[benbsb29]

Originally Posted by WhiteKnight

With due respect, the WORST drivers I have seen in Bangalore are all IT employees. And, the WORST traffic situations in Bangalore happen in and around IT corridors. Sheer arrogance and sheer lack of sence of traffic rules!!

Agree with you here to an extent. But aming this crowd, how can we forget our company buses which use the wrong lane to charge forward, the cabbies who follow suit, and the cops who also encourage this?

Originally Posted by WhiteKnight

I have driven heavy vehicles, including buses. It is not easy, and requires great sence of space your vehicle is occupying. Most of the Buses, for that matter heavy vehicles, do follow lane discipline.

Joji, I dont agree with the part about buses maintaining lane discipline. Its a very common occurence to see a BMTC or a private bus which is on the outer lane take a blind change of lane in order to get to the bus stop. If you happen to be on a 2 wheeler beside it, you can park your bike for free inside the bus, without you even needing to make an effort.

If they dont make a wide lane switch towards the bus stops, they stop right in the middle of the road, and you have people who run from anywhere and everywhere towards the bus.

[amitoj]

Originally Posted by Wheeliej

on 25th May it took me a whopping 2.5 hours to go from Whitefield to New BEL road (thru the city). Doubt many can match that one. It was very frustrating.

Wasnt 25th May the same Friday when it poured cats and dogs and pigs and what have you's for the first time this season??

If thats the same Friday, then that day it took me 4.5 hours to get back home (Bannerghatta Road) from office (Intermediate Ring Road).

I dont think we can use commuting stats from that day to reflect upon the general traffic scene

Someone here said buses follow lane discipline. Now thats a laugh. If, by following lane discipline, you mean stop in the middle of the road at a bus stop, then go to extreme right lane at crawling speed with just a thumb sticking out to indicate the intention, and then back to the left or middle of the road at the next bus stop 100 feet away, then yeah, buses are the most ardent followers of lane discipline. And so is the dude sitting in a 10 lakh car, double parked in the center of the road, with blinkers on!! Seen it so many times on that road in Koramangala where there is China Pearl (nice chinese food there, btw).

Look guys, there is no point in singling out any one group. "Iss hamaam mein hum sab nange hain"... old hindi saying. The best thing (although not easy) that one individual can do is to leave early, drive sanely, and if someone cuts across, just smile at him/her when you pull up next to him/her at the traffic light.

Amitoj

[lohithrao]

Originally Posted by WhiteKnight

Let the "educated" people learn driving first, then we could shoot the taxi / auto / bus driver goondas

Very true, i have come across the so called educated lot with dont care attitude. everyday i see bikes parked hapazardly in my office parking lot and the poor security guy has to move bikes to make some space for others to park. people lack sense and they dont care.

People need to realise, when everyone starts acting responsibly thats when we can see the changes happening.

[Nitin]

I was born and brought up in B'lore, andl ived there until I was 21. Its been 5 yrs since I moved to the US. I have seen how people in B'lore behave on the roads, where they are least bothered about the other person's safety/concerns.

I've seen so many parking lots, where out of 10 cars, 3-4 are parked well within the marked lines, 2-3 border right on the yellow lines, and there has to be atleast 1 car that's decided to park itself perpendicular to all the other cars.. ! Basically, the driver has no concept of 'not wanting to inconvenience others'.

Its amazing to see how almost everyone on the streets in the US,not only take the extra step to make sure other commuters are not inconvenienced, most people actually don't mind getting the bottom edge when it comes to simple situations on the road.

Its a mad rush to reach from 1 traffic signal to get to the other. 'I don't care if I need to drive over you...I'll get there!' --- thats the idea of 95% of the commuters ..

I've said this before,and I still feel its possible to do somethign about this. We have atleast 1000+ members who live in B'lore. Would it be possible for the members to rope in seriously interested residents of B'lore, to come forward and form a body.This body,could approach the Commissioner of traffic, and along with the top brass from each RTO offices around B'lore, set forth some strict rules & regulations.

