[Rajeevraj]

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

Do please enlighten us onlookers as to the ‘profile’ of these ‘errant’ chaps. Were they of the ‘educated-executive-in-a hurry-because-their-time-is-supremely-valuable’ type?

Originally Posted by airguitar

One was a cabbie ( looked like a decent fellow caught in a storm by mistake ), another seemed a local duo ( not the IT types ) and the last one I couldn't see much.

On these regular undivided roads, there is absolutely no hesitation for a lot of people to drive/ride on the wrong side and get ahead. ALL Two-Wheelers do it. Not restricted to by any 'profile'. Techies, Ladies, delivery guys, couples, ladies/gents with kids-Every single one. In some places there are medians on the 2 lane road to prevent this. No effect, most people go on the other side as if the median did not exist. And I am not dissing 2 wheelers here. I am also on a two wheeler and do not claim to be a saint. But one thing I never do is ride in the oncoming lane. So I am stupidly waiting in my lane behind a car and usually the car behind me honks to make me go the same way the others are, so that he/she can inch forward a meter.

In addition to all two wheelers, a lot of autos, cabs and then private cars also happily do it. Again no particular 'Profile' here. The only reason more don't do it is due to the challenge of squeezing in further down.

Everybody does it even with cops present. Cops are fairly helpless because if they stop directing the traffic for 2-3 mins a total grid lock happens. Every small junction in the Sarjapur Road, Carmelaram, Panathur, Harlur Road areas need 2-3 cops to ensure some semblance of normal movement. That is how bad the traffic discipline and volume are.

Originally Posted by airguitar

Now there are various ingresses into that Kadubisanahalli-Panathur road. So it all looks like a bowl of noodles in the end. I'm counting on the Gunjur - New Horizon road to be open fully : will help ease a bit.

/Rant Start
The noodles reference is perfect. I think the Kadubeesanahalli-Panathur-Balagere-Gunjur-Varthur belt is pretty much the worst among the newer areas that witnessed unplanned, rapid growth. Considering how bad other areas like in the ORR belt are, it is quite a low bar. It is pretty much a bottle neck on all sides and builders did some massive exploitation of the area creating thousands of apartments along these narrow roads. The sad thing is that the construction is not done and new complexes continue to come up with no end in sight. Imagine a gateway to an area where 1-2Lakh people live which is not even wide enough to take 2 way traffic in some sections.

The obvious question is-Why did the buyers in this area not realize it or went ahead with purchases even after seeing this bottleneck? In my understanding there were 2 promises thrown around by the builders.

• A 100 feet road that connects Balagare to Kundanahalli Gate/Old Airport Road- Giving easy access to Whitefield.
  
• Another 100 Feet Road from Varthur to New Horizon College on ORR

Assuming these roads are there, the thought process is not hard to fathom. I can get to Whitefield and ORR easily, I can get to Varthur Sarjapur belt easily(where all the schools are). Unfortunately, both these promises are half truths. The first one is done in patches, other areas are stuck in land acquisition and most importantly, the area at the Kundanahalli gate is already fully built up. No way a 100 feet wide exit can be done at that end. In addition one already knows the mess around that area.

The 2nd one is also partially done-at New Horizon end and some part at the Varthur Balagere side, but one important part was left off. For this road to be done, a full fledged ROB needs to be built over the railway line which cuts across. As far as I know, this is not even in the scheme of South Western Railway currently-Or it is somewhere on the drawing board.

There is some band aid solutions being done with 'widening of the S Cross', but I don't see a permanent solution to this for a very long time. If you are planning to buy a flat in the area, I would strongly recommend to reconsider.

The below 3 map pictures try to illustrate what I wrote above. The gridlocked area and how the 2 new 100 feet roads were supposed to be the solution and the exit out of this area.

The famous S Cross and Railway underpass at Panathur.

/End of Rant.

[The Falconist]

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

All these wicked taxi chaps and auto chaps are let off scot free and the worst is that most of them dont even care about the cops.

Cabbies have scant respect for traffic cops. I have observed on multiple occasions the derision with which these chaps deal with the cops. Probably an "association" flex; severely detrimental for road traffic sanity.

