[deehunk]

I was stuck in a traffice jam during July, 2000 while returning from Bidar to Bangalore. Those days NH44 was a double lane road without dividers, we were held up near Kurnool for more than 4 hours.

[sridhu]

We should hear some harrowing stories from this one:



Apparently a 10km jam from 1 am today near Thoppur.

Hope it is not too bad.

[narayans80]

Originally Posted by sridhu

We should hear some harrowing stories from this one

Thoppur ghat in the 21st century, that is since the blasting the hill down and laying the 4-lane and much powerful vehicles (both PV and CV). During our first day of our 2nd year tour, we were royally stuck here for 5-6 hours, and these were regular happening when it was the steep 2-lane road.

My wife who was native of Salem and visited all her life, thought it was a big deal when I first negotiated it as a newbie driver

[sridhu]

Originally Posted by narayans80

During our first day of our 2nd year tour, we were royally stuck here for 5-6 hours, and these were regular happening when it was the steep 2-lane road.

I was once stuck on that that when they were blasting for about 6 hours when we were returning from Palani. Must have been 1998-99.

That ghat used to be hairy to drive at night. Krishnagiri was also a nightmare because of the lorries without enough power to go up the grade. So they will chug along at 2 kmph & you can't overtake it in your powerful Maruti 800 because it is not safe in an undivided Highway. There used to be huge jams.

[Ashish0485]

As I live in Bangalore, commuting and getting stuck in traffic jam go hand-in-hand. Recent experience is just 3 days old.
Last Saturday I had done booking for the movie 2.0 at VR mall, Whitefield. This mall is just 3.5 kms from my place. The show timing was for 5.45pm. At 5.20 pm (just before leaving), my wife said that it's a Saturday plus metro construction is going on, let's go in our a Honda Activa otherwise we might miss some part of the movie. I said, relax! we will go by car and will reach on time. It took me 1.25 hours to cover that stretch of 3.5 kms. We were 1 hour late, my wife was fuming and finally we were so disappointed that we skipped the movie. Later on, took my wife for shopping to compensate.

[narayans80]

Originally Posted by sridhu

That ghat used to be hairy to drive at night. Krishnagiri was also a nightmare because of the lorries without enough power to go up the grade.

I agree, Thoppur had very less margin for error. One mistake and you could end up against those boulders.

It was due to the Krishnagiri-Hosur jams that Dharmapuri-Palacode-Rayakottai-Hosur route became famous. Many buses who had advance notice of the mess ahead, used to take this route.

[guptavis]

Originally Posted by bullrun87

On 13th of august this year due to unprecedented rainfall it took me 13 hours to cover 80kms from my home in shimla to parwanoo. There were several landslides along the way. I was stationary at one spot for 8 hours. The jam extended for several kms. People were so fed up that everyone left their cars aside and sat on the dividers.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...w/65396133.cms

Hello,

I was in the same traffic jam! Started from Shimla at 7AM and reached panchkula around 9:30 PM. I was advised by some locals to go back to shimla while I was waiting at one landslide near waknaghat at around 10AM. Wish i had listened to them!

The worst experience was on 14.08.2008 while coming from Gurgaon to Chandigarh. Four of us friends left gurgaon at around 6PM and at 2 AM we were still in Delhi!! I remember we covered 48kms in 8 hrs. Probably could have walked faster (i was much younger then!). Jam cleared at around 3AM and reached chandigarh at dawn around 6 AM! Thank god i dont stay at that place anymore. I think a similar thing happened in gurgaon in 2017 as well.

Just remembered, was coming from kasol to chandugarh on 23.09.2018. After heavy rains many bridges and roads were closed! One section of the NH in the hills aroiund AUT was UNDER WATER!
Had left around 11AM so as to reach by 8PM easily but had to take multiple alternate routes and could only manage to reach Bilaspur around 11PM. Was so dead tired took a room there and came to chandigarh next morning!

[daf23]

Voted for 6+ hours

I was once stuck for more than 7 hours in Khardungla, while returning from Nubra Valley.

This happened sometime in June'2017, it was snowing that day and there was no snowplough at service.

It was one hell of a day, we all survived with help of camphor!

[SR-71]

The choices don't apply aptly for Bangalore, 1-2 hours is the norm, not a jam! We consider 2-3 as being moderately congested and 3+ hours as the minimum barometer for traffic jam. The benchmark for this metric is a drive that normally takes 30 minutes on a Sunday early morning for the same stretch and sedate driving :-)

[Garth]

Voted 5-6 hours. Once in 2010 it was raining cats and dogs in Delhi. This being the era when Work from home was a strict-no-no. I commuted from Noida to Gurgaon. I spent almost 5 hours in traffic and then spoke to my manager and aborted the drive for the day and returned back home.

[praful]

Couple of different traffic jam experiences to share!

1. I was driving from Bangalore to Bombay (October 2011 - Diwali season). While it took me roughly about 12 hours (driving time) to reach the Expressway exit in Bombay which was around 1000 kms since I had left home in Bangalore. The next 60 odd kms from expressway exit till Colaba (this was before the freeway days :( )took a left knee killing 3.5 hours! Needless to say I was tired due to the last 60 kms and not so much the 1000 Kms.


2. I was riding back from Leh (October 2009) and reached Rohtang Pass late in the afternoon around 5PM. I could see a long line of trucks all the way down till the valley, I don't remember the exact town where it ended (could be Kothi or Palchan), but the 25 odd Kms downhill should have taken 50-60 minutes, ended up taking close to two hours.


3. I was riding back office in Whitefield, Bangalore to my home in Banashankari IIIrd Stage, Bangalore sometime in early 2010 (this was prior to all the flyovers on ORR). The journey of about 27-28 Kms usually took 45-50 on my bike in the usual peak traffic hours of the evening, ended up taking me 2 hours. It was on that day that I decided to move houses and reduce my office commute (which I did a few months later, by halving the distance). Interesting side-note, during my 10 years in Bangalore, my office-home commute has gradually reduced from 36 Kms to finally 5 Kms over this 10 year span, due to offices and homes moving, the commute time remained more or less constant around 40 minutes. It did initially reduce with move reducing the gap between home & office, eventually traffic caught up!

4. More recently, I was driving from Rouen, France to one of the suburbs of Paris, a distance of about 120 kms, usually taking about 1.5 Hrs, took me close of 4 hours to get back as there as a slow moving traffic jam for the entire 100 kms of highway distance.

[NomadSK]

Can we have the poll option in days.

Almost 2-days, in 2010 we were stuck in traffic at rohtang pass due to a landslide and an accident. It was a crazy night, somehow managed to sleep in the car, was a super chilly night and we trekked down to Marhi to satiate our hunger while being pitch dark.

Can't forget that night and the beautiful sunrise we witnessed over mountains. Priceless !