[yogie]

Originally Posted by dass

One way distance of about 10kms, and more often than not I use my bike and it takes about 2 hours on good days. If I take the car, another 45 mins to be added. This for a 10am to office and 4pm from office journey, from Kundalahalli to Domlur.

Damn! Thats pretty much a straight road. I feel you though. My commute too is 10 kms (bommanahalli to domlur) and it takes me 75 to 90 minutes.

[gtonsing]

Originally Posted by Secretariat

It was wheelie mayhem today morning on the Airport Road and beyond. Some hundred guys doing wheelies on their two wheelers and many hundreds more taking photos of these stunts on a National Highway with fast moving traffic. Wheelies while weaving in and out between cars, sudden acceleration and stopping in the middle of the highway, jumping all the red lights, of course and doing abrupt U turns right against the traffic. One idiot even came straight at me at high speed on the wrong side doing a wheelie while I was on my cycle at the extreme left of the shoulder on the road (I have never been more terrified and I really thought I had it today).

Sporting the tricolour on your bike apparently gives you a carte blanche to do all this. No policeman was in sight, obviously.

Festivals and occasions have become days of general licence to misbehave. Alas

We had gone to Nandi hills on 15th as it was one of the few days all of us had a holiday and these wheelie guys were in dozens. One of them barely missed my car.
And because the parking area in Nandi hills was full, we had to spend close to 1 hr stopping on the hairpin bends, complete stop.

[dass]

Originally Posted by yogie

Damn! Thats pretty much a straight road. I feel you though. My commute too is 10 kms (bommanahalli to domlur) and it takes me 75 to 90 minutes.

Straight road, absolutely yes. However the surface quality on this stretch will make any other road look butter smooth. Imagine this, at certain places, there are 3 layers of patch work and then a pothole on top of it This stretch needs a very urgent new layer of road, not patchworks. The local administration has been missing in action for the past 15 years, so no help in the near future as well.

[Krish_Diesel]

Hello Everybody,

I’ve been driving in Bangalore for over 15 years and have used the same route for my daily commute to work for the past 4 years. Despite many changes aimed at improving traffic, the situation still feels much the same. I can provide more details if needed, and you can add your own observations.

Every day, I commute from KR Puram to Mahadevapura and use the ITI gate underpass. It’s quite congested and only fits two-wheelers, passenger autos, and cars, as it's blocked off for large vehicles due to its location under a railway track. Originally, the underpass was a two-way lane, allowing traffic to move in both directions, including four-wheelers. Because it's so congested and drivers often ignore lane discipline, they end up creating extra lanes, which leads to severe traffic jams. It usually extends for over 2 kilometers, all the way to the KR Puram bridge.

Over six months ago, the police decided to make the underpass one-way, allowing only bikes and autos to enter while restricting four-wheelers from KR Puram Railway Station or Tin Factory. This was a great move and has now made the lanes free-flowing for vehicles heading towards Mahadevapura.

So, what’s the expectation? Ideally, traffic should flow smoothly without any issues. However, despite the changes, our traffic discipline hasn’t improved. The congestion and jams are still as bad as before, and the situation hasn’t gotten any better.

The police took a positive step by adding cement barricades a few meters before the turn to improve traffic flow and minimize disruptions. This has helped traffic move more smoothly. However, since rule-following remains a challenge, drivers still create three lanes and compete for space at the barricades. Despite shifting the median further ahead, the situation hasn't changed much.

The problem is that as cars approach the turn, bikers often think it’s a free left turn for them and don’t give way, forcing cars to stop. Meanwhile, autos coming from the right side sometimes get too close, giving a warning that they’ll bump into the car if they’re not let through.

Obviously car walas are worried about their cars and its obvious because its going to cost them a lot.

The traffic police are at a loss for solutions. The main issue is our lack of patience and lane discipline. Two- and three-wheelers often take advantage of gaps, causing delays for everyone, even if it seems like a small inconvenience to them. This lack of consideration adds up and creates significant traffic jams.