[ShreyG]

Originally Posted by The Falconist

Cabbies have scant respect for traffic cops. I have observed on multiple occasions the derision with which these chaps deal with the cops. Probably an "association" flex; severely detrimental for road traffic sanity.

The brazenness with which vehicles in Bangalore break traffic rules, specifically potentially fatal ones for other road users, such as wrong side driving, breaking traffic lights and getting into one ways is beyond belief.
No where have I seen water tankers and tippers / lorries drive on the wrong side of of a busy street.
Cabbies, autos and 2 wheelers show absolutely no patience and immediately step out of line even if there are 5-6 cars standing to take a turn or something. Not only does this compound the problem, it creates a problem for them as well since they are stranded in no man's land most of the times, ticking them off and stressing all those involved.
And on the respect of cops, sorry to be blunt, but they have lost all self respect, so, how can they expect anyone to respect them.
Key concerns for the cops more often than not, are checking out of state cars and stopping traffic every now and then to let low lying minister pass through. . Honestly, looking at their helplessness and the way the entitled (perceived or otherwise) populace treats them, you would start to feel a little sorry for them.
About a year back, when we had state elections in Karnataka, towards the last few weeks, cops had been super active in guiding and managing the traffic (specially on the ORR) making the drive on it so much more comfortable. But elections happened, people won and we were back to square one
I remember a dialogue from a Bollywood movie "Agar police wale chahein, to koi mandir ke bahar se chappal bhi nahi chori kar paye" roughly translating to " Police willing, nobody would even dare to steal a pair of slippers from a temple". Strong, aggressive sentiment, but saw a version of it building up to the 2023 state elections.

[airguitar]

Originally Posted by Rajeevraj

The obvious question is-Why did the buyers in this area not realize it or went ahead with purchases even after seeing this bottleneck? In my understanding there were 2 promises thrown around by the builders.

The primary reason as to why builders over-exploited this area: is because majority of the employers decided to move here.

Year 2006+ : the allure of the vast expanses of ORR and the 6 lane connectivity started a lot of pipe dreams for employers that this would be the best place to establish the offices. My understanding is that a lot of initial investments started happening around that time but it was perhaps around 2008-2010 when it really took off in a big way. I don't know why specifically the Marathahalli-Kadubisanahalli-Bellandur bit became the chosen epicenter : but so it was. You name most of the big foreign banks and their services/development center was set up there. Every top software company set up shop too. Given top honcho's inclination to not waste their time in traffic most of them perhaps started looking for places around their office. THat is how perhaps a lot of "high-end" projects came into being. You name any big head of any company in that area, they would be living in 2-3 of those high-end residential products. (Thrown in US returned folks with loads of money trying to spend "those" years of their kids in India investing in and around those areas as they did top jobs in these firms). It didn't matter that many companies actually bought and built offices all around the Bellandur lake and the massive Rajakaluve ( that is hardly visible today, thanks to all the high rise walls etc ) at Kadubisanahalli, where the BWSSB plant is located today and thereabouts ).

The employees of these big employers obviously didn't want to travel from the extremities and therefore they started moving in closer, were willing to buy homes or rent at high values. I know a lot of people that moved in from Yelahanka, Sahakarnagar, Peenya etc paying rents of 40-50k even back in 2014. All this led to a lot of demand. There was no way people were going to commute for 2 hours to get their office. Those that didn't relocate, listened to music or watched movies on the office commute ( upto 2 hours sometimes ) and I'm guessing they will have defunct eardrums by now. Further, most companies felt that it would be easy to "poach" talent in and around the area. For a lot of employees working in this area ( and mostly staying nearby ), a change of job doesn't mean changing homes/relocating as all these employers are within 1-2 kms. All the construction activity brought blue-collared workers to that area too : housekeeping, hospitality, construction all of them rented places around all these areas to cover the other end of the spectrum. The 1 year I stayed in Marathahalli, it was a motley mix of people from all financial strata. Was fun living there ( no sarcasm ), including the late night police patrol and ambulance sirens. Would feel like I was in a high rise in the US with constant noise at night. IMHO, once all the nearby areas ( Marathahalli-Agara) belt filled, the natural expansion was on the Sarjapur road side. Varthur-Balagere wasn't to be left too far behind. This has led to the extreme demand and complete concretization of this area with many societies having 1000+ apartments in the Kadubisanahalli-Balagere-Varthur-Sarjapur Road belt. Everyone from these houses will have to get to Kadubisanahalli-Bellandur from all the villages around. And as @rajeevraj posted, there is no way to include meaningful 100ft roads in this belt as one or the other extremity will the blocker.