It would definitely help if there'd be some political influence too.It would take 1-2 yrs to get things moving, but its a possibility.

[WhiteKnight]

Originally Posted by benbsb29

Agree with you here to an extent. But aming this crowd, how can we forget our company buses which use the wrong lane to charge forward, the cabbies who follow suit, and the cops who also encourage this?

I am not forgetting them. All I am saying is, "Let's change ourselves first"

Originally Posted by amitoj

Someone here said buses follow lane discipline. Now thats a laugh. If, by following lane discipline, you mean stop in the middle of the road at a bus stop, then go to extreme right lane at crawling speed with just a thumb sticking out to indicate the intention, and then back to the left or middle of the road at the next bus stop 100 feet away

Buses take right lane for a reason- there is no left lane that can consistently acommodate a bus in most of Bangalore roads. In broad roads like ORR, buses typically don't take right line.
As I said, I have driven heavy vehicles. Imagine this, you are driving a bus on the left lane. You have to watch a score of bikers/autos that sneak on your left and also have to watch right RVM for another dozen vehicles. You'll also have to do a lane change to right every 10 meteres because of some car parked on the road. in effect a bus will be doing zig-zag on the road. Now is that what you want?
if you drive bus on right lane, you effectively eliminate the need to watch your right side. Smaller vehicles can overtake through the left. It is definitely a safer option.

I do not share the same respect about cabbies

Originally Posted by lohithrao

People need to realise, when everyone starts acting responsibly thats when we can see the changes happening.

Very well said!!

Originally Posted by Nitin

We have atleast 1000+ members who live in B'lore. Would it be possible for the members to rope in seriously interested residents of B'lore, to come forward and form a body.This body,could approach the Commissioner of traffic, and along with the top brass from each RTO offices around B'lore, set forth some strict rules & regulations.

There you go again....If you can assemple 1000+ members, could you please ensure that they drive responsibly? Wouldn't that be a welcome change, than meeting Police, RTO etc?

[amitoj]

Originally Posted by WhiteKnight

Buses take right lane for a reason- there is no left lane that can consistently acommodate a bus in most of Bangalore roads. In broad roads like ORR, buses typically don't take right line.
As I said, I have driven heavy vehicles. Imagine this, you are driving a bus on the left lane. You have to watch a score of bikers/autos that sneak on your left and also have to watch right RVM for another dozen vehicles. You'll also have to do a lane change to right every 10 meteres because of some car parked on the road. in effect a bus will be doing zig-zag on the road. Now is that what you want?
if you drive bus on right lane, you effectively eliminate the need to watch your right side. Smaller vehicles can overtake through the left. It is definitely a safer option.

IMHO thats just an excuse. The same reasoning can be applied to any 3 or 4 wheeler. Most of the times buses take the rightmost lane to overtake the bus thats in front of it.

And they do zigzag on the road no matter what. I read a case on this forum itself where a BMTC driver intentionally drove extremely close to two ladies just to scare the hell out of them. I also recall another thread where a BMTC bus ran over a car that was parked in its way. The car was illegally parked but the bus driver had no right to overrun the car. I have myself witnessed drunk BMTC drivers in the middle of the day. They are no saints by any stretch of imagination.

[WhiteKnight]

Originally Posted by amitoj

IMHO thats just an excuse. The same reasoning can be applied to any 3 or 4 wheeler.
They are no saints by any stretch of imagination.

OT- I am not disagreeing. But think about this..how much time do we spend driving every day...and how much time do a bus driver spend on driving on Bangalore roads?

[skandyhere]

[quote=WhiteKnight;468067]With due respect, the WORST drivers I have seen in Bangalore are all IT employees. And, the WORST traffic situations in Bangalore happen in and around IT corridors. Sheer arrogance and sheer lack of sence of traffic rules!!

