[shipnil]

Originally Posted by abhijitvp

Hi Amogh,

Please take route 2 instead of 1. It will cost you Rs. 99!

At point B you can take legal U-Turn (50 meters before toll plaza. It's safe.). I suppose extra toll is for the road that connects Express way to old NH4. Its good 4 lane road.

Originally Posted by ashtorque

Please note that this U-Turn you mentioned is not legal. Its a no-entry! A common mistake made by the uninformed and most probably a cop is waiting where this road joins the Pen road.

I don't think U turn is illegal but the road suggested by abhijitvp is for exit from Eway to Pen/Khopoli. So if he suggests to use it to join Eway, then that is illegal. I don't think there is anything that warns users not to take U turn before toll plaza.

[abhijitvp]

Originally Posted by ashtorque

Please note that this U-Turn you mentioned is not legal. Its a no-entry! A common mistake made by the uninformed and most probably a cop is waiting where this road joins the Pen road.

I am not talking about taking left U-Turn on expressway to go towards Pen road. That is obviously illegal. You can not exit expressway in the direction opposite to flow of traffic. Take a closer look, Direction is A -> B -> C.
At point B you can take U Turn. Some trucks also use this point to go towards old NH4.

[khoj]

That U turn is meant for emergency vehicles as well as vehicles with appropriate stickers that service the food mall and the petrol pumps there and not for the toll paying or should I say toll 'saving' janta.

You can join the express way legally after coming off the Pen ramp by taking a U turn at the toll plaza itself and by paying 124/-

The other way to do it, of course legally is to take the scenic route via Khopoli >> old ghat section >> merge with Xpress way >> take Lonavala exit >> rejoin express way after Lonavala pay the 99 bucks, infact lesser (IIRC).

Originally Posted by abhijitvp

At point B you can take U Turn. Some trucks also use this point to go towards old NH4.

[sukhoi30]

Originally Posted by amit

The expressway is a mess. The road surface is going bad by the day, the concrete road results in terrible noise inside the car and the planning is all wrong.

Yes, at some places the concrete is cracked and what the authorities do is fill it up with tar. In summers and rains, these melt and run out thus widening the cracks. They will have to relay the concrete somehow without affecting the traffic flow. Remember this Expwy is more than 20 years old, so its starting to wear.

Originally Posted by amit

- Going towards Lonavala / Pune from Mumbai, when we come at the first toll, trucks coming from Pune cross over across the expressway to take some service road. This is pretty crazy. Didn't they think of this happening when they planned the toll plaza?.

That is the exit to Khopoli-Pen Road. But there is another exit which was made towards the same lane before the toll gate. Isn't that working? I too have seen that sometimes there are trucks made to cut across for Pen Exit.

Originally Posted by amit

- If I have to go from Chakan to Pune then there is no way I can get on the Expressway. .

Why do you have to get on the expressway to go to Pune from Chakan? You can very well use the old Mumbai-Pune highway and turn left after Talegaon. Another and most used route is the Pune-Nashik Highway which you take from Nashik Phata.

Originally Posted by amit

- Many places there are no exit and entries for car's wanting to go either to Mumbai or Pune. It seems like MSRDC expects people to go point to point on the expressway. Did they make this road only for car's wanting to go from Mumbai to Pune and back? If so, why create places like Imagica along the expressway then?

Actually yes. This road was meant for Mumbai-Pune traffic. But as everyone knows, most developments happen near rivers or roads. Imagica happened just last year, so we will have to wait and see how they can get a exit to that.

Originally Posted by amit

- As for over-speeding the cops just wave out to cars and fine who stops. It happened to me too. When I asked him why other car's are not being stopped the cop said when you go fishing you catch some and some get away!

thats a nice response you got. It also happens that only small fish gets caught in the net and the bigger fish is let go. They will not dare to stop those Audis, Merc, Beamers etc.