Lastly, this area is a ticking timebomb: traffic, water, stressed services; extraordinary amount of commercial activity: employers, pubs, restaurants; God knows what's in store. Replace Kadubisanahalli, Marathahalli etc with your favourite Halli and you can see the story in different parts of Bengaluru is exactly the same, except that the quantum leap in the area we are discussing is much more.

[shankar.balan]

Originally Posted by airguitar

. This has led to the extreme demand and complete concretization of this area with many societies having 1000+ apartments in the Kadubisanahalli-Balagere-Varthur-Sarjapur Road belt.
Lastly, this area is a ticking timebomb: traffic, water, stressed services; more.

Bellandur Lake/ Tank. Circa 1940’s. A Seaplane Testing Area.

Photo Credit: HAL Museum.

[The Falconist]

Originally Posted by airguitar

Lastly, this area is a ticking timebomb: traffic, water, stressed services; extraordinary amount of commercial activity: employers, pubs, restaurants; God knows what's in store. Replace Kadubisanahalli, Marathahalli etc with your favourite Halli and you can see the story in different parts of Bengaluru is exactly the same, except that the quantum leap in the area we are discussing is much more.

What saddens and disappointments the most is the amazing accuracy with which this phenomenon of predictable growth is matched with brazen non-planning in layout after layout. The latest one is the area around Budigere Cross. All the major builders have started inundating this area with massive residential projects. The 100"(ish) road that looks generously wide now is going to get flooded with anywhere between 20K to 50K flats and a proportionate number of vehicles. The Cross itself is a dead-ringer for a future (not so distant) Silk Board with narrow lanes on one side and a wide feeder on the other. Add to that around 4 major schools, water tankers (all residential projects approved post 2020 have a no borewell clause) and other assorted commercial traffic, this is a new Marathahalli in the making.

[puntra800]

Originally Posted by The Falconist

The Cross itself is a dead-ringer for a future (not so distant) Silk Board with narrow lanes on one side and a wide feeder on the other. Add to that around 4 major schools, water tankers (all residential projects approved post 2020 have a no borewell clause) and other assorted commercial traffic, this is a new Marathahalli in the making.

More than width of road I feel putting basic lane discipline and traffic discipline into peoples brains will solve all the issues. SFO has narrower roads but people are patient enough to wait for their turn. We are the same people who follow rules to the tee abroad but have a don't give a damn attitude in India. One thing in my opinion which has worked at least in SFO is the steep fines which are associated with traffic violations when the same was tried in India everyone cried foul.

[The Falconist]

Originally Posted by puntra800

More than width of road I feel putting basic lane discipline and traffic discipline into peoples brains will solve all the issues.

Combined force of adequate resources (road width, traffic cop numbers), enforceable rules, adoption of technology (automated fine levies and cancellation of license etc after a threshold of infractions is breached), drilling road sense from the school level onwards and parents/elders doing their bit to educate/discipline wards may bring about the desired results. We are where we are as each of the above (and many more factors, the list is long) has been a massive failure.

[oldcontessafan]

Originally Posted by The Falconist

The latest one is the area around Budigere Cross. All the major builders have started inundating this area with massive residential projects.

Budigere cross is unpliable after 6:30 in the evening, especially if you happen to come from airport or Whitefield side. I was approached by a channel partner selling a 'premium' property coming up right on the cross. As expected, this was at an exorbitant rate, and he did not mention anything about the traffic chaos that goes below the fly-over. I think the 2-way service lanes and general lack of discipline is unsolvable for this area, hence do not see the situation improving anytime soon.

