[Chetan_Rao]

Originally Posted by Rajeevraj

....They are more concerned about managing costs and maintaining tax breaks. Their answer to traffic is to consolidate into one or 2 campuses to reduce the overheads. And consolidating into ORR belt seems to be the general approach. Managing the commute is the employees headache.

It's getting to the point of impacting productivity significantly. Commutes are taking longer, transport teams are allocating pickups earlier than before and need more cabs to service the same number of employees due to increased turnaround times. There's only so much room to make adjustment before transportation costs get out of hand.

I see more and more folks giving up their own houses and moving on rent to places close to the work place. There seems to be no other way to manage the commute.

That isn't doable on a large scale, and further worsens the already skewed price/rental dynamic. Staying close is no guarantee of saving time either. There are plenty of residential areas along ORR that may not be far distance-wise, but commute times are still absurd.

Originally Posted by speedmiester

This has a effect on hiring as well.
Candidates are refusing good offers from companies located on ORR fearing the traffic.

Ecospace is a prime example. Have had outstation candidates ask if we're located anywhere in the vicinity.

[drive2eternity]

Originally Posted by Chetan_Rao

I take office cabs for my commute and have forgotten the last time I ever reached on schedule.

Reminds me of a conversation I was having with my colleague yesterday. Distance from my home to my office is ~10 kms.

If you have to attend a meeting at 8 AM, you have three options:

A- Leave home at 7:10 AM, be in office at 7:40 AM, and kill 20 mins before your meeting.

B- Leave home at 7:15 AM, expect to be in office between 7:50 AM to 8:10 AM, risking being late for the meeting.

C- Leave home at 7:20 AM, definitely miss the meeting and probably also miss the meeting after it, arriving anytime after 8:20 AM.

Well, this exponential growth in travel time is mostly attributed to the school buses which enter the narrow lanes near my apartment and then show their antics. Eg. taking U-turns.

[GTO]

Originally Posted by drive2eternity

Reminds me of a conversation I was having with my colleague yesterday.

Loved the way you listed the options

Leave home at 7:10 AM, be in office at 7:40 AM, and kill 20 mins before your meeting.

I'm a stickler for punctuality and hence, usually end up reaching before time anywhere I go. If it's during working hours, I always have my laptop with me. So, use those 20 minutes for emails (or similar). This is the option I'd pick as you'll also enjoy emptier roads .

[mazda4life]

I am in Bangalore for 4-5 weeks and have been commuting from Jayanagar to my office in Adrash tech park by Volvo, today, I had to start a little late ( 10 AM) and could cover just 1 KM in 45 mins. Got out of the bus and went back home to work from home.
I have figured the best time to leave is 7-7:15 AM and anything post that is a disaster. Silver lining is that the BMTC buses that are aplenty and are reasonably clean.

[sandeepmohan]

Originally Posted by drive2eternity

Well, this exponential growth in travel time is mostly attributed to the school buses which enter the narrow lanes near my apartment and then show their antics.

Your numbers are very conservative my friend.

As a past long term resident of Bangalore, I used to leave home at 615AM to reach work at 7am. Distance : 13-14km. You would think traffic is less at this hour but it is not. This was on the dreaded Cox Town to Whitefield route. There are days that I took a much longer highway route that doubled the distance and still made it in the same time. Could not do it everyday though. I had to report to work only by 8am. I used all of an entire hour to relax from the hell drive, enjoy the excellent office provided breakfast, watch some news on the TV, scrub email (TeamBhp Included) and then get to doing what I really should be doing. I am terrified of the thought of ever getting in to this routine again. I just don't want to.

[drive2eternity]

Originally Posted by GTO

I'm a stickler for punctuality.

So am I. And that's why I usually reach office well before the 'official' start time. But the point is, we cannot be punctual in Bangalore. We can either be early, or late.

And in our office at least, being late due to traffic is no longer an excuse, it is a genuine reason.

Originally Posted by sandeepmohan

Your numbers are very conservative my friend.

Well, for both of us, the word Whitefield is common. I travel from Whitefield and you travel to Whitefield. One after the other, I have hurdles to face and cross. It begins with Kundanahalli Gate Signal, followed by the U-turn just after Star Bazaar. Then, I have to face Spice Garden followed by Marathahalli bridge bus stop and the left turn immediately after it (again a bus stop). Then there is a jam at the junction to ORR and immediately another one at E-Zone. After this, I have a relatively smooth drive till I reach the biggest jam of all, the left exit to take the service lane for RMZ Ecoworld. True to the name, the entire world seems to be taking this exit.

Trivia - All the jam points in my route are bus stops, except Star Bazaar and RMZ Ecoworld service lane.

[sandeepmohan]

Originally Posted by drive2eternity

One after the other, I have hurdles to face and cross.

