[rohan_iitr]

Originally Posted by Jaguar

They should build a wall around the city and keep out all those who have gone out for the holidays. It has been the most pleasant couple of days to drive around in the city. I actually heard one shopkeeper saying that this reminds him of old Bangalore as he could get to Majestic from Koramangala and back in 45 mins.

On a lighter note, it would not be possible to build a wall around Bangalore without the outsiders, because all the construction labourers are outsiders.

Rohan

[Jaguar]

Originally Posted by ValarMorghulis

As much as I love no traffic or less traffic, I somehow don't like this comment. Is it aimed at people from outside this state? How does one become "of this state"? Does buying a house, multiple vehicles, and living in the city for 10+ years qualify one for that or a something else is required? Or only people who buy property etc. are called of this state?

Let's not say such unpleasant words
PS: Happy Deepavali

My comment was meant as a joke and I am sorry you didn't get it. Nowhere in my statement I had made reference to outsiders, so not sure why you are reading between the lines. And I don't understand why people take everything seriously and get offended at the drop of a hat.
PS: For the record, even I am not from Karnataka and have come here for work.

[arindambasu13]

Originally Posted by NPV

Traffic was so light in Bangalore today compared to usual weekends, love these holidays when lot of people travel out of the city, this is usually when I love to go around the city

Tell me about it. Look forward to Diwali holidays just for this In fact, Sunday was even better than Saturday, with many signals being left open and no jams or snarls resulting out of it. I also noticed that almost no one was honking behind each other and everyone looked to be driving in a calm and serene mood, with no hurry. It was such a brilliant experience driving through the city during the weekend.

Just goes to show how much stress plays a part in traffic insanity. Cut out the honking and speeding and a bit of lane discipline, and things just get so much better and peaceful.

If only this were the case all year round.

[ValarMorghulis]

Originally Posted by Jaguar

My comment was meant as a joke...

In that case.. cheers

[msdivy]

Originally Posted by Jaguar

They should build a wall around the city and keep out all those who have gone out for the holidays.

Originally Posted by ValarMorghulis

Is it aimed at people from outside this state?

Outside city doesn't mean outside of state. Beyond Bangalore (which 700 sq Km) there is rest of Karnataka (which is 200,000 sq Km area) - all area of which fall outside the city.

[bvasista]

Originally Posted by NPV

Traffic was so light in Bangalore today compared to usual weekends, love these holidays when lot of people travel out of the city, this is usually when I love to go around the city

I too love this part . I have seen traffic in Chennai, Hyderabad also being less hectic, more peaceful on weekends (including Friday) which are near major festivals (falling on Thursday/Tuesday) since many people travel out of city. I guess its a breeze to get around the any major city in India at such days.

[Chetan_Rao]

It didn't last all week. Traffic was the usual mess today.

[grevvity]

Originally Posted by grevvity

Don't worry. It won't take years to scrap. They have just temporarily erected few bollards and it won't take more than a couple of weeks for authorities to realize their blunder and remove them.

Delhi was a different case since BRT required a complete change in road infrastructure due to which it took a lot of time to remove them.

Like I mentioned few pages ago, all the bollards/safety cones fixed for marking bus lanes are removed now and its a free for all affair.

[LonelyPlanet]

Originally Posted by Chetan_Rao

It didn't last all week. Traffic was the usual mess today.

Yes the mess was back Wed evening itself.
Now brace yourself for the Tsunami on Monday morning ride !!

[msdivy]

Originally Posted by audioholic

Another stupid implementation burning tax payers money and no one knows where these bollards and all the efforts and money go now.

The bollards were in place for just 1 KM, maybe on a trial basis. If they are gone, no need to be concerned. We must provide leeway to the implementation team to make tactical adjustments to make the effort successful.

Originally Posted by srishiva

They could have fast-tracked the metro instead of this exercise.

Metro is 5 or 6 years of effort. The bus lane was planned in a month and will be implemented in a month, at best a 2-month effort. So vastly cheaper option to ease traffic congestion.

With metro going to take half the road during construction, how long will this bus lane last anyway

Metro construction hasn't started and is still 2 or 3 years away. How will it affect bus-lane now? If metro constructions start, not just bus lanes, every TDH and their aunts, uncles will be affected.

Originally Posted by LonelyPlanet

Their non cooperation on effectively running metro feeders is a prime example of the threat they perceive that metro to be.

Metro being a threat to BMTC is news . In fact traffic is threat to BMTC. Buses service areas which are not serviced by metro.
Metro stations are serviced regular BMTC routes. BMTC does run metro feeders. But they don't have scheduled nor the routes are useful.

This bus lane is just a feeble attempt to somehow stay relevant.

Average speed of bus during peak hours had dropped to 5 Kmph. Bus lane is the effort to get that speed to 10 Kmph.

[itwasntme]

Brace yourself for massive jams exiting BLR today (Tumkur Road, Hosur Road, Bellary Road, Kanakapura Road, Old Mysore Road etc.) for the long weekend coupled with unusually grand Rajyotsava celebrations.

Saw multiple convoys today getting readied with flags, posters & garlands on my morning commute.

They were already impeding traffic (ably assisted by the local cops) on the Tumkur Road side :-(

[srishiva]

Originally Posted by msdivy

Metro is 5 or 6 years of effort. The bus lane was planned in a month and will be implemented in a month, at best a 2-month effort. So vastly cheaper option to ease traffic congestion.

.

Agree, but Metro is a 5 to 6 years construction activity. There will be a lane less on both sides of the median for that period. It will be hell unless they join the service roads into the main road.

BMTC has seen a drop of 10 lakh commuters in one year. This is mostly due to slow movement of buses. Atleast hope this will improve. We could have even gone for dedicated bridge over roads with just 2 lanes for buses only instead of building flyovers for all vehicles. Public transport is never part of the general city planning which should change. But then its hoping for impossible in this country :(

[vharihar]

Originally Posted by srishiva

Agree, but Metro is a 5 to 6 years construction activity. There will be a lane less on both sides of the median for that period. It will be hell unless they join the service roads into the main road.

Fully agree. That's what I also suggested here:

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/stree...ml#post4682549 (Rants on Bangalore's traffic situation)

[wildsdi5530]

Originally Posted by srishiva

We could have even gone for dedicated bridge over roads with just 2 lanes for buses only instead of building flyovers for all vehicles. :(

BMTC buses stop for all and sundry, with bus stops every 100 Mts and even between stops. This is mainly due to the incentives that the drivers and conductors get. So having a bridge over roads is impractical, unless the bus stops and pavement is also shifted upwards. I say the best way to run BMTC is to stop incentivizing them and go back to a standard salary system. Agreed that this would prevent it being run as a corporate and will stop focussing only on profits at all costs. But it would temper down the aggressiveness of the drivers, esp against other BMTC drivers. When have you seen 2 BMTC buses one behind the other if there is space for them side to side.
Also read a funny article in the newspaper about how the maintenance costs of buses have gone up because of potholed roads. Not because of driving on the shoulders. Also the average fuel efficiency has gone down from 3.8 to 3.7 kmpl. I remember the depots in Chennai had signs advising an average of 5.5 kmpl a few years back. Food for thought?

[rsrnair80]

Looks like the bus Lane rollout on ORR has now been postponed to NOV 15. Authorities are citing delays in completing the lane marking, using bollards, due to the rains.

Per BBMP: “Due to rain, our staff couldn’t complete their work. Marking of the lane and fixing of bollards are pending. A few bollards were damaged due to some hit-and-run cases. Traffic police are also yet to notify it as a bus-priority lane to book violators entering it.”