My Rant on Bangalore Traffic (and now even a note of appreciation... its not all bad)

[///////M7]

My recent visit to bangalore, was apalling to say the least.
I wasn't concerned with the number of vehicles, but the way people
drove in them. Its really a shame and reflects on the kind of people,
bangalore has become a place for now.

Jumping red lights, driving in every lane, left, right & center, riding on
footpaths to get around a waiting traffic light, incessant use of horn
just to get a few feet ahead of some other vehicle, no road courtesy or manners, like stopping for children and old people to cross the roads.
The list can go on and on and on, and its not in one part of town, its
everywhere.

I am not blaming the autorickshaws , or the lorry drivers. These are
uneducated folks, these guys have been known bad drivers for
decades. I am talking about the the pinheads who are well dressed, driving
nice cars and riding nice bikes, who behave in a very despecable manner.
If they are not driving, they are very happy to let their driver do their
dirty driving for them. These people reap of arrogance, with the
"me first, screw you" behavior.


How is that I can drive in bangalore from point A to B without having to use
the horn, or side swipe people, run over things, and cannot understand to the life of me, why people can't do that. I get to the same place in
pretty much the same time. Most of the traffic congestion can be fixed
just by following a simple logic. "One after the other". Oh!! but everybody
is so self important, that they need to stick their metal into every gap
in the traffic they find, and wonder why there is a traffic jam.

It does not matter if you built 10 lane highways, these guys will still
drive like idiots. Unless, the society and its people has some form of self
discipline, its no use making a hundred different laws.

[kutlee]

Originally Posted by ///////M7

that they need to stick their metal into every gap
in the traffic they find, and wonder why there is a traffic jam.

It does not matter if you built 10 lane highways, these guys will still
drive like idiots. Unless, the society and its people has some form of self
discipline, its no use making a hundred different laws.

Well said there mate..Its not in Blore alone. Its worse like the same here in HYD. No wonder why our PM was frusturated when he visited Blore. I think the underlying fact which causes this are no respect for others, always in a hurry (i think even our PM can wait for signal) and unruly and unworthy driving schools. I like the traffic fine list. But insist on adding couple of more zeroes to it so even though the 'citizens' love to bribe, still they should end up paying good amount of money. I think its high time all these so called driving shools should be closed. The basics of anything starts from the school. Eventhough we have cameras whats the use. Capture the vehichle number, send fine chellan through post to the offender and unless he pays (bribes), confiscate the vehichle. I know there are many hurdles but it should start soon i think. otherwise all the so called 'drivers' pumped out from the schools, will be too much to handle. I think we are going in a very very wrong direction...

[sharathjeppu]

Since a lot of us carry camera cell phones, would it be a good idea to capture pictures/ video of gross traffic voilations and put them all on the net somewhere. I was hoping that some portal would come up with something like this. But may be we could use a thread on this forum dedicated for the same. What say?

[2L8uLoose]

///////M7 VERY WELL SAID!!
But, sadly my friend you are talking about Anytown India as far as driving as you so nicely put it like PINHEADS!

[satish_appasani]

It does not matter if you built 10 lane highways, these guys will still
drive like idiots.

Thats my point too. Govt. should concentrate more on educating and forcing people to drive with discipline rather than going on adding more lanes to the roads. Govts may not do this because people will develop hatred against the ruling party if they are forced to follow rules.

[skandyhere]

well, bangalore traffic has become apalling only because it's got too many people coming in than it can handle. maybe it's the same reason in several other cities.

all said and done, aggressive horning and rash driving is far more common in new delhi than in bangalore. not to offend anyone, but that's my observation.

[madhav]

M7 you are bang on target!
Once I stopped my car infront of another chauffeur driven car which was trying to beat the signal by using the opposite lane. The driver expected that I would move and adjust but I did not move and just stopped my car making sure the only way for him was to reverse (the road had median). The driver got out and started to abuse me... so i asked him to shut-up and walked up to the passenger who looked like some IT pro (working on his laptop) and asked him if his driver is an illiterate and makes a mistake then wasn't it the owners responsibility to correct it? First he was furious and was going going to say something, then suddenly realised his mistake and asked the driver to turn around and apologised.
I always threaten auto drivers or cabbies that I'll get off and not pay them if they drive like a maniac and 9 out 10 will oblige and try to drive properly. Next time you guys try it and see how these guys fall in line. But the real problem is the so-called educated lot!!!

[rkg]

it is right that people drive badly in bangalore. but there two more reasons for trafic congestion.
1. narrow roads with too many intesection at small distances
2.trafic police in bangalore does not know how to regulate trafic.they need to trained first than drivers. no where in the country u see trafic police asking u to come in opposite lane when there is green signal. second thing is they will allow traic in one direction for 3-5 min stoping it in other directions. generally it should be 30-45 sec not more than that in each directions. even the trafic lights have 180 sec timer for each direction. it is ridiculous. if one is forced to stop for three to five min human tendency is to jump the signal. they should make all junctions with trafic lights and make it 30-45 sec in each direction. u can notice it your self. just see in a trafic junction if the lights are not working then there will more jam as the police will be allowing vehicles for 5 even six minutes in each direction
one more thing is u have signal for left turn( it is free every where in the country except where there is a lane joining in) but in banaglore u have to wait. the driver who has to pass straight or turn right will come in extreme left and block the left turners also. similarly in t junctions u have to wait for signal for straight drive. these things are unique to bangalore

[Steeroid]

Welcome back home!
.

