[Soumyajit9]

Originally Posted by pratyush6

And the other day we were discussion why pedestrians behave in the manner that we car users loathe. I hope this instills some shame into road users.

Really Pratush !! I am surprised that you chose "Loathe" to define sentiments of motorists !!
loathe
verb
feel intense dislike or disgust for.
No one, and absolutely no one can take away the right of pedestrians. And no one loathes them. Situation of motorists and common sense of pedestrians differ.

It is equally important for the pedestrians to be careful of their environment, their own safety. Parag has already posted a video from his dashcam. I wish I install a dashcam to show you endless videos of pedestrians jumping infront of motorists. But I chose not to, because I do not have to prove to anyone (unless I am involved in an accident) that I gave preference to the pedestrian to cross.

This accident is an exceptional case, where pedestrians were run-over on a zebra crossing. But again, many questions are and will remain un-answered.
Like I questioned above, was the pedestrian signal green on this side ? why wasn't it green on the other side ?
Or was the pedestrian crossing red, and the people chose to cross over because there was no approaching vehicle ?

Originally Posted by sdp1975

The driver claims that his brakes failed . Since he descended from a flyover he could not control his speed either.

That is just a standard hoodwink.
Like many pointed out, there is a speed breaker, a signal and pedestrian crossing.
I am very much sure that he was aware of all these. Had he intended to stop, and not jump the signal, he would have applied brakes much earlier, or atleast done something else (deviate to the road side ditch) when he noticed brake failure.

Originally Posted by sandsun7

I cross this signal daily twice and for sure I can tel you, that there is no such arrangement/ occurrence where one side is red and other, green.
If you observe the video carefully, it looks like both the carriageways were having moving traffic. So in all possibilities, the signal was green for vehicles and red for pedestrians. Could it be a case of a group of pedestrians crossing when the signal was red for them and traffic was light?

Bingo Sandeep. I was wondering some similar possibilities. Happens all the time on our roads. Group crossing !!

And let me tell everyone, I have also been part of such group crossings, and have been a bad pedestrian also.

[sdp1975]

Originally Posted by Soumyajit9

That is just a standard hoodwink.

There can be truth in what he says.

I don't see a motive for him to ram and mow down several individuals, or not trying to stop when he saw those people.

No normal driver would do that intentionally, something must have gone wrong.

[pratyush6]

Originally Posted by Soumyajit9

Really Pratush !! I am surprised that you chose "Loathe" to define sentiments of motorists !!

Loathe is probably the wrong word - whine is the right one.

India needs to stop before a Zebra Crossing, we don't - our time is more precious, our lives are more precious than others. The attitude HAS to change.

Bangalore is a perfect example - most people are highly educated but highly ignorant. Just yesterday, I saw an OLA cab cutting across an Ambulance near AECS Layout, when the whole road had stopped for them.

What we don't realize is that even with such antics we might end up saving 10 minutes but endanger so many others. We put unnecessary pressure on ourselves and others.

I also think that all commercial vehicles and its drivers need to be checked routinely for fitness, both the man and the machine. We currently have psychopaths manning the wheels which turn into nothing but killing machines on the road.

PS. Comment on Group Crossing: Do you think any person in Bangalore waits for 2 people to cross the road? If they see a group, they stop - with grudges.

[nareshov]

Outcomes to expect after the water-truck incident:
- add more speed breakers there if not already present.
- if at all an elevated pedestrian crossing is built, expect it to be lying around largely unused/ignored

[dark.knight]

Originally Posted by pratyush6

Do you think any person in Bangalore waits for 2 people to cross the road? If they see a group, they stop - with grudges.

Here's my view and its simple - communication is the key reason society functions well, it brings about belief/trust over the other. This doesn't change in traffic either, I've had smooth experiences when vehicles/pedestrians communicate what they intend to do like for example a car cut right across an intersection where I had first right of way but the driver of that vehicle clearly gestured politely, his need to pass and I stopped in a relaxed manner to let him go. Indecisions due to poor communication are causing much of these incidents.

Likewise I promptly stop if there's even one person crossing a zebra line (this city has 1 or 2 of those at best). Also I don't mind stopping for anyone as long as they move smoothly across and a fair distance away (20-30 ft). The problem with pedestrians in this city is that most of them are magna-cum-laude from jaywalking university. They show no intention of moving until you get to hairs length from them and then they jump. Lets call them the immovable objects who dare to defy laws of physics. Now if you expect the trucks/buses/ tankers/pickups /cabs etc to stop for people to cross, there are better chances of trains stopping before these do, lets call them the unstoppable force.

What do you get when self-proclaimed "immovable objects" meet self-proclaimed unstoppable forces? The exact reasons for the above incident is not certain at all so I'm not trying to spread blame on any one in particular, but since you are familiar with the typical habits of our road users I'm sure you wont disagree with what I've said.

[srishiva]

One of the reasons for the illness in our society is the assumption that we are not really provided what we deserve. It applies to traffic. Pedestrians feel they are not provided fair chance to cross the road and motorists feel the same about roads, facilities etc. (which is all true)
So we take things on to our own selves and chaos, conflicts and accidents occur.