The reality is, we don’t seem to deserve better roads or rules. Many people are always in a rush and won’t leave home 5-10 minutes earlier to avoid delays. We waste taxpayer money on infrastructure like expressways, but our speed and traffic discipline don’t improve. Despite having expressways, our speed limits are at 100 km/h which is our failure to follow rules. I fear that things will stay this way for a long time, and I might retire without seeing any real change.

Please let me know your thoughts as well.

[It's Magic]

Originally Posted by Krish_Diesel

Please let me know your thoughts as well.

Traffic jams are everywhere, and yes, we do spend a lot of time in these jams. There are multiple reasons for traffic jams, including our indiscipline and 'Chalta hai' attitude.

In my opinion, there will always be traffic jams irrespective of how many express ways, wider roads, flyovers, or underpasses we construct for one simple reason: there is just too much vehicular traffic on the road than it's capacity. If we have double or triple the number of vehicles on the road than it's capacity, controlling or managing traffic would be a big task for law enforcement. To avoid traffic jams, I think it's important to first make efforts to reduce traffic on the road.

The first step would be improving public transport and creating more options for public transport like metro, bus, rikshaw, cab etc. We have to create a good network of cheap and easily accessible public transport as it would encourage people to use it. Why would people use private vehicles when they have multiple cheap public transport options available 24/7?

Once public transport is improved and private vehicle traffic on the road is reduced, even authorities can manage traffic better and have better control over traffic, which would reduce the chances of traffic jams.

[asingh1977]

Two wheelers are the biggest nuisance on our roads. Most wrong side, jumping signals, closing into gaps, aggressive driving, selfish non-yielding behavior is exhibited by two wheelers. Now its norm to drive with rear mirrors removed, or inverted. How the heck can they drive. Delete 2 wheelers, a major issue of traffic stupidity will vanish overnight.

Yes, we deserve jams.

[yogie]

Originally Posted by dass

... Imagine this, at certain places, there are 3 layers of patch work and then a pothole on top of it This stretch needs a very urgent new layer of road, not patchworks. ....

Layers you say. At Koramangla water tank junction, they have dug up the road for building the flyover. I could see some 7-8 layers

[vignesh.cv]

Been riding/driving in Bangalore close to 20yrs now. The traffic density has multiplied many folds now. The road conditions I felt were a lot better back then when compared to the current conditions. I remember riding in the inner ring road from Koramangala to Indiranagar back then and was like wow. Not anymore. Barring a few stretches, most roads have terrible surface quality and this in my view is the biggest reason for the traffic getting piled up. There is this bridge connecting both the shores of the Bellandur lake that has been in the works since many years. Even now, only the bridge surface is concrete. The entry and exit ramps are just filled with soil and broken stones, and during heavy rains this gets washed out leaving the vehicles stranded as they have to navigate a very narrow area for fear of getting the wheels stuck. One cannot even maintain a steady 45-50kph as there are broken patches and undulations everywhere. You don't even need to enforce 30kph speed limit within city with these kind of roads.

In my view, if the road quality can be fixed to a greater extent (irrespective of heavy rains or not), then the traffic will flow smoothly despite the heavy density. The other would be to install traffic signals with countdown timers everywhere. Goes a long way to ease the flow of traffic. Policemen manning honestly just doesn't work well. The so called speed breakers also are a menace, many of them have potholes on either the entry or exit so vehicles slow down a lot more or have to maneuver around causing disruption to vehicles behind.

[yogie]

Originally Posted by Krish_Diesel

Hello

Please let me know your thoughts as well.

You are absolutely right. If only people followed lane discipline, half of the traffic delays would be reduced.

Another problem is uneven road width. At St. John’s signal and Bommanahalli signal, there are like 5-7 lanes trying to merge into 2-3 lanes.

[MightyHorse1188]

Hey fellow BHPians from Bangalore!