Maybe this could be taken in the wrong light, but i'll still risk a mention. The reason IT corridors see the worst traffic sense in bangalore is two-fold. one, it sees the heaviest traffic relative to road-space. the second reason is a little touchy. trying to stay as objective as possible, i'd still have to point out that the impatience of drivers in the north is beyond doubt, considerably more than what it is in karnataka. and the greatest concentration of outsiders is found near IT areas - east and south bangalore.

i don't want to offend anyone, but i hope what i said is seen and considered as a statement of objective fact, rather than a thrust at any group.

it is my observation that karnataka has perhaps the mildest driving habits in india, as evidenced in drivers at places like mysore and other towns.

[Vid6639]

Everywhere around the world bus drivers drive the whole day but they follow lane discipline.

The main problem is them cutting out from bus stops blindly. That's just throwing your weight around cause you have a bigger govt vehicle which you dont care for.

When there are 2 buses at a stop why cant the bus behind wait a few secs for the bus in front to start moving why should he cut right. when a bus approaches a stop which already has a bus waiting why should that bus go overtake the stationary bus and stand in front when the guy who is already there and picked up passengers is just about to leave? why cant he just queue up behind him. these rules are followed elsewhere why not here?

[msdivy]

Originally Posted by vid6639

...why cant he just queue up behind him. these rules are followed elsewhere why not here?

Indians don't like queues - period. If they see a line, they always want to skip and get forward to the counter. For instance, in any Railway Station, a couple of police men is always deployed to manage the queues at any point of time.

Even if they are forced to be in the queue, they are restless and try to nudge and get forward.

I guess Indians, by nature, feel they are better serviced if there are no queues at all.

Hence if they see a line of vehicles in front, whether they are in bus/car/bike/cycle, they somehow try to sneak in and go forward.

[v1p3r]

Originally Posted by skandyhere

i'd still have to point out that the impatience of drivers in the north is beyond doubt

True that. We had a lot of fun with a DL registered Alto. Stupid git.

[leodelg]

just a thought guys..... Instead of us just posting our experiences here, is there any way that we can actually contribute to improving the condition? Since I am a relative newcomer to the forum, I don't know anyone personally. There might be members here who know the top brass and hence approach them. What say?

[sithon]

Originally Posted by leodelg

just a thought guys..... Instead of us just posting our experiences here, is there any way that we can actually contribute to improving the condition? Since I am a relative newcomer to the forum, I don't know anyone personally. There might be members here who know the top brass and hence approach them. What say?

I just read this whole thread now and I was hoping some one would say something in this angle - i.e instead of venting it out what exactly are we aiming to achieve here ? (glad that the thread starter itself suggested that).
So here are my thoughts:
We all have good ideas. Writing to this forum does help to gather more ideas (and we should use the vented out experiences as supporting data why the ideas are needed) but we need to gather these ideas and represent it in the right forum - The authorities.
Writing to a newspaper (and maybe even publicising Team-BHP there ) should be the done thing. Thats my suggestion IF we want this to improve.
So threadstarter or anyone else care to take up the same effort put in to writing all the ideas here to an email to the newspapers? (let me know if you need any help. seriously and not meant to be a cliche)

[kamy450]

Any views on traffic sense among drivers ?

[amitoj]

Originally Posted by skandyhere

The reason IT corridors see the worst traffic sense in bangalore is two-fold. one, it sees the heaviest traffic relative to road-space. the second reason is a little touchy. trying to stay as objective as possible, i'd still have to point out that the impatience of drivers in the north is beyond doubt, considerably more than what it is in karnataka. and the greatest concentration of outsiders is found near IT areas - east and south bangalore.

i don't want to offend anyone, but i hope what i said is seen and considered as a statement of objective fact, rather than a thrust at any group.

it is my observation that karnataka has perhaps the mildest driving habits in india, as evidenced in drivers at places like mysore and other towns.

Eh!

While i agree with your point 1, your 2nd point is a bit... umm.. uncalled for, and also please elaborate on how you are qualified enough to make that statement? Have you driven in small towns outside Karnataka, specially up north, to observe that people from north are in general more impatient? If yes, then for how long and how many?

If you dont want to offend anyone then maybe you should not make such generalised region based statements.