Mumbai-Pune Expressway

[CaliAtenza]

the mumbai-pune express highway is a work of art...easily comparable to a lot of interstate highways here in the states (boy im gonna miss driving those for the better half of the next 4 years..lol). Hell its better than the I5 through central/norcal (thats only 4 lanes..:( ). But the thing is..indian drivers need to learn how to drive on these roads and not to go crazy. I mean, its cool if people speed here in the states, cause they have the basic skills, well most people do, to drive on freeways and expressways. Hell i do like 80-90mph constantly here..and we have the CHP constantly patrolling. BTW, do the traffic cops in india use radar to check speeds? Cause if so..i could just buy a radar dector/jammer..hehehhe. A thing that could be done..is put Cay-Rails in the center divider..to compeltely close off both sides..so people cant cross and stuff. Yeah education needs to be done..on how to drive on expressways and stuff...then only will people learn. A lot of expressways here..have one seperate lane for trucks..maybe that could have been done..or at least make the busses and trucks keep to the far right. Im looking forward to drive on the mumbai-pune expressway..hopefully i have a fast enough car to do it...

[revvhed]

hi there
first off there's nothing wrong with the expressway per se, it's the drivers and the maintenance levels of the vehicles that cause the problems .. when the expressway was first designed they had posted a speed limit of 120 kmph .. this i think was the recommended speed limit by the agency that designed/built the road .. obviously this would have been a conservative limit .. after the spate of accidents the local authorities (probably under pressure from politicians) reduced the speed limit to 80 kmph .. I'm sorry but 80 kmph on the expressway is a JOKE .. the reason that they built a road like this was to facilitate faster travel and this is just a dumbing down of the whole process .. about sticking to the speed limit it has been proved in other parts of the world that if u give a motorist an unrealistic speed limit (read too slow) he will more often than not violate it but given a somewhat realistic speed limit he is more likely to abide by it .. 120 is a realistic limit considering the advancement in automobile technology and the kind of cars we now have access to .. i'd like to know how many of us really obey the 80 kmph limit .. and how many of u would obey the 120 kmph limit if so posted .. most of the accidents are caused due to improper maintnance, lack of driver's ed and sheer negligence .. please don't blame the expressway ..

[Steeroid]

Originally Posted by revvhed

first off there's nothing wrong with the expressway per se, it's the drivers and the maintenance levels of the vehicles that cause the problems .. .. please don't blame the expressway ..

Lets not get emotional about th expressway here - we should get emotional about the number of lives lost instead. If it means getting an independent evaluation of the expressway, so be it.

[Abhay]

Sunil, yes there have been a few accidents recently but I would suspect driver error and negligence is one of th main reasons for many of them.

A very basic thing is wearing your seat-belts.. but just check how many people drive at 100+ speeds w/o even wearing a seat-belt.

It just gets me mad, when people do not want to care for the most basic safety and driving rules (like indicating while changing lanes on the expressway) but are quick to moan about the bad roads and accident-prone nature of them.

[adya33]

A very basic thing is wearing your seat-belts.. but just check how many people drive at 100+ speeds w/o even wearing a seat-belt.

very true. i was going to mumbai couple of months ago in a cool cab & there was speed checking by police when he put on his seat belt & started moaning that it causes uneasyness!

[yeee_ha]

Originally Posted by Steeroid

Lets not get emotional about th expressway here - we should get emotional about the number of lives lost instead. If it means getting an independent evaluation of the expressway, so be it.

i think people are just not used to driving at those speeds also cars are not maintained properly,driver experience does matter everyone cannot be a schumacher,u need a car like his and the skill

[raul]

The funny thing is when you are entering the expressway from Pune, suddenly the road opens out from the 2 lane highway and everyone around you seems to momentarily lose it and its pedal to the metal. 2 minutes later around the first curve in its back to normal.

I travel a lot on the expressway and I haven't really seen crazy overspeeding. You do see some cars doing 140-160 but most seems to happily trot along at 100-120.