Im fairly new on this forum and glad to see a dedicated topic to rant about the Bangalore Traffic Situation. As a proud bangalorean, I have always been disheartened with both the pathetic condition of the roads and the impatient/bad drivers of Bangalore.

I haven't had enough opportunity to vent out my frustration in this aspect, so expect a lot from me here

Also interesting to see this topic is fairly old since 2006 with 1001 pages and counting! I sincerely hope this page can become irrelevant and a document of history in the foreseeable future, i.e, most of our lifetimes!

Cheers to that!

[condor]

Originally Posted by yogie

Layers you say. At Koramangla water tank junction, they have dug up the road for building the flyover. I could see some 7-8 layers

That is normal. These are not new roads, and over the decades, layers have been added over the base

[MightyHorse1188]

Originally Posted by vignesh.cv

Been riding/driving in Bangalore close to 20yrs now. The traffic density has multiplied many folds now. The road conditions I felt were a lot better back then when compared to the current conditions. I remember riding in the inner ring road from Koramangala to Indiranagar back then and was like wow. Not anymore. Barring a few stretches, most roads have terrible surface quality and this in my view is the biggest reason for the traffic getting piled up. There is this bridge connecting both the shores of the Bellandur lake that has been in the works since many years. Even now, only the bridge surface is concrete. The entry and exit ramps are just filled with soil and broken stones, and during heavy rains this gets washed out leaving the vehicles stranded as they have to navigate a very narrow area for fear of getting the wheels stuck. One cannot even maintain a steady 45-50kph as there are broken patches and undulations everywhere. You don't even need to enforce 30kph speed limit within city with these kind of roads.

In my view, if the road quality can be fixed to a greater extent (irrespective of heavy rains or not), then the traffic will flow smoothly despite the heavy density. The other would be to install traffic signals with countdown timers everywhere. Goes a long way to ease the flow of traffic. Policemen manning honestly just doesn't work well. The so called speed breakers also are a menace, many of them have potholes on either the entry or exit so vehicles slow down a lot more or have to maneuver around causing disruption to vehicles behind.

Originally Posted by yogie

You are absolutely right. If only people followed lane discipline, half of the traffic delays would be reduced.

Another problem is uneven road width. At St. John’s signal and Bommanahalli signal, there are like 5-7 lanes trying to merge into 2-3 lanes.

Couldn't agree more on this! Firstly lane discipline solves half the problem IMO
Some of my observations:

1.Most traffic signals are inefficient especially when there is a free left or a green signal for going straight. All the traffic that has to turn right blocks all the lanes, that is my biggest pet peeve on the roads! (Eg: Khoday's circle near City Railway Station, Minsk square circle turning from infantry road towards Cubbon Road/Chinnaswamy stadium, Sadashivnagar police station signal, etc)

The most obvious example of this can be noticed at the Hebbal junction of the ORR, when you are driving from Yeshwantpur towards Hebbal on the outer Ring road and make a left turn towards the airport road, there is a separate lane which allows you to access a slip lane to enter airport road, however that gets blocked especially during peak hour by impatient drivers intending to continue straight on the ORR towards KR Puram. Since they have to wait longer to cross the Hebbal junction, they feel entitled/smarter by jumping the queue entering the left most slip lane and continuing straight!

2.Bottlenecks caused both due to unscientific lane designs and people forming more lanes than actual lanes(Notoriously common with 2 wheelers in most roads) and cutting you off eventually slows traffic for everyone making the traffic flow inefficient.My hypothesis is that if everyone drove behind each other at a reasonable constant speed in a single lane, that would be faster than the status quo where authorities think widening roads and adding lanes is the holy solution.

3. Not enough signages to warn people about lane deviations/narrowing/widening and lack of easy to read Direction boards, leads to people not planning their lane change in advance or even cause them to halt all of the sudden.

