Traffic and life on the road in Chennai

[jeevmenon]

And this is the 1.5 (or 0.5?) lane that is in use!!

[Gansan]

Originally Posted by jeevmenon

Btw I pay 35 bucks toll every day on the OMR to barely get 1 lane of the so called six-lanes. 1 lane is dug up since inception, the second lane is used for parking, people walking, bus stands, MTC parking etc, people crossing over. Chaotic madness and I am paying for it :-)

Why not commute to work by bike and avoid the toll completely? It would be a lot faster too!

[rock18]

Originally Posted by Mr_Bean

For daily commute from annanagar to guindy:
Morning - shanthi colony road-koyambedu-vadapalani-ashoknagar-guindy (14kms)
Evening - guindy-saidapet-nungambakkam-chetpet overbridge-taylors road-chintamani-annanagar west thro roundtana(18-20kms)

Very true, the patience level wears out in the evening on the koyambedu stretch

I commute from chinmaya nagar to perungudi daily.
I will always avoid 100ft road.
From koyambedu, you can take right to chinmaya nagar and then drive internally to reach dasarathapuram and then avm studio signal and take immediate left in a narrow lane to reach ashok pillar. you can avoid 3 major chaotic signals by taking this route and save lot of time and frustration.

And you all forgot about the engineering college buses plying around 4-6pm. They are probably worser than Corprate company buses..
Especially Jeppiar college buses, They always try to race with other college buses...
Few months back, when the road consruction work was happening in OMR, it was night marish to travel beyond sholinganallur because of these buses....Even though i drive quite fast,They just honk you out of the road and your mind.

[Gilead]

Originally Posted by rock18

I commute from chinmaya nagar to perungudi daily.
I will always avoid 100ft road.
From koyambedu, you can take right to chinmaya nagar and then drive internally to reach dasarathapuram and then avm studio signal and take immediate left in a narrow lane to reach ashok pillar. you can avoid 3 major chaotic signals by taking this route and save lot of time and frustration.

I once took the internal route that you are talking about and I realized the 100 ft road was much better. At least there are no cycles to deal with on the 100 ft road and bikes are a lot more scared of cars and buses so they give way easily. And the time taken is almost the same. In fact 100 ft road is slower only when there is some breakdown or accident.

I don't take the 100 ft road on the opposite side though. It has become way too narrow.

[navan49]

Beware of Sholinganallur - Omr link road. They are constructing a bridge and the traffic is diverted to one side of the road. The incomplete road near the bridge is having ups and downs beware of chassis touch in full load.

[Mr_Bean]

Originally Posted by Gilead

I once took the internal route that you are talking about and I realized the 100 ft road was much better. At least there are no cycles to deal with on the 100 ft road and bikes are a lot more scared of cars and buses so they give way easily. And the time taken is almost the same. In fact 100 ft road is slower only when there is some breakdown or accident.

I don't take the 100 ft road on the opposite side though. It has become way too narrow.

Completely agree, One needs to very careful on these narrow stretches. I once had to visit a place near MIOT hospital near Porur, to avoid traffic I took a right after Koyambedu junction. It was waste of time & fuel too in the end.


Btw yesterday it took me 1.5 hours to reach home on the nungambakam stretch. Bottle neck - saidapet & nungambakkam high road, pretty crazy traffic

[Blue Thunder]

There was a traffic jam on OMR today morning (in the Kaarappakkam- Sholinganallur stretch). Usually friday mornings on OMR are peaceful. But not today...anybody experienced this today? I was wondering what the reason could be, but couldn't find out.

Originally Posted by rock18

...then avm studio signal and take immediate left in a narrow lane to reach Ashok Pillar. you can avoid 3 major chaotic signals by taking this route and save lot of time and frustration....

I use this lane quite often (my house is nearby), and it is not a problem with my Alto. BUT, if it is a slightly wider car, it will be a pain to drive through. Sometimes, you have taxi Ambys and Taveras using this lane, and it will be a misery if one comes in the opposite side when using this lane. So, use with caution !

[Reisender]

Originally Posted by Blue Thunder

There was a traffic jam on OMR today morning (in the Kaarappakkam- Sholinganallur stretch). Usually friday mornings on OMR are peaceful. But not today...anybody experienced this today? I was wondering what the reason could be, but couldn't find out.



I use this lane quite often (my house is nearby), and it is not a problem with my Alto. BUT, if it is a slightly wider car, it will be a pain to drive through. Sometimes, you have taxi Ambys and Taveras using this lane, and it will be a misery if one comes in the opposite side when using this lane. So, use with caution !

@Blue Thunder - Got struck for few minutes in that block. Since i was driving a bike, managed to get out of it soon.
I want to thrash all those share auto wallas - who drive without any direction/flow.

[Gansan]

Originally Posted by Reisender

I want to thrash all those share auto wallas - who drive without any direction/flow.

Those idiots are a huge problem for the entire Chennai-Pondy stretch on the ECR too.

[aargee]

How about thrasing the MTC drivers? They want to overtake everyone & most importantly, do not want anyone to overtake when they stop for passengers at bus stops? That really gets on my nerves!!!

Did anyone see the news of ECR getting into 6 laned highway?

[Gilead]

Originally Posted by Mr_Bean

Btw yesterday it took me 1.5 hours to reach home on the nungambakam stretch. Bottle neck - saidapet & nungambakkam high road, pretty crazy traffic

Something weird was happening at Nungambakkam high road near the Good Shepherd turning. I got lucky and followed a bus on the extreme left side and the bus bulldozed its way through and I tailgated. But once you took the right turn, the road was free. So I don't know why there was a jam there in the first place.

Originally Posted by aargee

Did anyone see the news of ECR getting into 6 laned highway?

Yeah, a lot of people are going to lose their land. This will get stuck in court for years if its not done properly. Only about 12 kms will be converted to 6 lane according to the report.

[navan49]

Tambaram Velachery road is in the full swing of evacuating the encroachments. One can see what a great portion of the Government land is occupied for years. Especially look the demolition of buildings on the right side of the rowad beyond camp road and the left side before camp road when you drive from Medavakkam to Tambaram. Let us hope at least in a couple of years we will have a wide road to drive.

[ramzsys]

MTC bus drivers dont care a hoot for anything, they go on for ever. I dont like to blame them, because it is their road of life, and i am just a commuter.

[rajushank84]

What to say.. if I start talking about Chennai traffic I can go on for hours! Suffice it to say that my daily commute from Medavakkam to Sholinganallur (7kms) takes 45mins!

Originally Posted by roadracer

I thought that the Velachery McD was a drive-in one.Never visited it though.

Its not a drive-in, but they have a drive-thru concept like in the US.

[NFS]

Originally Posted by navan49

Tambaram Velachery road is in the full swing of evacuating the encroachments. One can see what a great portion of the Government land is occupied for years. Especially look the demolition of buildings on the right side of the rowad beyond camp road and the left side before camp road when you drive from Medavakkam to Tambaram. Let us hope at least in a couple of years we will have a wide road to drive.

Evictions on Tambaram Velachery road includes approved constructions + constructions on patta land. They are giving away for the developments in the city, I would salute them at first. As mentioned above, there are some encroachments too.

I do NOT go by the rules stated in the thread of discriminating the rides by their price or number plates. I always keep in mind that I need to be careful and I do NOT make a mistake which makes a family orphan or disabled. With god's grace no incidents as on date touch wood