[yajaman99]

Originally Posted by JVH

I experience the same thing near the Coco Cola factory where the connection to Bellary road is comparitively narrow. There's absolutely no reason for anyone to take the wrong side and block the incoming traffic towards Kodigehalli/Sahakarnagar. Am sure you must have experienced this too.

But my experiences of driving in North Bangalore are comparitively better than the South. Am not sure why. Even my wife agrees with this. No offence to South B'loreans ofcourse :-)

@JVH - Yes i have seen this happen many a time. The worst it when we are entering that road from the Coco Cola "Free" Left turn and you have cars and bikes heading towards you. From what i have seen, the Traffic cops allow this, they beckon the traffic to come. So if the cop allows it when they are there, it must be also possible when they are not there

[atrisarkar]

Had a close shave yesterday. Went to pickup my friend from the airport at around 1.30 in the night and while returning suddenly it started pouring. I mean pouring would be an understatement, it was something like a cloudburst and I could see the rain hitting almost horizontally in my windscreen. I stopped over for sometime but after a while thought of proceeding. I switched on the hazard lights and moved to the leftmost lane.
I was moving very cautiously around at 40 or so following a Wagon R. All that was visible was the Wagon R's hazard lights. I kept following it keeping a safe distance as the road was not visible at all.
Suddenly, I saw the Wagon R stopped and before I could realize it was almost couple of feet away. I swerved at just the nick of time to my right and it was in this time that I saw that the Wagon R was over a divider which had came out of nowhere in the highway. The Wagon R already went a feet inside the divider.
Felt really sorry for that car and thanked almighty for saving our day.
Now there are two funny things:
1. How can a divider separating a service road from the highway start without any glow sign?
2. This one is more shocking. During the entire stretch of the highway, right after you leave the BIAL premises till you start entering Yellahanka, not even a single street light works during the night!!!

[Roy.S]

Originally Posted by atrisarkar

.............
..........I saw that the Wagon R was over a divider which had came out of nowhere in the highway.....
...
1. How can a divider separating a service road from the highway start without any glow sign?.......

I have seen this happen so many times that I've lost count. Once saw a new Getz climb a pretty high divider in front of the BEL factory. The damage was unbelievable but fortunately the occupants were unhurt.
Another time saw an Indicab ram into a divider hard, reverse (making horrible noises) and drive off. Car must have packed up shortly after that because all the engine oil had leaked out.

[ampere]

Not sure if folks have seen this. Efficient transport systems in AMD.
Some folks might already be experiencing it.

(Got this link from a friend of mine.)

Ahmedabad?s bus system a hit with several countries - 1 - *Autos - MSN India

[ch.nathan]

Originally Posted by ampere

Not sure if folks have seen this. Efficient transport systems in AMD.
Some folks might already be experiencing it.

(Got this link from a friend of mine.)

Ahmedabad?s bus system a hit with several countries - 1 - *Autos - MSN India

Great!! Gujarati business minds at their best.

If only this is done in other cities too!
BMTC - Are you listening?

[srishiva]

When Volvo came to Bengaluru, it had proposed such a system. But with roads not that wide it was dropped.
This is what was needed on ring roads and new roads being done. It could have saved so much money.

[KRRaj]

Originally Posted by srishiva

When Volvo came to Bengaluru, it had proposed such a system. But with roads not that wide it was dropped.
This is what was needed on ring roads and new roads being done. It could have saved so much money.

yeah. Wide Roads like Nrupathunga Road, Residency Road to name a few were all made one ways for this purpose only. I believe they tried it out on Bellary Road, but with complete indiscipline by other motorists, it was given up.

[Newpunter]

Just read about a 100 kms , 10 day traffic jam in china, that is still continuing. Seems like we Bangalore guys are atleast better off than these guys .

[paragsachania]

I didn't want to start a new thread when an epic saga like this thread already exists but fellow Bhpians, this is what happened today on my way to work and I would want to know if what I did was correct:

Time : Around 4-20pm
Place : Krupanidhi College Junction/Signal
Day: Today

I was coming from Sarjapur/Jakkasandra side wanting to pass through Madiwala market and take left to Electronics City over the Silkboard flyover.

I was waiting patiently at the Krupanidhi college signal to turn green with about 2 cars in front of me. When the signal turned green and I started following cars ahead of me, I could see a caravan of buses still taking right from St. Johns side (into Madiwala Market Road) even when the signal for them had turned red (of course since we were moving while It was green).

2/3 buses tried to cut across the cars in front of me which swerved left either fearing those buses or reactively and then It was me while a BMTC Volvo tried to cut perpendicularly in front of me while I never changed my lane and continued moving ahead and deliberately wanting to block that bus.

I did that, stopped, rolled down to see that Volvo driver hurl some abuses at me.

I told him that he has jumped the signal and now wanting to block others from legally moving ahead, including me.

Now, he thought I was just another IT guy who might not know the local language and so he now gets up from his seat hinting me that he is wanting to get down while I too made sure that I switched off the engine, got out and locked the car. Now, this driver had no choice and had to get down and to support him (as usual) the conductor too gets down.

All this in the middle of the road while there was enough place for those who were behind me passing easily (as the section of the road is wide enough and I was on the rightmost lane). Also since this bus had jumped the signal, there was none behind him too!!

While we argued in local language, a biker on a Pulsar started indicating the driver that he too saw that he continued ahead breaking the signal.

