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-   -   Traffic and life on the roads in Chennai (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/street-experiences/68789-traffic-life-roads-chennai-106.html)

This city is getting from bad to worse. There is absoloutely no discipline from anyone and I think this is because of the corruption in the establishment. If every city in the country can enforce seatbelts, helmets, auto-meters, not speaking on cell-phones, not blatantly going down one-ways and so many basic rules without any exception - In Chennai our lame government cant enforce one.

I have seen fools creating major road blocks because they have stopped on the roadside to speak on their phones. Any lowlife with a political flag can get away with jet-black sunfilm and never get stopped. Our judges and successful-advocates have followed the sunfilm ban - the government in to blame for the deteriorating state of TN roads.

Not to mention that people are also dumb to prefer to keep greasing the system with petty bribes. I have crystal clear 3m sunfilm on my car for which I have been stopped thrice! Talk about hypocrites! If only educated, cultures like-minded people had a voice - I really wish some good platform for change comes our way. We are headed towards anarchy on the roads.

Couldnt agree with you more, Why not seat-belts and helmets are not yet compulsory in Chennai? When Helmet rule came in, There were people came up and shout its not suited for hot weather city like Chennai :Frustrati.

Add to that we pay toll to use OMR to go to work and we shamelessly pay and not strike untill the toll is removed.

I strongly believe OMR does not deserve toll.

We should blame ourselves to adjust and pay knowing it is only "600" rupees.

Both are compulsory here for years now. Just that enforcement is lax which means people don't bother. Other cities enforce it and so people follow the rule. Eg. in Kerala, they are very strong in enforcing helmets, seat-belts, sun-films & drunken-driving and this has been a strong deterrent. Once enforcement is stepped up in Chennai, things will get better here too.

To be fair to the law-enforcers, the law says "no sunfilms". So irrespective of brand/type/clarity, they are within the law to flag you. BTW, if yours is clear sunfilm and they still are able to make it out visually and flag you down, they seem to be doing a great job of detection. Ofcourse agree with you that the politicos seem to get away with dark film which is unfair.

Cochin is a city that I visited last week after a long time.

I was amazed at the quality of roads, lane discipline, generally good road manners and other good practices being followed across the various segments of society in their vehicles.

For example, on at least three separate occasions on different days, in different places, on my visit, the whole line of traffic slowed down, made way for others to come to the left, and themselves moved to the left, when an ambulance was coming along from behind, in order to give the ambulance right of way!

I observed less honking and far better behaviour than I have seen over these last so many years in Bangalore.

The Cochin road users appear to be far more civilised than those in Bangalore and we Bangaloreans can certainly learn a lot from them.

In simpler terms, we tend to have more apes/primates that ride bikes or drive cars these days. It usually used to happen only in circus tents. It is either a case of deforestation or the circus industry going bust.

hmm thats being harsh to primates or apes. They would wear seatbelts, helmets, have no affiliation to any political party (? no?). And they can atleast see the order of lights even if color blind(?).

Educated do not need enforcement.

Wanted to report an incident of absolutely disgusting behaviour of Chennai cops that I encountered today.

I was driving back home after work, cruising at just about 40, listening to Ilaiyaraja melodies on the stereo and really enjoying the drive. I was approaching the Harrington Road junction from Sterling Road. The road ahead of me was clear and I was aware that a Scorpio was tailing me both of us doing speeds of 40 only. The signal was green as I passed it and turned to amber "AFTER" i crossed the stop line. However, before I could cross the entire section onto the road leading to Chetpet bridge, a group of 10-12 pedestrians started crossing over from Harrington Road side onto Spur Tank Road a good 20 metres from the stop line. Since I noticed them coming from a distance and since I was at 40, I stopped and allowed them to cross. The Scorpio pulled alongside my car and stopped as well and only now did the signal turn red. 2 cops came over, one to my car and another to the Scorpio and asked us to pull over to the side. The Scorpio driver pretended to pull over but gave the cop the finger and drove away after hurling abuses at him. As a dumb law abiding citizen, I was caught with the cops...2 constables and a sergeant who claimed that I crossed the stop line when the signal was red. I was LIVID as all 3 of them clearly saw the signal turning red only after I stopped to let the pedestrians cross. No amount of convincing those guys helped as they were determined to make money out of me. Left with no option and no passersby who had witnessed the incident I had to concede to them and pay a fine of Rs.500 for which they issued a challan as well stating stop line violation. They didnt give me an option to take the challan and pay in the mobile court as well and said I could not move my car without paying.

While handing over the money and taking the challan, I told them on their faces that the criminals in chennai were nowhere else but right at traffic signals waiting to take innocent law abiding citizens for a ride. The sergeant, with impunity asked me to take the challan and leave else he would issue another challan for dangerous and rash driving :eek:

A great day ended on a sour note and I am left fuming at the turn of events.

Are we at the mercy of these rogues in police uniform ? Isnt there anything at all that we can do ???

Corrupt thugs. They are fit to hide behind bushes on tolled bypass roads and enforce a 40kmph ridiculous speed limit and catch people doing 41kmph. Or catch people like you to extort some cash. Not to enforce law real time and treat all on the road equally.

Be careful the next time. Lesson learnt. These rouges took some cash from me while I was exiting Saidapet arch saying that it was a no entry. How dumb a reason is that? I asked for the sign board and he shows me the 'overtaking prohibited' sign on mount round. Just then a bolero exited and I ask him what about this? He says it is coming from inside the government building, from the same road from which I exit, hence no problem.

I LOL at him and knew from where he is coming. Threw the dog some biscuits and continued on my way. After all, that was what he was looking for. There are few good cops too, no offense meant to those souls.

BTW, this so called traffic law enforcer was not even a sergeant nor did he have any challans. We have to be extra careful during month ends.

On a lighter note. This is what happens when majority of the motorists in your city also hold a Driving License from Dubai. lol:

I think a car mounted camera which records everything may be the only solution going forward.
Perhaps it can have enough memory to record for a week or so and then be erased and reset.
If there can be a central database where one can deposit these videos according to subscriber car number it would be great.
The only other way is street cameras but in India at least those are a distant dream.

Shankar

I was there in bangalore couple of weeks back. Surprised to see people following lane rules, wearing helmets. Honking was lesser infact very less compared to here in chennai and also found cabbies driving perfectly. Overall i was very relaxed while driving.:)

Yes i agree but do we have a choice??
Looking at all chaos in the OMR,this toll is not at all justified.
In fact these toll plazas adds to the already existing traffic woes.

I think it is time we started investing in dash mounted cameras as they do in Russia. I think going forward we are also moving forward to situation in Russia where everyone takes care of only themselves and does not trust Law Enforcement to help them out.

As a Madrasi driving in south India , I noticed that Cochin traffic has a better road sense than any other city. Bangalore is actually not far behind. In Goa - people honk less. The worst city is Chennai. The only saving grace is other things being equal - people are not violent. Or else with the chaos - you will hear of lots of road rage. And the traffic cops in chennai are probably the worst.

I have gone through one way roads unwittingly -following my antiquated GPS maps in many other cities - Bangalore, Mysore, Cochin, Goa, etc and I wasn't charged even once. They stopped me rarely and warned me that as I am a tourist - they are letting me getaway this time only.

Amazing. Which part of Bangalore? I can tell you Koramangala and all outlying suburbs are in a mess!