[elroydsilva]

Originally Posted by airguitar

steadfastly stuck to my position and not giving them any undeserved space. Soon the inevitable happened : vehicles started coming in from the opposite direction.

I'm not proud of it, but I did the same thing this morning. A Seltos jumped the long queue that we were in and tried to merge in front of me. I normally let people in, but I wasn't in the best mood today and blocked the car completely. The lady in the car was very adamant that I give way, but decided not to even look at her. After multiple people got off their cars from the opposite lane, she finally had to back off and reverse to a point where she could find some room. It took 15 mins of blocking oncoming traffic for her to realize that she had to give up the fight.

The problem is - I didn't feel like I achieved anything. I would like to believe that the lady probably learnt a lesson, but I'm pretty sure that her behavior will stay unchanged. After driving a few meters ahead I could still see a lot of people continuing to jump the queue. I know it sounds cynical, but traffic in Bangalore is a lost cause and things cannot and will not improve.

[motorsan]

Here is a dashcam footage of the traffic I encountered at Panathur cross on Monday. It took me more than an hour to get through the place.

https://youtu.be/AYYj_bCN3RE?si=1IRGukltvD3IzDQJ

[Tutenkhamen]

Oh this is timely! I was checking this new residential project by Sobha somewhat deep inside Varthur (close to the Dream Acres) and the salesman was so trained, it was frankly impressive.
The guy had 3 kind of newspaper clips, photos on his phone ready. All about 100’+ roads and metros and whatnots. He was 123% confident that a railway over bridge would just get built asap LOL.

And while I drove there, I found this exact road where half a ton of 2 wheelers would just find it in their birth rights to go in the other lane, tackle incoming traffic and not raise a brow. Complete hell.
That apartment? I told the guy; hey even if you were giving it to me for free, I probably would still not see myself coming via that road
He was like; sir, you are missing out on this ‘opportunity’ and I thought thank the Gods that I am missing this opportunity.

[ShreyG]

https://www.timesnownews.com/bengalu...icle-108088770

In other news, Bangalore junta has praised for their relentlessness in paying taxes which is helping in developing infrastructure across the state and rest of the country.
And here we are struggling to cover 2 kms in 1 hr because of lack of infrastructure in addition to overall traffic indiscipline. Metro, road and suburban rail development is painfully slow and everyone is well aware of the water crisis plaguing the city
Currently sitting in NCR, I see the quality and vastness of the infrastructure available to travel from A to B (there are 3 metro station within 10 mins from where I am currently staying and even normal city roads are 4 lanes) and just think what exactly is lacking in Blr is will to improve and mentality to loot (read nonsensical tunnel roads and other such monstrosities)the golden goose.

[Rajeevraj]

Yesterday I took 35 min to cross a 700mtr stretch in the Sarjapur-Carmelaram-Panathur road area. No specific reason for the same. No breakdowns/accidents, very little wrong side driving, traffic cops doing their best. It is just the sheer volume of traffic on internal roads not meant to take that much traffic. This is a daily situation. I normally don't encounter it as when I am on bike, I can take further alternate routes through smaller roads(while disturbing the residents on those routes).

While the above is a regular rant, what scared me was the realization that somewhere in my mind, I felt taking 35 min for that stretch was ok. We are slowing getting conditioned to these abnormal times we spend on the roads. Wonder where we are headed.

[arun_sharon]

Originally Posted by motorsan

Here is a dashcam footage of the traffic I encountered at Panathur cross on Monday. It took me more than an hour to get through the place. https://Youtu.be/AYYj_bCN3RE?si=1IRGukltvD3IzDQJ

This is the exact location where the auto guys create a havoc. I never understand why auto needs to exempted from being stopped at both sides. One auto in the opposite direction is enough to slow down the entire stretch by 5 minutes minimum. Its commonsense not to allow any 3 wheelers from either side when the rest of the vehicles are stopped.
To add to it we have two wheelers superhero's who want to overtake each other for this 100 mt stretch ignoring the oncoming traffic