The driver now had no words left since there was one more witness to this incident while he kept staring at my ID card (should've removed it as I wanted to talk as any other normal man other than a branded techie.).

I Tell him , Take my name, Phone Number and do what he wants and I will see to it that this gets reported to BMTC administration and make them realise that their driver are none but hopeless morons on the road with a bus like B7R to drive dangerously.

The only thing I was expecting was a Cop so that I would've asked him to fine on the basis of how the traffic was moving and the current position of the bus at that moment hinting enough at the Bus driver's fault but unfortunately only people had gathered.

Finally, the crowd tried to tell us both to move which I did and reached work just to type just another ranting on our city's traffic.

[ampere]

The problem is Volvo buses have so much power and imposing presence on the road, that nobody dares challenge them. What you did is right, but imaging just for a moment, if that guy was fast and could not brake, you could have got washed away. Its only that fear, because of which most folks do not challenge them.

And also its because of this fear, these guys take advantage.

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by ampere

The problem is Volvo buses have so much power and imposing presence on the road, that nobody dares challenge them. What you did is right, but imaging just for a moment, if that guy was fast and could not brake, you could have got washed away. Its only that fear, because of which most folks do not challenge them.

And also its because of this fear, these guys take advantage.

Exactly my point ampere and I also told him that just because he is driving a big monster there are a few left who would no swerve away in defense. Today, I was totally agitated the way he still kept moving ahead while rest of the lot had stopped and I had decided that I will make him realise (If not understand) that for a change I am not one of those who will move away.

Also, the Volvo wasnt speeding since it was almost a U-Turn and I didn't block him abruptly but rather continued moving closely and finally stopped in a way that he was tailing me.

Another case where these Volvos are a menace is at the JDP Signal/Kumble Circle and especially those BIAS buses wanting to take a right towards Minsk square. The signal here turns green for those wanting to move towards Kasturba/Lavelle Road and then turns green for all.

These Volvos always occupy the leftmost lane following the traffic moving straight/left and finally stop at the whiteline blocking everyone else who wants to move straight. I usually watch his reaction to all the honking through my window and all I can see is that he is totally oblivious to what he's done. Yes, there are others too who do this but BIAS Volvos do this "Regularly" at this signal.

[Iluvcars]

@paragsachania, the learning (which every motorist in most of the Indian cities has had to their heart's content) is that such Government drivers who brazenly break the traffic rules are almost sure of 2 things: 1) The traffic cops don't have what-the-bowlers-bowl-with to book them & 2) Even if booked they have their unions to back them. The size, power and manoeuvrability of their vehicles further embolden them. I appreciate what you've done and I wished I do the same several times. But unless the law is enforced effectively, such things will continue to happen!

[raghav.carfreak]

@paragsachania
Kudos to your courage mate. Its Fear of the size of these buses that intimidates the rest of us to stand up against them, because more than anything else, These bus drivers will just ram into our vehicles and just continue like nothing ever happened(I've seen a lady on a scooty loose balance because of a bus driver like this even though it was the BMTC bus driver's fault but he just sped away like nothing ever happened. And being on Team-BHP you do know how much we love our vehicles to see them hurt even to the smallest of scratches.
While i appreciate your courage to stand up against this volvo bus.
The one thing i do find irritating is that when people honk at red signals when they can see the signal is red or there is a car in front of me(which obviously means i can't move)
So to combat this, i do 2 things, either remove my hand out of the window signaling them to go(not pass, but a sarcastic way of saying be my guest if there is so much space in front or make the action of a plane take off asking them if i should fly and go?)
and the second thing i do if they still don't stop honking(I do this only when I'm alone because if i'm with somebody they just think i'm acting smart or messing around) is let them pass, and honk the way they were honking behind me.
Not got the oppurtunity to do the second thing too many times, but the first option works like a charm, I've got cab drivers and government vehicles to shut up!

[sabynag]

1. Do you have the collective bargaining power to pull down a government or at least a part of it ?
2. Do you have the power to send one of your representatives to the government ?
3. Are you corrupt ?
4. Do you understand that you only have rights in your country but absolutely no responsibility ?
5. In a long queue, do you alway try to look for a queue-jumping opportunity ?

Ask yourself these questions and if you can't find an "YES" type answer for any of these questions, you are a FOREIGNER in this country. If you are a foreigner, you better adapt to whatever is in practice and don't challenge the locals. The country belongs to its locals - foreigners are welcome like God as long as their visits/stays bring in $$$ for the locals.

Indian tax-paying middle-class is the "growth engine" for the country. But who knows it better than a TBHPian that an engine's job is to quietly execute the orders from the driver - you make noise and you will find yourself dumped in a garage.

[benbsb29]

Good work, Parag. Knowing the local language in your case helped, else you would soon see you were fighting a lone battle with no one to support you.

My experience for the day : Not exactly a traffic rant, though.
I was proceeding on the road which is parallel to Purva Riveria and SJR beside the railway line towards the Marathalli railway bridge. As those who have travelled along this road would know, there is a slum kinda place just beside the railway line. All vehicles were being stopped by a group of kids who were asking for donations for Ganapathi pooja. Yes, a bunch of kids! They were not allowing vehicles to pas through till they paid up! When it was my turn, i told them i would pay later, and then just took off.

Few years down the line, these kids would soon become the next waywards out to loot hapless motorists out of their money, knowing how easy it is to harass people.