was effortless.

Some pics from the drive.

cheers,
narayanang76

[HTC]

If one wants to avoid nice road traffic, they can take the tatagini-kumbalgodu road which is on the right on kanakapura after 1 km from nice road.

Only catch is - you will have to use service road till Bidadi along with saving toll of nice road and entry toll at expressway.

[avira_tk]

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

Ok thanks for the brickbats everyone!
Im not perfect. Yes.
Maybe all of those who revile this rant are Saints. I am not. And I see nothing wrong in ranting a bit.
The man did pay cash after a fashion. He held up everyone for about 8-9 minutes. Not only me but several cars besides. Some reversed and went off. I could not. Yes I was and am irritated by this. And as for contrition, all it would have taken is a wave of the hand or holding up a hand as an act of acknowledgement.
So thats that.

You have every right to be judgemental about the car blocking a toll booth for ten minutes, fastag has been around for nearly a decade at this point. They send out a message saying it's blocked if you're not using it, my dad gets it, not sure what the time period is. This i20 guy can't read a basic signboard.

Those berating you don't seem to value their time much, 10 minutes is a third of my daily commute, that's how long it takes to cover the last 500mts or so, a 10 minute wait is irritating. Those who are justifying the i20 driver, would you be OK if you're refueling and the attendant takes 10 minutes to get change for the car ahead of you? If you're OK with that, great, some of us are on a tight schedule and don't think delays are soothing.

[Kartik Kumar]

Any ideas on whether the Expressway will be jammed tomorrow due to the 20K two wheelers, 2K four wheelers protest being planned from 11.00 am upto KRS dam? Might be better to take Kanakapura road tomorrow to Mysore.