[paragsachania]

And Yes! This was expected. Protests after yesterday's accident ensured traffic in and around Hebbal was completely standstill for over an hour.

2 hours since I left home (Vidyaranyapura) I was still roaming within 4 kms radius.

On top of this, every single escape route too was jammed. Thanks to the monster private buses heading towards Chikkaballapura/Doddaballapura that entered some of the narrowest by lanes get away from this jam.

Look at the Jams on some of very narrow internal roads too due to the cascading effect of the protests at Esteem Mall.



I took a U Turn soon after I spotted stationary traffic atop KIAL expressway and soon checked Google maps and realised the jam should be due to protests (see how the traffic towards Airport is jammed right at the Esteem mall Pedestrian crossing and clear after that).

[mpksuhas]

Huge block near Kadubeesinahalli underpass on ORR due to temple festival.

[Rajeevraj]

Traffic lights installed below belandur flyover. Not functional yet. Considering the number of permutations and combinations of traffic flow under the flyover, it would be interesting to see how they manage the signals. Hope it does not end up increasing the chaos.

[etrast75]

Originally Posted by Rajeevraj

Traffic lights installed below belandur flyover. Not functional yet. Considering the number of permutations and combinations of traffic flow under the flyover, it would be interesting to see how they manage the signals. Hope it does not end up increasing the chaos.

The traffic lights will make the situation more chaotic. That intersection can only be controlled manually by a team of policemen . As you rightly said, no traffic algorithm is designed to handle the various permutations and combinations. Whoever came up with the design for the split arms of flyover and whoever approved it must be made to stand everyday and regulate the traffic as punishment.

[kiran_cr]

Originally Posted by etrast75

The traffic lights will make the situation more chaotic. That intersection can only be controlled manually by a team of policemen . As you rightly said, no traffic algorithm is designed to handle the various permutations and combinations. Whoever came up with the design for the split arms of flyover and whoever approved it must be made to stand everyday and regulate the traffic as punishment.

Monday will be actual UAT and Production run for the traffic lights. Lets keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best.

[whitewing]

Originally Posted by dark.knight

Likewise I promptly stop if there's even one person crossing a zebra line (this city has 1 or 2 of those at best).

, as one would expect from members of this forum.

Originally Posted by dark.knight

Also I don't mind stopping for anyone as long as they move smoothly across and a fair distance away (20-30 ft). The problem with pedestrians in this city is that most of them are magna-cum-laude from jaywalking university.

I think we need to distinguish between the 2 varieties of Jay Walkers.

a) Jay walking - in disregard to available traffic management systems. I guess your description is for this category.

b) Jay walking - in places where no traffic management system exist.
Prime example of such a thing is the Silk Board junction and the textile factories along Hosur road. Where there is no reasonable alternative to jay walking. So, people risk life and limb on a daily basis to just get across the road. In the circumstance, group crossing appears to give a better chance of success.

The worst part is at several places, there are pedestrian subways which are not operational.

[whitewing]

Yesterday while awaiting my turn on Nrupatunga road @Hudson circle signal, I noticed a whole load of lawyers on 2 wheelers travelling up from the Halsurgate police station into the Nrupatunga road. These blokes were travelling the opposite side of a one way, right in front of a bunch of cops manning the intersection.
And some of them appeared to get on to the footpath, couldn't quite see if they really went further on -on the footpath, or they just broke the one way rule (My vision was blocked by other vehicles).
From the looks of it, this was the normal 'way' to work .

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by whitewing

Yesterday while awaiting my turn on Nrupatunga road @Hudson circle signal, I noticed a whole load of lawyers on 2 wheelers travelling up from the Halsurgate police station into the Nrupatunga road. These blokes were travelling the opposite side of a one way, right in front of a bunch of cops manning the intersection.
And some of them appeared to get on to the footpath, couldn't quite see if they really went further on -on the footpath, or they just broke the one way rule (My vision was blocked by other vehicles).
From the looks of it, this was the normal 'way' to work .

This is a very common and "illegally right" occurrence since many years that happens right in front of cops' presence. Did you notice how most of these "lawyers" also ride without helmets.

[Chetan_Rao]

Though I condole the needless death of pedestrians, I don't agree with this 'protesting' nonsense that achieves nothing but widen the motorist-pedestrian frustration gulf.

Why didn't regular pedestrians on this section protest 'for' a sky-walk, instead of waiting till disaster struck and then protesting 'against' whoever they're targeting now? Anyone with 2 bits of grey cells can tell this spot was a disaster waiting to happen (same as the Ecospace crossing on ORR, I wonder if any of the thousands working there have ever thought of requesting a sky-walk either), but everyone continues to play chicken with traffic until one (or more) gets slaughtered, then indulge in meaningless angry protests for a couple of days before going back to playing chicken. What use is getting angry over an unnecessary death if we can't work towards preventing a recurrence? And how many of these pseudo-righteously indignant protesters will use a sky-walk regularly if one gets built?

Those killed shouldn't have been, but what next?