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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-64.html)

True. This is was one hell of a ride. I take this route daily for my office commute and that particular evening it almost took me an hour to cross this zone and rest of the distance was covered in 15 mins flat. Even the buses were disappearing in the small pit ( should i say small enough to eat up a bus .).

Irony is as per the rule book it is "Keep Left" but in chennai roads it is better to "Keep right" .

I had my worst nightmare on that day. to drive 23 kms to my office it took me 4.5 hours. and while returning it took me 2.5 hours. For the next couple of days i was bedridden with chest congestion because of the pollution in the traffic. I will never forget 4th of nov.

Actually there was a helpful soul (Corpn employee?) who was standing in the knee-deep water near one such invisible big pit, directing motorists away from it. I am not sure what would have happened if he were not there. Also not sure what happened after he left.

Since I take this road on my return from work, I would also have got stuck. But that day I crossed that part early (4:30PM) and so escaped the torture you guys went through. As I come down the Kathipara flyover, I see traffic held up on the right and water on the left. I am thinking, there goes my chance of catching the train. But luckily traffic moved on the right of the road and I crossed it without issues, though at some places I felt the car's exhaust would go under water.

Keep to the left? In my early days of Chennai driving, I tried this. One thing that happened was that I knocked a bucket out of a pedestrian's hand on the ECR. Asking myself, "What if it had been a child?" I moved right and have stayed there ever since. :eek:

This was what was supposedly taught to us. But irony as you said is we cannot take the risk of driving on the left lane. More over, Auto walas in chennai has no lane discipline irrespective of whether right or left.

I always take the right lane and tend to stick on to it if i am driving straight or right. If there is a left which needs to be taken i do tend to move to the left lane and thats when these morons who try to over take from the left pose a threat.

Chennai Govt has announced an Integrated Traffic Management System (First of its kind in India with international standards itseems). The name looks pretty cool, but I have no idea what it means. I wish this does some good to the chennai traffic.

I'm sorry, but if you stick to the right, what choice do others have- than to overtake from the left? How do they become morons?

I was used to kerala's 2 lane roads and sticking to left policy. But in chennai, as you said- its better to stick to the right, and use left lane for overtaking/ moving out of others way.

Sorry for the confusion. The morons i refer to are the ones who when we are on the left lane try to squeeze themselves and over take from the left. It does not mean the vehicles that pass by on the left lane when we are on the right lane.

Hope this clarifies.

The Hole is back :deadhorse

Not any old hole; not one of the thousands of potholes texturing Chennai's roads just now, but the hole. The R K Mutt Road hole outside Swamy's publishers.

I noticed the dip in the tarmac reappearing a couple of weeks ago, and now it seems to have collapsed.

For goodness sake, how much technology does it take to mend a drain so it stays mended and lay the road on top of it so it doesn't disintegrate into a pit every year! :Frustrati

Had a weekend drive to pondichery. ECR seems to be in the same excellent condition as ever! Loved it!

Velachery junction has become a nightmare though! But, overall - the roads are a lot better than what i am used to - in kerala. Hence, no reason to complain - yet! :)

I call that road the Roller coaster road! It is never possible to do speeds more than 30 KMPH no matter what time of the day. I used to long for news from papers for any hapless drunk soul who tried to do 60-70 KMPH on that road in the night and ending up in the second floor of houses on that Road lol:

Come on guys, stop cribbing and buy a jeep. lol: Enjoy the rains while it lasts.:)

Tell you what, not a jeep ... but I'd buy a Yeti if I had the money. Apart from the price, and the thought of dealing with Skoda, I think it might be the perfect Chennai car.

The ECR (my bit, Thiruvanmiyur to Palavakkam) is in a dreadful state, and while other roads to being announced as having upgrades to "world class" (I hate that term, first because it's meaningless and second because it implies Indian-class is not good enough) the ECR is ignored.

"They" say, no road digging before rains, and "they" did just that (Metro water, I think) without bothering to lay anything even resembling tar afterwards.

rant... rant... rant... :Frustrati

Good as the ECR is (at least from the point where I join it from Kelambakkam route), have you tried the Tindivanam route recently? The road from Tindivanam to Pondy is excellent and ECR is no comparison. No oncoming vehicles and no share autos to bother about!

Today morning, as usual from my home reached the Kotturpuram main road and took a left turn, lot of police personnel were deployed and you were permitted to travel only in half of the road....
On reaching the end of the road I have to take a right turn to Guindy, instead I was asked to proceed to Adayar...
Checked up with the police man standing there, just asked what is the reason for diversion... by slowing the vehicle I should not have asked any thing...
His answer was "Go and complain wherever you want" don't slow, just keep on moving....
A bad day... I blamed my self and wasted precious 15 more minutes by unnecessarily travelling upto Madhya Kailash and taking a U turn there to travel back to Cancer hospital...
Traffic lights were switched off in the police personnel deployed areas and the signals were manned manually...
I think the CM is taking this route to go to airport today to attend case at Bengaluru...

I don't know when the politicians will stop intefering in the comman mans routines... by stopping , diverting them, etc.. during peak hours
The same politican travelled in the same route without all these when they were not in power.
Today Unnecssary waste of time about 20 min...
Waste of precious fuel
Bad mood for the day after getting a harsh wording from the policeman....:Frustrati