[rks]

I agree with everything said so far. But there is also the breed that seems to be content to hog the road and go *slowly* on narrow roads. Bikes and scooters are in general the worst offenders -- these characters really get on my nerves when they crawl at 30 kmph. Autos are a close second, followed by lorries. I find that Bangalore (especially) and Pune are both infested with this breed, but in Mumbai the traffic moves at a more healthy clip, when the roads permit. Apart from the increase in BP that they cause, the other unhealthy aspect of very slow-moving traffic is the pollution factor. If the traffic is moving slowly in second or third gear most of the time, the pollution levels increase.

[n_aditya]

IMHO, Bangy traffic is far more disciplined than chennai....

Here everyone in chennai drives on the wrong side of the road, cyclists are all over the goddamn place.... mopeds racing with pulsars ..... and 2 wheelers and cycle rickshaws on the extreme right side almost scraping the center median and urging other motorists to over take from the left... not to mention stupid pedestrians walking on the center of the road... not ON the median to say in the least.... and suddenly decide to cross the road....

roadrage can spark faster than the reaction time of any F1 driver....

I manage to drive faster in blore and am able to retain my cool better....

I agree that in Blore, traffic density is an issue and roads are narrower than chennai roads... but ppl are more disciplined...

Good thing about chennai roads is that the roads have no potholes... at least the roads that I have driven upon in here... and yeah they are really wide... but 2 wheelers and cyclists are a pain in the @$$ !!! no one stops at a stop light... and i have regularly witnessed ppl missing accidents by centimeters... what a miracle in todays traffic conditions coupled with high speeds....

[ST7677]

The biggest problem in Bangalore (read Karnataka) is Corruption and in turn bad infrastructure (and most expensive petrol/diesel due to the infra cess, without any infra)

Imagine a Flyover taking 4.5 years to complete. And that's not a single case 3 off them... all on key junctions.
70% of traffic signals do not work and are manned by traffic personal assisted by voluntary organizations.
The easiest way used to decongest an area is to make it one way and ban parking without providing an alternative.

Imagine, It took me 2 hours to drive to office today, only 13km from my house. And that is not unusual. Usually I am forced to take the bus to avoid the torture of driving at 6-8km per hr!!!

[Selective]

Originally Posted by ///////M7

I am not blaming the autorickshaws , or the lorry drivers. These are
uneducated folks, these guys have been known bad drivers for
decades. I am talking about the the pinheads who are well dressed, driving nice cars and riding nice bikes, who behave in a very despecable manner.

If they are not driving, they are very happy to let their driver do their
dirty driving for them. These people reap of arrogance, with the
"me first, screw you" behavior.

Welcome to India!!!
Well, IMO, if you are reaching MG road from anywhere outskirts of Bangalore, you will have different experience compared to say travelling from Silk board junction to Marathahalli bridge on ORR.

Towards centre of the city, there are many two wheelers, autos (goods as well as passenger), cars, buses and every automobile you can think of on narrow roads. Police is always struggling to streamline the traffic and everyone is trying to squeeze into the little space available (left, right or centre), and ofcourse honking to the front vehicles as if like, with the power or force of honk they will make the front vehicle fly(!!!) to make space for them.

On ORR, I have little better experience, as there very less number of autos and two wheelers and the roads are relatively wider. I see vehicles following each other (not 100% though), less on honks, and as the roads are wider traffic moves faster which takes away the frustration.

But at the present situation, there seems to be no solution. Police is reluctant to take any action on offenders, roads cannot be widened and people just dont think about descipline on roads.

But lets do our bit to improve the situation by being desciplined on road. Nothing much can be done otherwise.

[suman]

As 2l8u said, its not only Bangalore; the frustration expressed by all so far seems true in any large city you can name. I mean the NCR is the same......the 28 kms I drive to work each way takes anything between an hour to an hour and a half - and the best part is you can NEVER predict where you're going to be stuck on a particular day! Total lack of lane discipline, honk-honk-honk like there's no tomorrow, complete disregard for the other man's property in terms of banging, scraping and then giving the afflicted party a dirty look as if he had no business being there following his lane and minding his own business.....I mean, they talk about high stress levels for soldiers etc - I really wonder if they wouldn't crack up at some of this s**t that we endure daily!

[kvish]

I think existing infrastructure itself is not being put to good use....
Even if the road is really wide, there are these autos/sumos/tempo travellers of call centers stopping side by side to pick up people (they run parellel public transport)...and they are honking all the time.....

And two wheelers feel they are in wonderla everyday...going in all possible directions... that too without helmets... (IDIOTS)

Lets not talk abt the traffic.... Its going to rain at night...so god knows whats in store for me on my way back.