[Secretariat]

Originally Posted by KL01toKA03

I'm not surprised. I've even seen cops go the wrong way on that stretch. I guess it is time to shoot a video and ask what the Twitter handle of BTP thinks about this.

Instead I drafted the Bangalore Motor Vehicles (Wrong Side) Rules 2018 and put it up here on this Forum for public comments.

Link to said Draft Rules

[dZired]

A private bus has suffered a flat tyre in the Kadubesanahalli subway, going towards Marathahalli. Expect long queues.

[wildsdi5530]

Originally Posted by am1m

Like they did for drunken driving and now they are doing for 'wheelies'

This is something I cannot understand. A drunken driver usually is of no trouble to anyone. Most of the guys who get caught will comfortably pass a field sobriety test. While I am against drunken driving, none of the accidents that have happened to me, more than 10 in the past 20 years were caused by someone drunk. Also wheelies are done by some idiot kids who want to try stunts on empty stretches of the roads. A person who does not wear his helmet is just not caring for his life. Sunfilm is used by someone who wants his privacy (You cannot ban someone from having frosted windows in his home, can you?). All these people should be prosecuted when their 'crime' results in an accident. For example, if a drunk driver or a kid wheeling causes an accident, let the fines be 10 times of normal. If a person without a helmet dies, let the opposite party be absolved and no life insurance claim be entertained.

Controlling traffic is much simpler. Ensure lane discipline, catch signal jumpers, clear bottlenecks, penalize fender benders, etc. No cop is doing any of these things. It's almost as if there is no real traffic police. The white shirts are just to make collections.

[sachinpk]

Originally Posted by wildsdi5530

Also wheelies are done by some idiot kids who want to try stunts on empty stretches of the roads. A person who does not wear his helmet is just not caring for his life. Sunfilm is used by someone who wants his privacy (You cannot ban someone from having frosted windows in his home, can you?). All these people should be prosecuted when their 'crime' results in an accident. For example, if a drunk driver or a kid wheeling causes an accident, let the fines be 10 times of normal. If a person without a helmet dies, let the opposite party be absolved and no life insurance claim be entertained.

The Sun film ban was done thanks to a Supreme Court judgment, where as the law (framed by elected representatives chosen by people) had a much liberal provision. And the other cases you listed; all are considered as "offenses" as per the Motor Vehicle Act.

A traffic police force - who is bound to enforce such laws cannot pick & choose on what they should be doing. We always say that police should do xyz activity (which does not bother us), and only then do activity abc (which would be a bother/pain for us). As regarding wheelies; there is also another angle to it. These stunts are also done by gangs of youngsters who are also a menace to the society (with the irritating sound caused by their motor bikes the least menace).

For wheelie stunt masters, the recommended punishment should be what the Indian Army sentries did a few years back, when one such stunt master decided to hide inside the military campus near Trinity circle .

[Chetan_Rao]

Originally Posted by wildsdi5530

...wheelies are done by some idiot kids who want to try stunts on empty stretches of the roads....

If you've never encountered one of these idiots on a public road with plenty of assorted traffic around them, count yourself fortunate. This is not a sarcastic comment.

....if a drunk driver or a kid wheeling causes an accident, let the fines be 10 times of normal. If a person without a helmet dies, let the opposite party be absolved and no life insurance claim be entertained.

What do you propose we do when one of these idiots kills another innocent party? Not a hypothetical, there are documented cases of wheelie-toting riders and other assorted adrenaline-fueled stunt-junkies having crashed into and fatally injured pedestrians or other road users. Fining them to the moon and back (or even executing them for their crime, if we want to go full eye-for-an-eye) isn't going to address irreversible consequences someone else had to bear.

These idiots are free to hire a race track and maim/kill themselves pulling whatever stunts they want (as long as they sign the indemnity for the venue/organizer). Public roads, empty or not, are built to a purpose that doesn't include doing wheelies and pulling dangerous stunts. There should be absolute zero tolerance, esp. in this country where everyone has a 'justification' for everything.

P.S. The idiocy doesn't stop at personal antics. People let their kids do (or worse, teach them) stuff like this (link references a 2017 post on the Accidents Thread), then boast on social media about it.

P.P.S. This was posted today. Every bystander is a potential victim.

[sridhu]

http://flip.it/-Q6xZh

Apparently Mumbai is the worst in the world in traffic flow.

We should all join hands & fight this injustice. How can anyone not place Bangalore as the first is beyond me!

Seriously though, with my anecdotal evidence of Mumbai ,it definitely seemed much better & more predictable.

