[am1m]

What's up on Old Airport Road today? Planned to leave late since i'll be working late, but gmaps shows a solid red over there. Accident?

[sachinpk]

Originally Posted by wildsdi5530

This is possible only for people with regular timings and job at 1 location only.

I agree with you; with my experience of using BMTC on a regular basis (for three months or more) in two occassions during the last 5 years.

1. At that point of time, I was only working from one office (how ever far it was).

2. My work schedule was very much fixed. It was pure routine grunt job, with lots of slack time. There was NO activity scheduled for late evenings (like conference calls), which kind of put pressure on me to reach home before the call starts.

3. Unfortunately or fortunately, these were also times when I was mentally prepared to leave that organisation and had started taking measures to make a change. And once the decision was taken, naturally a lot of my official tasks got reduced and there was high slack time (which meant I could miss BMTC buses and wait for another one, take a longer route etc.).

[gtonsing]

I was living in HSR for all this while and i thought the major choke points were in those areas. How misinformed I was. I have now moved to Kothanur side, assuming there will be less traffic and thereby less time spent in moving from place to place. The road around the hennur flyover is a big choke point (not as bad as Silk board - I have to say) and then the intersection infront of Reliance Fresh. Then again a little further ahead - outward below the railway underpass. The "evil" is following me.

[PrideRed]

Originally Posted by gtonsing

I was living in HSR for all this while and i thought the major choke points were in those areas. How misinformed I was. I have now moved to Kothanur side, assuming there will be less traffic and thereby less time spent in moving from place to place. The road around the hennur flyover is a big choke point (not as bad as Silk board - I have to say) and then the intersection infront of Reliance Fresh. Then again a little further ahead - outward below the railway underpass. The "evil" is following me.

Entire Bangalore is evils den , there is no escaping traffic wherever you go. Simplest thing you can do is check GMaps before leaving and then set expectations accordingly. Carry some food, water and have a nice playlist ready, these will come in handy.

[gtonsing]

Originally Posted by PrideRed

Entire Bangalore is evils den , there is no escaping traffic wherever you go. Simplest thing you can do is check GMaps

What you said is true and we need to be prepared. I make sure the kids have been doing No.1 and No.2 before we set out, there is atleast 3 liters of water in the car and atleast some snacks.

But due to the design (or lack of it) of the city, irrespective of where you plan to go. The problem is in many destinations, we have little to no alternatives.

Take for instance destinations on or near ORR. Very few interlinking roads. The few that are there are messed up already.

What I mentioned already I think in this thread earlier, is that I was super impressed with Kuala Lumpur. They placed all their offices and IT business far away (with superb connectivity) in one place - Putra Jaya and Cyber Jaya and you see traffic only in one direction in morning and evening. Other times are relatively free. How I wish we could have done the same to this once lovely city.

[itwasntme]

https://m.timesofindia.com/city/beng...w/69588439.cms
BMRCL begins underground work; CBD traffic likely to be hit

Dread the situation there when this starts

[am1m]

Jam at 2230! (yes, 10:30 PM at night!) a couple of days ago.

I am in awe of the 'IT zone' traffic, it is completely unpredictable! To be fair, this was just a small section. Going from the ORR towards Old Airport (HAL) road through Yemalur, this is the bridge over the infamous Bellandur Lake. Wasn't raining or anything, no road work, no accident, just the regular stupidity and impatience of the majority of us Bangalore car drivers.

They have recently widened the road leading to this bridge, but instead of maintaining two separate lanes, there are always some wonderful drivers (mainly cabs) who decide to save a few seconds by going into the right road, meant only for oncoming traffic. As a result, there are five lanes suddenly trying to merge into one on the bridge, while of course blocking oncoming traffic on the bridge. So, those of us who were on the correct side spent 20 minutes negotiating what should have been crossed in 20 seconds at that time of night. Of course, even the 'smart' ones spent far more time crossing than they would have if they had just stayed in the correct lane.

BUT OF COURSE the solution is to "widen the bridge and the roads". I don't think it will matter even if we manage to build an 8-lane road there. Driver discipline is non-existent. Better to let things just get worse and worse (which they are anyway) till people are 'driven' (haha) out of this area or start demanding real public transport from the government.

[SoumenD]

Originally Posted by am1m

I don't think it will matter even if we manage to build an 8-lane road there. Driver discipline is non-existent.

Bangalore traffic issue is not just the lack of enough roads or too many vehicles. A BIG contributing factor is the lack of discipline and empathy among drivers. Not just cabbies but even the so-called-educated folks.

A simple example is HSR 27th main junction that merges into ORR under AGARA flyover. The road is decently wide and if one follows the signal normally there shouldn't be any gridlock. However the office goers even at 7:30AM can be seen blatantly taking the wrong way meant for oncoming traffic and ending up creating a mess at the junction.

And I repeat, its not just cabbies, usual office goers as well in their personal vehicles right from Altos to City to Lexus. Things get better only when the cops come in and start stopping them. This lack of empathy & selfish mindset leads to atleast 25% of the traffic issues if not more.

[strawhat]

Originally Posted by SoumenD

.... A simple example is HSR 27th main junction that merges into ORR under AGARA flyover. The road is decently wide and if one follows the signal normally there shouldn't be any gridlock. However the office goers even at 7:30AM can be seen blatantly taking the wrong way meant for oncoming traffic and ending up creating a mess at the junction. ...

