[GTO]

Since the last 7 days, I have been seeing the traffic police on the worli seaface fully equipped with bikes, gypsies and speed guns. And this is not just a bunch of traffic constables, mind you. Its an "army" of cops, with 7 officers and 10+ paandus.

The fines vary from 500 - 1000. The speed limit on this stretch is 50 km/h, but they dont pull you over unless you are doing more than 60 km/h. If you are going over a 100 and they catch you on the radar, your car is confisicated on the spot.

Some of my friends have seen the speed limit being enforced on Marine drive too - after midnite.

Looks like the traffic department is really pulling its socks up on fast driving. Another member reported on street-racing modified cars being confiscated, the drivers arrested and fined Rs.5000. To top it all, they insisted on stripping the car of all the modifications.

So watch out and drive safe...

GTO

[Dippy]

These cops and pandus do get these jhatkas at times.. so no more pedal to the metal on seaface and Marine Drive for the time being atleast.

Dippy

P.S. Wonder what a certain someone owning a Red and Yellow car would have to say about this..

[Rehaan]

Hey... Thanks for the heads up GTO,

Dippy, once me and my friend were joking around with a paandu on worli sea face telling him to catch that "laal gaadi" that is always speeding by, and he said that that was a job he would leave for his seniors, but he wouldn't catch it for speeding, he would catch it cause "woh itna aavaj nikalta hain"

cya
R

[gTr]

great news pal.....
i guess the paandus need sum money to purchase YELLOW raincoats,BLACK gumbootz and an UMBRELLA!!!!

[2fast2furious]

areee yaaar.... rem... 15th aug is coming.... so they have to complete there expenses after cutting our pockets.


2f2f

[F50]

Ya not only for speeding but also other things as well ....
I have really dark tinted film on my cars's windows same as those Ministers have im using those from past 3 yrs and even they caught us in past 100 bucks and your off .... But now once my Dad was caught and he took his license away and asked to remove tinted film and then come to take your license ... My Dad was driving without license for 15 days n may be still but he knows some police guys so he can get it easily without removing it ....

[RJK]

Today I was in Breach Candy area for my friend's visa since morning 8 till 12 & there were so many towing vans doing rounds there! I was shocked!! We saved my friend's car from being towed on two ocassions but ultimately it was destined to be towed..Opposite Benzer it got towed while we were on our way to Mahalaxmi temple. I swear since morning the no of towing vans I've seen in a day are more than what I've seen probably in a month !! These guys have really gone beserk..I'm pretty sure they are trying to meet their monthly target of hafta

[Rehaan]

Hey RJK,

That is infact normal in the breach candy area, especially towards mahalaxmi temple.... my old car was towed from the same place 3 times
(I guess i was testing fate)

cya
R

[RJK]

Rehaan,

i donno man...i frequent that area quite often & never ever have i seen so many towing vans in a single day!

[navin]

traffic snarls in BC have prompted this as well as in other "sensitive" areas. I have seen the tow trucks too. At mahim junction, around crawford market too.

I'm of the belief that we must find ways to control car traffic. Higher parking charges and rigourous towing are just 2 ways. It is true that Mumbai is very very short on legitimate parking spaces and that infrastructure as well as public transport must be improved but those solutions take time and lots of political balls.

My retort to this is that if you want a cleaner, greener, less poluted, better organised mumbai you have to live with some of the repercussions.

Many of my friends have left Mumbai for other smaller towns (like Rourkee and Aurangabad) and claim that they have NEVER regretted the decision. It does require some bold steps given that all those who left were family men with established business and carrers in Mumbai.

[Rehaan]

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] (navin @ July 12 2004,11:34)]I'm of the belief that we must find ways to control car traffic.

Very true navin.

A week back a friend of mine said to me "what do you think about the upcomming 1lakh car that tata has been working on"

and i said "It sounds great... wheels to the masses, and ofcourse im waiting to see how it goes"

and then he said "well think about it, every guy who is buying a bike at the moment will just put in some more $$ and buy a car for the whole family........ imagine what that will do to the traffic"

think about it!
cya
R

[lamborghini]

rehaan
add congestion + alot more congestion = shiv sena going and attacking all those who come to bombay to look for work + envy for people living away from mumbai
but seriously
the tatas car will add atleast 20% of the number of prospective bike owners ....
this will result in cheaper bikes which will result in total chaos.....
someone need to tell tata to crap the the idea of their car
also many bikers have not driven cars before and gettig used to driving it will result in some more accidents

[navin]

u cant legislate tata into not making a cheap car. the only rule that everyone follows is the rule of economics. if you make it economically unfeasable for people to own cars in mumbai it will reduce the population; anything else is futile.

i know this sounds elitist but having a car in bombay is like having a car in singapore or NYC or London or Hong Kong.

When I lived in NYC (partly thanks to rent control) there came a time where i would have paid to park my car than for my studio. And this was in the Village. So I sold my Beatle.

Singapore too has enormous duties on cars (you have to buy a licence to get a car and that license is auctioned etc...)

London and Hong Kong have ridiculoously high parking charges and to an extent so does Frankfurt (but then Frankfurt's population is mostly office goers who actually live in the 'burbs).

Many cities have taken various measures to tackle this problem. Mumbai however does not seem like it has the political will to. THIS IS THE ROOT OF THE PROBLEM.

since everyone who owns a car can usually afford a driver, car pool laws wont apply well here. Stiffer parking charges however will. Towing cars illegally parked also will. When I am talking stiffer fines, I mean 10 times the fines that are prevaling at this time.

Yes this will breed coruption (not that there is none now) but even the bribes you will have to pay will increase by a factor of 10. no one wants to pay that either!

Then the monies earned from this should go into improving public transport. I think if Mumbai is really serious about this and an external organization might be willing to match the ammonts collected in fines/charges/taxes. So if every year 20 crs is collected, someone like the world back might chip in another 20 cr. as long as all 40 cr is going to build/improve public transport.

[Rtech]

A lot of the congestion we see on Mumbai roads is due to the hap-hazard way in which Taxi's and auto's park and just the sheer number of them around. The official figure for taxi's is around 75,000/- while its more than a lakh for the ricks. There is obviosuly no place for them to park, so they just stop where they want, which happens to be one lane of the road. Just look at any taxi parked and notice the distance he leaves from the pavement. Its enough to park a bus in! The so called Taxi parking opp. Crossroads is the worst!

To add to the mess, we have the taxi's that crawl in 1st gear in the middle of the road looking for a customer. Then we have the pedestrian traffic that uses the most of the remaing road.

Have you ever driven in Mumbai when there was a taxi strike? Wasn't it a pleasure to drive at that time? The basic private car owning public is somewhat sensible, its only once he has to deal with these idiotic cabbies does he loose his cool and start driving like one of them. I know, it happens to me all the time!

The solution right now is not restrict the number of cars, but restrict the number of taxi's and the way they park. Every street in mumbai is lined with the black n yellow death traps. Do we really need so many taxi's in the city?

This one step of curbing the cabbies will reap immidiate benefits. But ofcourse, thanks to their union and that crazy Quadros, it'll probably snow in Mumbai before this would happen.

Rtech

[GTO]

True, a load of the reasons mentioned here are spot on. Buttttttttttttttttt the real reason behind congestion is simply that Mumbai has 20 times the traffic it was originally designed for!

GTO