[mahesh_sn]

I traveled twice in the last 15 days on the Manchar-NH50-Chakan-Talegaon-Expressway-Mumbai route. Another example of bad planning was evident there. The road leading to the toll booth for vehicles coming from Talegaon is a two lane one for the most part after it bifurcates from the end of bridge over the expressway. Because there is just one toll booth on this section, left lane abruptly ends just before the booth and right lane continues into the toll booth thus creating a bottleneck. In the first instance, there was heavy traffic and both lanes were occupied with vehicles jostling for entry to the toll booth. In the second instance, there was not much traffic and I was behind a container and two cars waiting to enter the toll booth. The container got stranded right at the toll collection counter and soon traffic started building up on both the lanes. There was a total chaos as there was no alternative way to enter the main section of expressway and pay toll on other booths. Luckily enough, the container had gone too close to the toll counter leaving just enough space on the left side for the cars to squeeze through. There was no way any other truck or container could have passed through. I am sure this must be a common scene here. This section badly needs a second toll booth and an extended left lane to ensure smooth flow of traffic.

[noopster]

I tried an experiment today. Had to drive to Bombay for some work and left Pune (near Chandani Chowk) at around 11 am. Decided to stick STRICTLY to the speed limit along the way. That means 80 kmph on the expressway unless otherwise mentioned and 60 kmph in city limits.

Here are my observations:
- It's not easy! I was driving my Vento AT which lacks a cruise control and for the first time I realized how difficult it is to maintain a constant speed on the highway. I set my speed limiter at 80 and every time the melodious long beep sounded I reduced the pressure on the accelerator.
- It's not good for the engine 80 k's in sixth gear is around 1500 rpm. So you can imagine the moment the speed dips to even 70, the revs become to low and the engine starts to lug. I had to manually downshift quite a few times to avoid this. Mucho irritating.
- 80 is too low! The speed limit has absolutely no scientific basis that I can think of. for most of the flat stretches (Pune side to Lonavala and then Khalapur to Panvel) the natural speed that can safely be sustained is around 120 kmph. Even 100 would be a sensible limit on these stretches. 80 is ridiculous.
- 30 and 40? Really!! i noticed there are 2 or 3 zones that are marked as speed limit= 30/40. I actually tried in ALL earnestness to bring my speed down to that but trust me, it is physically impossible without ending up being at an absolute crawl relative to the other traffic plying. Consider that these are typically sections of the e-way that are 2-lane and it only compounds the issue. Safe to say it is downright dangerous to stick to the limit on these stretches. Around 20 over the limit is what appears to be a natural speed here.
- Unmarked/wrongly marked sections!!: Shockingly the Amrutanjan bridge section, which is the most accident prone part of the e-way, has no marked speed limit. There are a couple of other unmarked stretches as well where the limit cannot reasonably be the same as on the flat sections. The marked speed limit goes from 80 to 30 with no warning at all. The system is designed for failure. To cite an extreme case, any cop can position himself at the spot where the 80 limit suddenly changes to 30 and ticket me for being over the limit. In the US, speed limits change in increments of 10 mph from my observation.

But it wasn't all bad!
- I was calmer and more focused on my surroundings. Too often we shift into autopilot mode on long drives and it is quite a relief to be aware of everything around you, which happens when you are single-mindedly focused on maintaining the speed limit, irrational as it may appear!
-I was in total control of my car Slower is indeed safer, with reaction times improving substantially at 80 compared to say 120, which everyone else seemed to be doing. The only caveat is of course not get in the way of someone doing 120 in the slow lane (which does happen!)
- FE heaven! I normally get 18 kmpl on the downhill stretch and 15 kmpl overall. This trip I clocked a wonderful 22.6 kmpl over the 111 km stretch from my home to Panvel. By the time I got home it was down to 18 kmpl, but still a substantial improvement.
- Apart from all of this, I also basked in the warm glow of self-righteousness that comes from following the law I was half-hoping to get pulled over like some members have reported and telling the cop about my experiment. Alas, that will have to wait another day!

[selfdrive]

Originally Posted by noopster

I tried an experiment today. Had to drive to Bombay for some work and left Pune (near Chandani Chowk) at around 11 am. Decided to stick STRICTLY to the speed limit along the way. That means 80 kmph on the expressway unless otherwise mentioned and 60 kmph in city limits.

How much extra time did your trip take than if you were to drive it like a missile ? (not that you would, just talking about others going ballistic!)
20 minutes?
I wonder why people drive so rashly on the so called eway to save a few minutes. They risk wasting a lot more than minutes by driving so. But hey we all know that!
As for highway planning, please don't compare with some other country or our highway planners will ask for a budget on taxpayers expense to make a study trip to that country. We all know which direction that will go in

[ghodlur]

Originally Posted by noopster

30 and 40? Really!! i noticed there are 2 or 3 zones that are marked as speed limit= 30/40. I actually tried in ALL earnestness to bring my speed down to that but trust me, it is physically impossible without ending up being at an absolute crawl relative to the other traffic plying. Consider that these are typically sections of the e-way that are 2-lane and it only compounds the issue. Safe to say it is downright dangerous to stick to the limit on these stretches. Around 20 over the limit is what appears to be a natural speed here.

