[zyksstar]

Another common Indian mindset - if a car is chauffeur it is a sin to park the car at a designated parking spot. Instead the car will be stopped at random spots with the driver idling away. Why pay for parking when if you already paying diver's salary!

The most common culprits for the double parked cars.

[zyksstar]

Originally Posted by Mustang Sammy

When big vehicles like trucks & buses park illegally in cities, the impact is much more severe thanks to their much bigger size and our narrow roads.

Attachment 2652210
This truck is parked next to a paan shop. Coincidence? I think not.

There is a two-wheeler with a kid in pillion seat riding on the pavement. The worse is that kid getting conditioned for life to not follow basic traffic rule. But maybe that rant is for another thread!!

[zinbart]

All this can be managed effectively, if road transport authority actually want to and get serious about maintaining roads and, then traffic police enforce rules to not allow illegal parking & idling. Gues, I can always dream of a road discipline in India like abroad.

[mkaysaw]

I absolutely agree with your observations. Also this is a nationwide systemic failure of epic proportions that we can do nothing about. I guess its a sheer number of people and lazy/non serious attitude problem that (unfortunately) can never and will never be corrected.

While I haven't got a photograph, ANYONE who travels from Faridabad to Delhi at any night after 9.15 pm will surely find two and sometimes even all three lanes of the highway are blocked by truckers to simply chill out and do nothing while crossing the border.

This continues on till 3am and they attribute it to the Delhi green tax that they must pay at the border. I once asked a bunch of these guys huddled together in winter with a fire in the middle lane what the hold up was and the reply I got was a very unassumingly nonchalant, "toh kya ho gaya bauji, khade hi toh hain".

I fear for those who have to cross this section of toll road (~200mts) in an emergency at night. Stationary trucks with some drivers even cooking food under the trucks at night like it's a picnic spot! All while cops, GST sleuths and traffic police are patrolling these trucks looking for easy prey.

I just took a screenshot at 2 am and look at the traffic situation here.

All this while we just paid a toll 20 mts before this stoppage! What a joke our transport system is!

Originally Posted by Mustang Sammy

While our road infrastructure indeed has a long way to go, we certainly don’t make it any easier on ourselves when the roads that we Do have are badly designed, maintained and abused. In particular, many of our roads have at least one lane rendered unusable at least in part for entirely avoidable reasons. If not 100% occupied, there are inevitably obstructions at some point causing traffic to merge onto the remaining lane(s), creating chaos and often putting lives at risk.

[Nilesh5417]

Great thread and solid points by OP. We lack any civic sense and behave like we are entitled or carry chalta hai attitude. In fact if the government simply enforced the existing laws and fined errant drivers / vehicle owners, they wouldn't need to ask us for toll or the roadtax!! The traffic department could very well fund it's long desired modernization.

[NutHead1270]

Also, Man Holes in one lane which are 2-3 feet above road(Yes Kanakapura Road it is).
Parking cars on the left lane is, of course, not ideal, but often there simply isn't enough available parking space If you ask me they must build multi-storey parking lot around the cities. Like the one near Freedom Park (Which they overspent on, they could have built two parking lots instead of integrating AI)

[Mortis]

All very valid points about vehicles blocking the left lanes on roads. But there is another - PEDESTRIANS

Since most of the footpaths are encroached upon or have various "hazards" - debris, a tree, building entry slope, etc. most pedestrians walk on the road, either because they have no space or are too lazy to get back on the footpath when the section is good.
Now if it's the rainy season, water is pooled next to the footpath so they walk further out. If cars are parked then they walk in lane 2. If it's a busy area, there are pedestrians walking side by side in opposite directions, if they are in a group they walk side by side. It's a compounding problem and can be very dangerous because they aren't paying attention and can easily sidestep into the path of a vehicle.
When I'm walking, I do my best to stick as far to the left no matter what so that I can curse pedestrians when I'm driving without being a hypocrite.

[am1m]

Originally Posted by Mortis

All very valid points about vehicles blocking the left lanes on roads. But there is another - PEDESTRIANS

That's only because, like you have also mentioned, the total lack of usable/unobstructed footpaths in most parts of most cities. The CBD areas of Bangalore and some other big cities have generally passable footpaths, but by far, the lack of pedestrian infra is very, very apparent.

And even if present, you can almost certainly see the following on all our footpaths - vendors, bikers taking the footpath as an additional lane to beat traffic (and honking at pedestrians on the footpath!), parked bikes, cars parked half on the road-half on the footpath, shops claiming the footpath in front of them to place billboards and many other things, open urinals, dog poop (not street dogs, but pet dogs on their morning walks), the mess left by whichever agency that decides to dig up the footpath that day...

[Mortis]

Originally Posted by am1m

That's only because, like you have also mentioned, the total lack of usable/unobstructed footpaths in most parts of most cities. The CBD areas of Bangalore and some other big cities have generally passable footpaths, but by far, the lack of pedestrian infra is very, very apparent.

And even if present, you can almost certainly see the following on all our footpaths - vendors, bikers taking the footpath as an additional lane to beat traffic (and honking at pedestrians on the footpath!), parked bikes, cars parked half on the road-half on the footpath, shops claiming the footpath in front of them to place billboards and many other things, open urinals, dog poop (not street dogs, but pet dogs on their morning walks), the mess left by whichever agency that decides to dig up the footpath that day...

That's true enough as I have mentioned in my post. However it is still possible for pedestrians to use the sections that ARE usable, stick as far to the left as possible and also pay attention to their surroundings, all of which they fail to do.

[im_revhead]

Another thing that frustrates me is when vehicles waiting in a signal to turn occupy 2-2.5 lanes on a 3-lane road, especially when the lane for going straight is clear. This behavior causes unnecessary traffic jams

[yogie]

Originally Posted by Mustang Sammy

While our road infrastructure indeed has a long way to go, we certainly don’t make it any easier on ourselves when the roads that we Do have are badly designed, maintained and abused. In particular, many of our roads have at least one lane rendered unusable at least in part for entirely avoidable reasons. If not 100% occupied, there are inevitably obstructions at some point causing traffic to merge onto the remaining lane(s), creating chaos and often putting lives at risk.

This is such a big problem in Bangalore. So many double roads (2 lanes in one direction) get reduced to a single lane, slowing down traffic and defeating the very purpose of having a double road

Originally Posted by im_revhead

Another thing that frustrates me is when vehicles waiting in a signal to turn occupy 2-2.5 lanes on a 3-lane road, especially when the lane for going straight is clear. This behavior causes unnecessary traffic jams

Sometimes i have seen all 3 lanes waiting to take a right turn.

[Sudarshan_SMD]

The number of vehicles on the roads in just too much.

The infrastructure inside cities should cater to people walking, cycling, and commuting via public transport. These modes must be made as easy as possible. If we just try to widen the roads inside cities, soon enough more cars will be on the road.

Petrolheads will prefer cars. However, current infrastructure makes everyone who can afford a car to commute in car. With right infrastructure, there will be less cars on the roads. These cars will be driven by enthusiast, who care and respect the traffic rules.

I might be talking from perspective which many petrolheads might not agree directly. Major cities do have enough money for infrastructure, but it is as if we don't have good city planners and engineers.
Also, there can be always counter argument that our population blow these livable cities talk out of water. But, we have to start somewhere.

I would also like to point to video which talk of having walking, cycling and public transport infrastructure makes it better for Cars.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8RRE2rDw4k