[volkman10]

Originally Posted by ankan.m.blr

Is the bus-strike happening today too ?

Seems so, pleasure to drive in the mornings without them

Cheers!

[arun_josie]

Result of Bus Strike. This was on Bannerghatta road near Hulimavu Juction. Saw another bus with around 30 people on top of it.

[binand]

Originally Posted by ulhas.ahirrao

A Puneites take on Bangalore Traffic...

Oh boy... I can only imagine what Pune's roads are, going by your assessment. I moved to Bangalore about 16 months back (from Mumbai); nothing could have prepared me for the utter lawlessness on Bangalore's roads.

[CLIX]

Originally Posted by mannubhai

Saw a rare sight a while back beneath my office in Sivaji nagar.

A cop wheel locked a Govt of India car parked under the no parking sign, left the notice and walked away. Kudos to that cop.

Kudos to the cop!;
[I sincerely hope his posting is still in BLR and not in some remote corner of some obscure district ]

I know of a case where this person I know was caught driving while on the cell. [Usual scene: Constable strolls up to window; SI watching from safe distance next to his bike]; Driver says "Sorry, my mistake!!"; Cop puzzled,( Thinking, "Moron which planet are you from? Indian Rupees 50 and off you go !!")
Big Cop (Short for "Sub Inspector") walks up. "Hmm, What seems to be the problem??!"; Little Cop (Short for Traffic Constable.)- "Oh nothing, The Honerable Gentleman in the car says sorry!".
Big Cop goes "This is the fisrt time someone is politely admitting his mistake and ready for the fine let him go!!"
There is hope ! (in same cases only I am afraid!)

[vinu_h]

Originally Posted by volkman10

Seems so, pleasure to drive in the mornings without them

Cheers!

I know you mean well, but this strike causes severe hardship and takes away the livelihood of many BMTC users. That picture of people perched atop a bus is so unfortunate.

Besides, traffic will worsen if BMTC users used their own transport instead.

[shreeps]

Originally Posted by ulhas.ahirrao

A Puneites take on Bangalore Traffic...

I moved to Bangalore a month back, after spending last 15 years in Pune. I traveled in my car/bike on Bellary Road, Cunningham Road, ORR, Kundanhalli, Airport and other parts of North Bangalore. Here is my take on the traffic here -

1. The traffic cops are REALLY active here. In Pune you would be lucky to see traffic cops even on the busiest of junctions at busiest time of the day. It actually took a while to get used to so many cops on the road
2. I am 100% sure there is less madness on the road, compared to Pune. Cabies, Bikers, Autos are better behaved than Pune for sure. They actually slowdown when pedestrian cross the road. In Pune they just come huraling down towards you like a maniac!
3. Honking is definitely less, for sure. People on the road are relatively patient here
4. Lane discipline is better. In Pune this concept does not exist. what's lane? are you kidding?

Even thought he number of vehicles are way too more in Bangalore, the traffic has much more sense to it when compared to Pune. (All views are relative to Pune traffic)

Here's a contrary view. I am a puneite who visits Bengaluru pretty often (almost every other month).
I agree that the cop presence is much more in Bengaluru and also the lane discipline point. But I dont agree to any of the other points. In fact, after my Bengaluru visits, I am much more tolerant of Pune traffic issues for a few days when I remember the chaos I encountered in Bengaluru.

I think the main problem is that there are just so many more vehicles on Bengaluru roads. There is no longer a concept of rush hour and non rush hour. The traffic is heavy almost throughout the day. </end rant>

EDIT: I just had a thought: Native bengaloreans (hmm is that the right term?) can confirm but does it have to do with the routes you mentioned. Is there generally less madness on those roads (Bellary Road, Cunningham Road, ORR, Kundanhalli, Airport and other parts of North Bangalore)? Whereas my normal haunts when in Bengaluru are: Marathahalli, Koramangala, Jayanagar, MG Road, Raj Bhavan area, Mekhri circle, Sadashivnagar, Mysore Road etc.

[srishiva]

Originally Posted by shreeps

EDIT: I just had a thought: Native bengaloreans (hmm is that the right term?) can confirm but does it have to do with the routes you mentioned. Is there generally less madness on those roads (Bellary Road, Cunningham Road, ORR, Kundanhalli, Airport and other parts of North Bangalore)? Whereas my normal haunts when in Bengaluru are: Marathahalli, Koramangala, Jayanagar, MG Road, Raj Bhavan area, Mekhri circle, Sadashivnagar, Mysore Road etc.

shreeps, areas like Raj Bhavan, Sadashivanagar, Jayanagar and MG Road are better compared to the northern parts mentioned. Only Mysore Road (due to construction) has the slowest traffic. So I guess its all the same. I agree about honking which is very less relative to other cities.

[reswaran]

Originally Posted by ulhas.ahirrao

A Puneites take on Bangalore Traffic...

I used to think Bangalore traffic was horrible and I ranted about it whenever I could..until I visited Chennai. IMO, Bangalore traffic is way more organized than Chennai. The lack of patience there is abysmal! It's probably has something to do with the searing heat though..