Anoop,

IIRC I have seen the speed limit markings of 30 atleast while driving to Pune. The moment the ghat sections starts after Khalapur toll, I distinctly remember reading speed signs of 30. There are markings also just before the uphill leading to Lonavala detour & near Amrutanjan Bridge. Maybe need to reconfirm myself again of reading the signs.

I had once attempted the test which you did way long back when i had the Santro and believe me felt exactly like you. The FE achieved was pure niravana.

[amoghchaphalkar]

A couple of pictures Whatsapp'ed by a friend

[noopster]

Originally Posted by ghodlur

Anoop,

IIRC I have seen the speed limit markings of 30 atleast while driving to Pune. The moment the ghat sections starts after Khalapur toll, I distinctly remember reading speed signs of 30. There are markings also just before the uphill leading to Lonavala detour & near Amrutanjan Bridge. Maybe need to reconfirm myself again of reading the signs.

Yes, the markings are there are on the Southbound section. But while driving uphill your speed is restricted naturally. There is a crying need to enforce a (reasonable) limit on the Pune-Mumbai side which is where people go nuts since it is downhill and there are some seriously bendy curves!

@Selfdrive- I actually didn't lose too much time. Covered 155 km in 3h18m which is awesome (around 52 kph average speed which is very good).

[Dodge_Viper]

Recently travelled along Mum-Pune expressway. Fearing the police jumping in middle of the road to stop over speeding cars, I kept my speeds in 80-90 range. But there was not a single police officer in sight, neither any police at toll plaza to check the 30min time in between 2 tolls.

[NetfreakBombay]

Originally Posted by noopster

- 30 and 40? Really!! i noticed there are 2 or 3 zones that are marked as speed limit= 30/40. I actually tried in ALL earnestness to bring my speed down to that but trust me, it is physically impossible without ending up being at an absolute crawl relative to the other traffic plying. Consider that these are typically sections of the e-way that are 2-lane and it only compounds the issue. Safe to say it is downright dangerous to stick to the limit on these stretches. Around 20 over the limit is what appears to be a natural speed here.

I think these sections are not part of expressway and belong to NH4.

[djpeesh]

Be very, very careful on the expressway. My dad had a serious problem last weekend.

He was driving at about 80 kmph and all of a sudden a scooter darts across the highway. My dad hit the brakes but still hit the guy.

The guy was thrown off his scooter and landed in a ditch on the side of the expressway. My dad stopped the car and checked on the guy. He had a few broken bones but no major injury.
By then, some villagers gathered by the side of the road and demanded my dad paid them compensation or they would file a police complaint. My dad didn't have the cash on him so he told the villagers to come and collect the cash from his office.

He rang a friend in the police who suggested paying up as the car would otherwise be seized and a case of rash driving would be registered against my dad in the Raigad court. If that had happened, my dad would have to run around trying to prove his innocence as well as get the xuv released.

Shocked at the whole incident but I was out of the country and wasn't aware of what had happened till this week. The law is literally an ass.

Car is currently in the garage getting fixed. Among the things that have to be fixed are the radiator, the condenser, the headlights, the fog lights, a few sensors and the grill. The good thing is that both my dad and the other guy are alive.

[Dodge_Viper]

Originally Posted by djpeesh

He rang a friend in the police who suggested paying up as the car would otherwise be seized and a case of rash driving would be registered against my dad in the Raigad court.

Why? Isn't the scooter guy at fault? 2 wheelers are NOT allowed on expressway. Police should book him first. 80kmph is not at all rash driving.

[malgudi]

Am a Regular traveler on the Expressway (taking it about 2-3 times a week) and off late you can find plenty of 2 wheeler on the the Expressway specially between Pune & Lonavala (on both sides). In this section there is normally no police team specially in the morning & late evening & these sightings coincide with the office start and end times (i.e 8-10 AM in morning & 5-7 PM in evening). Not to mention the local villagers have broken the expressway at quite a few places a herd of people can be found running around trying to cross the expressway on foot which can be a unnerving sight even if you are driving within speed limits.