Totally second that. I have had many close encounters with seemingly white collar professionals at this intersection. There is an auto stand on the NIFT campus direction at the start of 27th Main road. Numerous times I have seen autos from opposite side recklessly turn to join in the queue. To add to the nuisance, these "I am in a hurry" folks tail these autos and cross the division marking before the cement divider begins and wait for signal to turn green. I guess for them the temptation of being the first ones to exit a junction is uncontrollable. I had several altercations with many such idiots before turning a blind eye nowadays.

[deadguy25]

Originally Posted by gtonsing

What I mentioned already I think in this thread earlier, is that I was super impressed with Kuala Lumpur. They placed all their offices and IT business far away (with superb connectivity) in one place - Putra Jaya and Cyber Jaya and you see traffic only in one direction in morning and evening. Other times are relatively free. How I wish we could have done the same to this once lovely city.

Before the advent of IT, soaring real estate prices, and with it our never ending apetite for money, Bangalore was pretty well planned. The industries were predominantly clustered and on the outskirts. It was a very peaceful city .

Well now, it is like a totally different place.

[am1m]

Originally Posted by deadguy25

Before the advent of IT...Bangalore was pretty well planned. It was a very peaceful city.

Hmmm, well ok, but just to clarify because this thread has gone in the direction of 'blame the IT industry/'outsiders'/whoever' before, I at least never meant to imply that.

Lane discipline and driving discipline is lacking. That's across the spectrum of road users, irrespective of 2/4/3-wheelers, private vehicles/cabs, rich/poor, BMWs/Autos, educated/non-educated, new immigrants to the city/people here for x generations, IT guys/non-IT guys, etc, etc.

Strict enforcement of road rules is sorely lacking. And that's why the mess.

[suhaas307]

Originally Posted by gtonsing

What I mentioned already I think in this thread earlier, is that I was super impressed with Kuala Lumpur. They placed all their offices and IT business far away (with superb connectivity) in one place - Putra Jaya and Cyber Jaya and you see traffic only in one direction in morning and evening. Other times are relatively free. How I wish we could have done the same to this once lovely city.

Actually, it's the other way 'round. Putrajaya, KL's satellite town was established for the purpose of segregating the administration of the country from the commercial/business establishments.

Putrajaya is Malaysia's Seat of Government, with the Parliament and various Embassies present in the satellite city.

If you think about it, something similar has happened in Bangalore too. The administrative buildings like the Vidhan Soudha, Vikas Soudha, MS Building, etc. are all located within 3 km radius of the (former) CBD, while the IT companies have moved to (what used to be referred to as) the outskirts of the city.

Unfortunately, the boom was just too huge for the authorities to digest, not to mention the bureaucracy and corruption that the city's administrative and commercial services are tangled in.

[Chetan_Rao]

Instead of the IT corridor setup we got along the existing Bangalore ORR, we should've aimed at a ring road setup like the one Hyderabad has. Exits for everything, but nothing right along/next to it to choke it up. I believe that's what the proposed peripheral ring road plan would address, but implementation would be key.

Even in Bangalore, they should've built a signal-free corridor along the ORR with designated exits for IT campuses (though sheer volume and rampant lane indiscipline would overwhelm it eventually), instead of the bits & pieces useless flyover system we got.

I'm amazed at how well the HYD ORR works, every time I drive there.

[atnyia]

Demonstrating questionable wisdom, I have moved to Bangalore from Pune only a few weeks back.

I had heard a lot about Bangalore traffic before coming here. While having seen the worst of Delhi traffic on Rohini - Dhaula Kuan - Gurgaon stretch, I was quite 'excited' to see what Bangalore was going to offer.
Though it's just initial days, but it's amply apparent. The Bangalore traffic, like white walkers, is real and is almost equally dreadful. The roads are pathetic, even the main arterial ones. The city traffic speed is 10 KMs per hour on average. For the reference, in two hours +- a few minutes, you would expect your office transport to take you from Gurgaon Cyber City to Noida/Vaishali - which is all across Delhi.
Here, you won't go beyond 20 KMs in two hours.

But, as an outsider, I find traffic to be relatively well behaved. Much better than I would say NCR. So, whatever the guys are saying about traffic sense here, I don't get it.

[Nalin1]

TEAM-BHP rules stop me from using the choicest of words to slam the BBMP for their white-topping work on the ORR. Their claims of the work lasting 25 years with minimum maintenance is all a load of crap!

Do they actually have any brains? The ORR from Hebbal to Tin factory is one of the smoothest stretches and they could not bear to see that, I think. Plotted and planned something so that traffic crawls here also like the entire city. The underpass white-topping that has been taken up has ensured that thousands of liters of fuel is wasted and hours of precious time is wasted for absolutely no reason. Yes, the underpass had some bumps and potholes. It only needs a fresh coat of tar and some regular patch up work for a fraction of the cost. On top of it, the tarring work can be completed in a few hours or so. Bangalore's traffic has crossed that stage where minor diversions and obstructions will hardly matter. Even a cycle parked in a corner of the road has a cascading effect on the whole stretch.