[ajmat]

Originally Posted by dark.knight

I grew up in Lavelle Rd in what is called old Bangalore today.. school was nearby and central areas were easily accessible and Cubbon Park was a big attraction. Those times even that area was laughed upon by big city dwellers but today with UB City right in the middle, the prices there have skyrocketed (we sold that flat for under Rs.2000/- per sq.ft almost 2 decades ago).

Off topic, I also grew up on Lavelle Road - where abouts?

[suresh_gs]

Originally Posted by Acharya

Is it really an overnight development, think again. In 2002-03, ORR had groves of coconut on both side between Sarjapura Junction & KR Puram

Problem is concentration of IT companies around an area. Eg E City, Whitefield, Bellandur, Marathahalli. More and more companies are setting up shop right up there. If you see Chennai for instance, most of the companies (manufacturing) are pushed to the outer (Oragadam -Walajahbad region). The IT companies are scattered around Sholinanallur region. Likewise in Bangalore, the govt should have pushed all the companies to Hosakote, Devanahalli, Kolar etc and then should have constructed SEZs there something similar to Mahindra World City. Moreover the govt should not have encouraged companies to come up on the ORR when it was primarily designed to divert the trucks without entering Bangalore. That very purpose is lost now

[sansvk]

Originally Posted by itwasntme

Amazed to see the Hebbal state of affairs! That is some serious flooding.

Video is posted on the times website.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...w/65955904.cms

[paragsachania]

This is now a daily affair and quite regular at that. 2 Km long jam!!

At 08:58



At 10:58



Around 2008-09 is when NICE road 'Officially' became operational? At the time when biggies like Infy, Wipro, TCS, Tech-M, HCL had already made areas around Electronics city their home and the same time when BETL Elevated highway was getting constructed.

So all these trucks enter and exit the city, right at this major intersection which is utterly chaotic nearly all the times of the day with haphazard movement of traffic from all directions.

What is even more funny is that most of my colleagues who take NICE to reach EC end up spending less than 20 minutes driving on NICE road and nearly 30-35 minutes to exit out of the tolled road .

If the above images are not surprising, let me tell you that the situation is half better (and still bad) even at 2PM!!

You are allowing freight traffic, along with daily office traffic out of a freeway to merge onto just one lane of traffic onto the service lane! Daily I see poor truckers and hapless trailer drivers finding it hard to ensure they cross this junction without scraping a neatly washed car of that techie who tries to sneak in between 2 huge trucks through blind spots just because he is getting late to work.

As for me, I had long back decided never to take NICE for my onward journey and now this consistency of jams has ensured I will be extremely cautious venturing into this 'Tolled Road' in this direction.

As for the traffic Police is concerned - I wonder why they will bother as the Jam is on the NICE corridor and that this jam can last 40 kms till they really need to bother.

The only time I saw them (cops) bother was when Toll booth Entry was jammed due to heavy traffic and it started to extend onto the service lane at the main junction. A cop on bike arrived, shouted at the booth staff and all were allowed to pass without paying toll (and pay up at the exit).

[vnabhi]

A quick question to Bangaloreans: Is there Metro connectivity to Yeswantpur from Indira Nagar? Is there an interchange in Majestic?

If yes, I think that will be the fastest and cheapest way to commute to that railway station from Kodihalli. I might take that option if I travel alone.

[Rajeevraj]

Originally Posted by vnabhi

A quick question to Bangaloreans: Is there Metro connectivity to Yeswantpur from Indira Nagar? Is there an interchange in Majestic?

If yes, I think that will be the fastest and cheapest way to commute to that railway station from Kodihalli. I might take that option if I travel alone.

Yes there is. You can board at CMH Road. Interchange is at majestic.

[wildsdi5530]

So funny thing I witnessed yesterday on the Ring road near Hebbal Junction. We were on the lane going straight. This 2-wheeler and auto collided as the auto was changing lanes. The rider fell down and the auto ran away. About 20 Mts ahead are 2 cops busy collecting fines and one actually waves the auto away. Sorry for the poor video, but the windscreen was quite dirty.
I was wondering if this attitude of the cops is due to regular hafta by the auto unions?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6G6t7QDhmdo

[AltoLXI]

Originally Posted by wildsdi5530

I was wondering if this attitude of the cops is due to regular hafta by the auto unions?

Probably the cops did not even see what happened. As a rider myself, I have no pity on the bike guy and I think he deserved this. What business he had trying to squeeze between the two vehicles?

[arunphilip]

Originally Posted by wildsdi5530

So funny thing I witnessed yesterday on the Ring road near Hebbal Junction. We were on the lane going straight. This 2-wheeler and auto collided as the auto was changing lanes. The rider fell down and the auto ran away.

I think there's enough blame to go around.

That said, there was a simple rule I followed back in the time I was young and stupid enough* to ride two wheelers, and knew I held my life in my hands. The rule was: overtake a vehicle snappily, or be overtaken quickly, but don't hang around parallel to and close to another vehicle. Twist the throttle to zip ahead, or dab the brakes to fall behind. Anything else is just asking for trouble in any circumstances, and is just putting oneself at risk when on a vulnerable two-wheeler.