4.Bad response times for people to move from traffic signals, most people switch off the engines, and sometimes even worse, badly maintained vehicles breakdown and people queued up behind just get stuck behind, adding to the strain from the points 1-3 which are present by default.

To summarise properly designed roads and preventing drivers from unnecessarily overtaking or cutting lanes and being present in the wrong lane will save significant precious minutes from each of our's lives in a day on Bangalore roads.Of course this is fairly naive and Bangalore roads/ traffic problem is lot more complex and there are lot many dependent problems to be solved at tangent.

Some of these issues have hit me hard after driving in several places abroad.That is where I realised it isn't rocket science to understand the fundamental traffic rules like using indicators, right of way, yielding etc. Driving in most first world countries is almost stress free even during peak hours, and I feel the traffic system functions there mostly because people undergo stringent driving lessons before they can be granted a driver's licence and they are expected to know every traffic signage and rule applicable.

Whereas here none of that is followed properly and enforcement of the traffic rules are very weak.Im pretty sure majority of Indian drivers are not even aware of some basic traffic principles, ignoring their lack of courtesy and respect for other road users.

Pathetic but the unfortunate fact

[MightyHorse1188]

Hope Im allowed to share YouTube video links here.

Found an old footage of traffic in MG road from 2000. The traffic volume is definitely only a fraction of what is present today! What I appreciated the most is hard medians were not necessary back then, I didn't notice any oncoming traffic breaching the centre white lane and blocking the other side, which would definitely happen in today's MG road without any median:(

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7lzxySiHJU

Enjoy the Nostalgia

Cheers!

PS - How many of you here use dashcam in your cars? Highly recommended for regular drivers in Bangalore.

[LordSharan]

Originally Posted by Krish_Diesel

Please let me know your thoughts as well.

I'm a fellow sufferer (traveller) since I take this underpass everyday to work, travelling to Bagmane Constellation Technology Park from TC Pallya. I couldn't agree more with your plight, and this is one of those places with un-predictable congestion - can build up any point of time, without any reason as well. The traffic police has reacted myoscopically and reactively to the situation here, and see the points below to understand why-


1. Making this one way was a good decision - Traffic Police (TP) thought why not restrict the traffic of 4W from one side, that could probably ease up - but 2-wheeler and 3-wheeler traffic is still allowed from the side coming from KRpuram going to ITPL, which leads to snarls.

2. Placing concrete barricades was another reactive but good move - TP saw that people coming from opposite direction are leading to traffic snarls - why not force lane discipline - little did they know who they were trying to preach.

3. No one's ever thought of why the traffic builds up - this is because of a major design flaw - and the engineer who lacked this foresight should burn his/her degree - there's a huge traffic coming from OMR (from hoskote side) - which has clear exit to ORR on hebbal side via the flyover, but does not have any exit to ORR on marathalli or ITPL road side. Did the engineer think that the railway line would cease to exist? Just because of this, all small vehicles are forced to take the congested and narrow underpass. You'd see 4-5 lanes merging into one where the concrete road begins parallel to the railway track.

4. Traffic jams exist because of so many stupid reasons - just because a biker refused to cross the underpass because it is flooded, or a tempo with higher load somehow ventured to this road.

Due to this underpass - I've changed my office routine - I reach work by 8am, and leave by 3pm to avoid the traffic. i usually leave by 7.15am from my home, and I kid you not - every 5 mins of delay in me leaving home, adds to 15 mins of delay in my commute time. Ideally I should be spending 30 mins in my 4W to reach office, on good days it takes 45mins, and on bad days it has taken 1hr 45mins.

This is not just one underpass - it's government's apathy and citizen's "Chalta hai" attitude to vote corrupt people to power, that leads to such bad infra. We middle class, tax paying folks are the one's who suffer the most

[shamanth]

Looks like public taking law into their own hands, throwing Wheelie scooters from the top of flyover.

https://www.instagram.com/karnatakap...l/C-xOl10vnf0/