The important thing is our summers are becoming abnormally hotter every year so speeding at noon in summer on the expressway may not be the best idea. That should be common sense whatever car you drive. The other thing is the expressway has lots of spots where you need to be able to brake rapidly if necessary so unless you know the road well better to be at 100. The maintenance crew are also always working somewhere or the other and you don't want to suddenly face a lane closure drum or watering tanker doing 160-180.

In some places the police routinely enforce some sort of check on the trucks and cars in terms of road worthiness, tyre condition, lights. Some trucks here don't have lights on the back, this is just not acceptable on the expressway or any road for that matter. That's a huge risk for other motorists at night. Also the tyres need to be checked, some of the trucks and buses are in really bad condition. Drinking and driving is also an issue and some of the accidents especially with trucks are caused by this or dozing off and running into the side of the road.

[cyclops]

the worst turn is the end of expressway towards pune.. its almost a 90 degree turn and loads of accidents have happened there.. now these guys have padded it with old tyres and drums. pretty low-tech measure on a high-tech road.!

[GSMINC]

But still 80km speed limit on a modern age expressway is downright RIDICULOUS

[akshay1234]

Originally Posted by GSMINC

But still 80km speed limit on a modern age expressway is downright RIDICULOUS

well its fine considering quite a number of the cars that use it would be unsafe even at that speed. eg - the taxi indicas, sumos, m800s.

[VJ_MAVRICK]

Well! I think given the way most indians drive its a reasonable speed limit and having driven on it myself one is sure to touch 120-140KMPH easily. But again, its always better to restrict your speed instincts.

[Sam Kapasi]

Incredible TeamßBHPians. Someone revives a thread after 3 zears and everzone goes on talking without skipping a beat.

[GTO - Touring]

Originally Posted by GSMINC

But still 80km speed limit on a modern age expressway is downright RIDICULOUS

Correct, and the authorities know that. Its only because they have to please the political circles....remember, the expressway is part of Maharashtra. Do you know what would happen to an expressway that officially allows 120kph?! Let me give you an example of our political parties judgement (or lack of). In the past 72 hours, the reverred Bombay Scottish School, Bombay Dyeing (company owned & operated) showroom and the Bombay Stock exchange have been at the receiving end of mob fury. Why? Because they want these institutions to replace the "Bombay" in their names to "Mumbai". I could write a 5,000 word thread on this but Team-BHP rules prohibit me from discussing politics. Lets leave it here.

There is a reason that speed limits aren't really enforced on the expressway.

[rks]

Originally Posted by GSMINC

But still 80km speed limit on a modern age expressway is downright RIDICULOUS

As was already pointed out, this speed limit is calculated taking into account the poor condition of many of our vehicles. If you look at the history of the Expressway, the speed limit was initially intended to be 120 kmph. However, many accidents happened due to tyre bursts because most of our cars had old, worn-out tyres on them. Plus the poor maintenance of these vehicles due to ignorance/negligence/stinginess/etc. makes them very unsafe at higher speeds, taking into account the fairly sharp curves in many parts of the Expressway.

Another important factor is the rotten headlights on many of our vehicles. I recently travelled extensively by road on tourist vehicles (including Tavera, Qualis, Tata Winger) while on vacation. While these vehicles could do 100-120 kmph during daytime, the headlights were so poor that at night they could hardly exceed 80 kmph; one could hardly see cyclists or people crossing the road from a sufficient distance even at 80 kmph. If you want to do 120-140 kmph at night, your headlights have to be properly focussed and powerful enough to see sufficiently far ahead. My Santro's headlights seem to be vastly superior to those of the tourist vehicles that I travelled in.

Nevertheless, I do not support this speed limit for cars; it is OK for heavy vehicles. The authorities have to check the vehicles and penalize the owners of badly maintained ones, instead of enforcing a common speed limit for all vehicles.

[pugram]

Originally Posted by cyclops

the worst turn is the end of expressway towards pune.. its almost a 90 degree turn and loads of accidents have happened there..

I have been on this road twice and both the time i had a problem maneuvering at this spot. Its almost a 90degree turn and already had a lot of scars on it.

Speed restriction around 100 ~ 120 kmph should be good. I think its upto the drivers to decide on how well they can control at higher speeds and stick to speeds which they are comfortable. This is the only way accidents will reduce.