Sadly, my time in some of our cities has shown that two-wheelers have a disproportionately low sense of self-preservation than almost anyone else on the road.

* Now I'm old and stupid. Some things don't change!

[NPV]

I was on the scooter with my daughter riding pillion and as usual both of us were wearing helmets. About a kilometre or so from home, as we were making a turn onto a main road, we saw some confusion especially with 2 wheelers doing weird things and then we spot traffic cops who were waving down cars and 2 wheelers for seatbelt and helmet violations respectively. After we made the turn, we saw a 2 wheeler being stopped since pillion wasn't wearing a helmet. Another motorcycle was moving parallel to us and the pillion wasn't wearing a helmet and one of the constables waved to him to stop, but the inspector asked him not to stop them and those guys waved their arms to the inspector as if to say thanks! Only thing we noticed was these guys were wearing the uniform of a PSU organisation located nearby and were let off.

My daughter asked me 2 questions related to helmets:
1. Aren't the same traffic rules applicable to everyone ?
2. Isn't everyone worried about their own head (safety)? Why are some people so confident that nothing will happen to their heads in case of an accident ?

We can only wonder and ponder over these things, there are no answers for them in our country and life goes on.

On our return after a few minutes, we saw a Dio scooter with 3 boys (none with helmet). As soon as they spotted the cops, they zoomed away on the wrong side and all that the cops did was look at them in awe! I had to move to the right so as to avoid a head-on collision with the Dio

[msdivy]

Originally Posted by wildsdi5530

This 2-wheeler and auto collided as the auto was changing lanes.

Looks like biker's poor anticipation. He must have slowed down to allow the auto to go through. Also, he was getting dangerously close to the auto.

About 20 Mts ahead are 2 cops busy collecting fines and one actually waves the auto away.

Not sure if the incident was noticed by police or reported. They were busy looking for offenses by 2 wheelers, rest are ignored

I was wondering if this attitude of the cops is due to regular hafta by the auto unions?

Wow, this is news. Was it mentioned anywhere that auto union gives regular hafta to police and if they do, why?

[AltoLXI]

Originally Posted by NPV

On our return after a few minutes, we saw a Dio scooter with 3 boys (none with helmet). As soon as they spotted the cops, they zoomed away on the wrong side and all that the cops did was look at them in awe! I had to move to the right so as to avoid a head-on collision with the Dio

This happened to me the other day. There is a lane near the place where I stay where vehicles can enter from the wrong direction to avoid U turn. Often the cops will be waiting to catch the offenders coming in the opposite direction. This boy on Dio comes in the wrong direction and just as he enters the lane, he spots the cops waiting and abruptly stops and starts all the manoeuvres to escape. I entered the lane from the right side with indicators on at the same time the Dio entered the lane.

Looking at all the cat and the mouse game, I just stop for this to get over to prevent Dio coming and hitting me in a bid to escape. The cop chases him and the Dio guy escapes.

Now comes the funny thing. Having spotted me waiting for the Dio to go, the cop thinks I need to be stopped and waves me down. I park my bike and wait. He asks me all the documents which I produce. He asks me which way I entered the lane even though he saw the indicators turned on. I explain which way I came. He checks his blackberry and lets me proceed. Then another bike comes in the correct direction and he stops him and the checks continue.

Further down the lane, bikers without helmet knowing that the cops are waiting (given a hint by others who just passed by) are taking a detour.

[ventoman]

Originally Posted by paragsachania

This is now a daily affair and quite regular at that. 2 Km long jam!!..
Around 2008-09 is when NICE road 'Officially' became operational? At the time when biggies like Infy, Wipro, TCS, Tech-M, HCL had already made areas around Electronics city their home and the same time when BETL Elevated highway was getting constructed
...

As for me, I had long back decided never to take NICE for my onward journey and now this consistency of jams has ensured I will be extremely cautious venturing into this 'Tolled Road' in this direction.
..

Echo that.
Was a regular user of NICE road (Kanakapura Road <-> EC) from it's launch until few weeks back when this mile long jam became a norm. Also the recent rains have brought back the pot holes hurriedly filled up earlier. Especially the stretch between Bannerghata and Kanakapura Road is quite scary with wide and long potholes.
I'm not sure if this will get resolved at all. But a horrible situation on a paid, private toll road.

[itwasntme]

2 wheeler riders are acutely sensitive to any changes in the traffic flow almost like any antelope in the Masai Mara :-). On scenting the pride of lions they radiate danger signals everywhere and warn all fellow antelopes proactively within seconds :-)

On my daily commute in the Yelahanka area, I have adapted my driving style for sudden braking, swerving, driving on the wrong side and totally inane moves by all and sundry 2 wheelers!

[msdivy]

Originally Posted by ventoman

I'm not sure if this will get resolved at all. But a horrible situation on a paid, private toll road.

It appears like the business managing the NICE toll roads is not reinvesting the profits back into its core business.