[evilshantanu]

Originally Posted by volkman10

Seems so, pleasure to drive in the mornings without them

Cheers!

I dont think its a pleasure at all. This strike has just proved that there are so many Bangaloreans who use the public transport to work. All the roads are jam packed now, thanks to incresed number of vehicles on the road since yesterday .Sadly I am one of the regular users of Volvo (Vajra), as a result of this I see utter chaos on the outer ring road. Wonder what is stopping the impotent Karnataka Government to invoke ESMA

[ajmat]

A 30 min trip from Brookefields to Domlur to 90 minutes today for me

[sumannandy]

I have been to many bigger cities in India and USA and Bangalore traffic is way more better than many, if not all. As rightly noted, honking is definitely lower. Try to be in Kolkata for that matter. For lane discipline, in many cities like Kolkata, what is a lane? People maintain couple of inches of gap between vehicles.

Regarding traffic, I can still reach from one part of Bangalore to another part within 1 hour for most of the time. I used to drive very frequently from J.P.Nagar to near Kamannahalli in peak hours and it used to take me about 1 hour to an hour and half. The other day I reached Orion mall from South end circle in half an hour. ANd I am not a fast driver necessarily. Try that in any other cities like Kolkata. In Seattle, where I lived for long, the freeway used to be full of bumper-to-bumper traffic if you leave after 7 in the morning.

The only real problem that I encountered:

1. Sometimes people try to squeeze others but in general I felt the level of expertise of drivers here for doing so is less, may be because there are many new drivers. And they would not stop either to let others pass. So it is not uncommon to get a gridlock in unmanned intersection. In a city like Kolkata, where drivers drive rashly without lane discipline, gridlock is not common as they usually find their way around it and give way if they can't make it.

2. Some people here are determined to make you stop and teach you a lesson. This happens more if you are driving a small car and do not know Kannada. The other day while I was maintaining legal speed limit in an inner road, an Innova came behind me tailgating with headlights and horn, remained there for 20 secs or so, came parallel on left and the driver was asking me to stop for another 20 secs driving in parallel which was dangerous by itself. I did not bother to stop, frustrated, he drove off.

3. People, specially cab drivers will honk at you and try everything when you are driving slow on bad roads. But enough said about cab drivers anyways.

[mannubhai]

Originally Posted by binand

Ultimately it all boils down to the lack of an overarching vision for Bangalore, I guess. .

Thats the right take. I came to Bangalore first in 1996 for my first job. Returned in 2005 to almost settle down here. In that 9 years or so, I came to banglore as a visitor many times, and was witness to the change . What used to be a retirement paradise, turned out to be the IT capital. The slow/calm/cozy/cold city, suddenly turned into a fast forward mode. Nothing could prepare the city for that.

But what they are doing it now, is un acceptable. Be it be the ORR or Devanahalli road. Building up a new road spending hundred/thousands of crores and digging it up all over again to build a new road is no JOKE. Do we even have road planners ? I dont think so! Cos, if some one could not foresee the requirement of a underpass/flyover to connect Yelahanka town/Old yelahanka to airport road with out a signal, he needs to be sent back to a primary school.

Originally Posted by ulhas.ahirrao

A Puneites take on Bangalore Traffic...

Im relieved, that someone atleast has a different opinion about bangalore. Though I disagree, having been to Pune few times and having got "stuck"in the traffic there. Nothing can be compared to the chaos to Bangalore traffic. The unprecedented nature of what pops up where is what makes us so unique.

Originally Posted by CLIX

Kudos to the cop!;

Big Cop goes "This is the fisrt time someone is politely admitting his mistake and ready for the fine let him go!!"
There is hope ! (in same cases only I am afraid!)

I was waved in by a constable under the HSR flyover some time back. I had my mobile in hand, and had disconnected a call as I was driving. ( I was not talking on phone). The cop felt I was on mobile. I stopped . He comes down and asks me if i was on a call. I showed him my call register, and by then he is joined by the SI. SI asks me if Im a local. I said, no Im from Kerala . He tells the Constable in Kannada, " No wonder, he stopped !!! "

[sandsun7]

Update from Bangalore Traffic Police through facebook:
"From midnight today, there will be a BWSSB work near forum mall (tavarekere side) on Hosur Rd... Commuters are requested to AVOID this stretch till tomorrow evening."

[arun_josie]

Huge traffic jam towards NICE Road junction from Meenakshi Temple/Mall. Saw couple of ambulance rushing in that direction as well, hope its not something serious.

[Parthasarathig]

Today can go down as one of the worst days in the history of Bangalore's traffic. Every bit of road from Mg to Brigade to Richmond and Malleshwaram and Yeshwantpur and Mekhri circle. Every centimeter of road was crowded. What a terrible day. The only saving grace for me was the movie Barfi

Also had a taste of those notorious TTs driven by Infants cabbies. All the indicators and brake lights were absent and the bus kept changing lanes. Similarly a new innova tried to bully me out of my lane however the look on his face was worth a million bucks when he saw my lane clear faster and I disappeared into the sunset