[binand]

Originally Posted by sridhu

Apparently Mumbai is the worst in the world in traffic flow.

How can anyone not place Bangalore as the first is beyond me!

Spare the outrage. As the dictionary defines it:

flow (n): a steady, continuous stream

There is an assumption of movement in the definition.

Now, if they were to study the worst city in terms of traffic gridlock/standstill and Bangalore didn't figure in the top spot...

[Rajeevraj]

Originally Posted by sridhu

Seriously though, with my anecdotal evidence of Mumbai ,it definitely seemed much better & more predictable.

They key word I believe is 'predictable'. In most other places there seems to be an order to the volume of traffic and associated jams. We kind of know that on a particular route we can get delayed for X amount of time and can accordingly plan.

Here the biggest problem I see is the unpredictability. One can get stuck anywhere at any time for N number of reasons.When that happens, it triggers further 'short cut' behaviour that worsens the situation and makes things more unpredictable

[wildsdi5530]

Originally Posted by sachinpk

......A traffic police force - who is bound to enforce such laws cannot pick & choose on what they should be doing. We always say that police should do xyz activity (which does not bother us), and only then do activity abc (which would be a bother/pain for us). .....

Originally Posted by Chetan_Rao

If you've never encountered one of these idiots on a public road with plenty of assorted traffic around them, count yourself fortunate. This is not a sarcastic comment.
What do you propose we do when one of these idiots kills another innocent party?

I'm not saying that these crimes are not important. I agree that these have to be stopped, My contention is that for every idiot kid doing a wheelie, there are a hundred guys jumping signals or riding on the wrong side. (These guys are probably their fathers).
If the smaller crimes of jumping signals, lane weaving, honking, illegal parking, footpath riding, wrong side riding, etc are stopped, then the bigger crimes can be targeted and eradicated. Our traffic police are looking for terrorists and mass murderers and encouraging thieves and muggers. If you look at a single episode of the crime then the bigger ones seem worse, but when taken in toto, the smaller more easily enforceable crimes tip the scales.
A common sight at Jalahalli cross is 5-6 cops stopping helmet less kids and commercial vehicles. These cops can reach out and touch the BMTC bus which is on the wrong side of the divider and blocking oncoming traffic, but they ignore it.

[shamanth]

Originally Posted by wildsdi5530

A common sight at Jalahalli cross is 5-6 cops stopping helmet less kids and commercial vehicles. These cops can reach out and touch the BMTC bus which is on the wrong side of the divider and blocking oncoming traffic, but they ignore it.

I observe the same after supreme court made helmet compulsory, Bangalore traffic police which used to catch one-way riders and other traffic violation, has completely stopped this and now everywhere you see they only catch helmetless riders. I used to laugh at Hyderabad traffic how people ride in wrong way, where as in Bangalore its very strict 7-8 years back. Now its opposite now, wrong way riders in Hyderabad has reduced while Bangalore it's become epidemic, and haven't seen BTP catching anyone for wrong way ride even when they go front of them.

This is my observation at Bommanahalli junction traffic coming from HSR side. 4-5 Traffic police are always stationed, 100s of two wheeler and Auto come in wrong way of both side of road, and do it in front of traffic police, they are never stopped or fined. But if you ride in wrong way or right way without helmet they pounce on you.

My summary is BTP has become helmetless rider catching agency.

[shamanth]

Have complained the same with BTP in facebook. But still no change.

Sorry for repeat post, no option to attach photo in edit.

[mpksuhas]

Traffic update -

1. Truck breakdown in front of HDFC Bank/ near Fisherman's Wharf is causing traffic jam towards Sarjapur road on Haralur road.

2. Truck accident near HSR flyover towards Silk board causing a jam.

[bejoy]

Originally Posted by mpksuhas

2. Truck accident near HSR flyover towards Silk board causing jam.

Another day, another truck at the same Agara flyover towards Silkboard.

The mangled truck was being cleared (2 cranes on the job) when I passed 10 minutes back. Traffic backed up till kadubeesanahalli and beyond.

[mazda4life]

Better to park some permanent cranes at that location. Just passed the flyover and could see some black material spilled on the road , hope it’s not oil. Oil on roads with rains is a very hazardous combo.

[dZired]

The ORR is fully packed at the moment. I am stuck under the Kadubesanahalli subway. Has taken me 50+ minutes to travel from Karthik Nagar to KBS.

The accident at Agara flyover, reported earlier by mpksuhas , appears to be the culprit here.