Maan that sounds 10x worse than my commute ever was. I should not complain.

I could not see myself live in Wfd or thereabouts. It would have definitely saved me a lot of frustration and time. I used to over hear conversations of people cursing traffic and who are commuting within Whitefield. These are folks spending half an hour each way travelling to home-work-home and then curse again after spending an hour trying to reach Phoneix Market city on the weekend.

The thought had crossed my mind to move closer to work. I decided against it. I'll put up with traffic for 5 days and then I have 2 days of peaceful, green, relatively quiet confines of my lovely old school neighborhood. I may have a different answer if you ask me today, with all that metro construction underway.

I have seen Whitefield change over the years. When all that stood was the phase of ITPL being built and rest were all fields, as the name goes. People bought property here as long term investment, retirement home. The country's longest Go Kart circuit was in Whitefield. Good luck finding it today. That massive Shantiniketan Apartment block is what is sitting on it.

[itwasntme]

Feel blessed to be in North BLR with its (currently) manageable traffic and greenery. The air is still clean and hopefully will be for ~5 years more. BUT the rot has started just as Sarjapur/Whitefield/Marathahalli/Bellandur was consumed (by the real estate mafia & their entrenched network) and spat out starting 10 years back.

What has saved N-BLR so far:
1. Lack of proximate work-places (Manyata I & II, Ecopolis coming soon)
2. Catastrophic lack of water for commercial/industrial use (never thought I would have listed it is a benefit)
3. The restrictive BIAPA (BIAL Planning Authority) master plan dictating land use around KIAL
4. Existence of huge tracts of land under various GoI & GoK or semi-autonomous PSUs/entities like CRPF/BSF/Defense housing etc.

What is going to finish off N-BLR gradually:
1. KIAL land development into KIAL AeroCity
2. GoK Aerospace hub
3. Various GDCs like Shell etc.
4. Industrialization of the Doddaballabpur Road corridor till Hindupur
5. Development of the PRR
6. Expansion of residences till and beyond Devanahalli & Nandi Hills

I hope 5 years later I do not see the worst of 'development' in my verdant and pristine N-BLR. Apologies for the rant!

[Chetan_Rao]

Originally Posted by itwasntme

...
I hope 5 years later I do not see the worst of 'development' in my verdant and pristine N-BLR. Apologies for the rant!

It's inevitable. That stretch is already unrecognisable from just 5 years ago. Driving to the airport used to be pleasant with open land on both sides, now pretty much everything except restricted govt. acreage is fast turning into concrete jungles.

[gtonsing]

Originally Posted by itwasntme

What has saved N-BLR so far:
5. Development of the PRR

is this still a live topic? I have been hearing about this for more than a decade now (I have a vested interest in this as I have some property around annekal) and nothing seems to be moving other than a mention every now and then. It would really benefit the city if implemented faster, rather than too late like the ORR which was easily 5 or more years late in coming!

[airbus]

I have started a different shift timings from this week. I leave home (near HAL Airport) around 1 pm in company cab to Embassy Tech Village (ETV) and return from ETV at 10 pm. I thought considering that these are off-peak hours, 30 minutes would be enough for one-way commute. Well not exactly, last Tuesday (14 Aug) it took us around one hour from ETV to home although my cab started from ETV at 10:10 pm

[mtnrajdeep]

The new traffic signals at KR Puram bridge have started working since yesterday afternoon. They were allowing traffic for 60 seconds per side with an additional 15 seconds to allow traffic to clear the metro construction stretch. Hopefully this reduces the huge jams on the Ring road.

[speedmiester]

With School, Banks and Govt offices closed, the traffic was far less and could commute to office 30Mins, hope it stays the same in the evening.

[AltoLXI]

Originally Posted by speedmiester

With School, Banks and Govt offices closed, the traffic was far less and could commute to office 30Mins, hope it stays the same in the evening.

Took my new i20 for the first time to office today. 30 minutes flat to cover 13 kms. But back to my Access from Monday again.

[audioholic]

These days I have always preferred two wheeler to car. Due to the metro construction activity all around my office, I have almost stopped taking the car to office. The train between BYPL and Hoodi is also a saving grace for me. Hence, now I have developed an aversion to using car to office and hence, fuel bills have come down by a great margin. The only issue is dust which is very prominent. Hence I use a dust mask and a full face helmet. Maybe I should have given the car some exercise today.


They have not yet begun metro work between BYPL and Tin factory. Once that happens, it will be a total mess in the entire area. The two pairs of tracks from BYPL will cut across the ORR and then across the tin factory junction, and again across the road to the other side toward Lowry Memorial school/ There is not much of diversion possible, since most of the roads in that area are very narrow and are already choked with traffic since vehicles are already trying out short cuts inside.