[Rajeevraj]

Originally Posted by procrj

Slightly OT - What is the best route to take from North Bangalore to HSR layout as on date? NICE seems to have WIP sections, Jayanagar - metro WIP. Residency Road - Forum Mall - Madiwala the best bet?

With the shutdown, I think all routes will be peaceful, especially if you plan to drive in the next couple of days. The city route should make most sense.

[SoumenD]

Originally Posted by Aiel

There is Metro construction going on and there are diversions/narrow section till Diary Circle.
.

Initially I was contemplating getting a cab. But glad I didn't. Roads were mostly empty (by Bangalore standards) due to closure of malls,pubs etc and had a smooth 100kms drive(both way) in 2.5 hours. On normal days that would usually take 4hours+. Airport looked deserted as well with just a few masked men and women going about their business. Shops were all empty. I had to pickup someone and unlike other days there was no one driving people away from the pickup points due to lack of crowd

Even toll booths were deserted with maybe one or two cars at each fastag point. Cash lane had a few cars lined up as usual. But overall can't remember the last time I had such a pleasant airport drive in the evening

[ron_9191]

This is definitely not off topic may be a bit off the thread it follows. I live at NRI layout, not the most famous of the places but this used to be a peaceful layout sandwiched between Ramamurthy Nagar and Horamavu. And by the looks of the infrastructure planning in this area, I am starting to lose all hopes on whoever plans the infrastructure in this side of the city coz at the moment it looks like a set of the next Mad Max movie. And I am tired of being here, it is absolutely depressing. This post is going to be long....

Lets start out journey from Banaswadi main road into the signal above Ramamurthy Nagar under pass. From Banaswadi main road, you could take a free left to get on to the ORR, however, someone would always block it, so you would wait with the rest of the folks who are waiting for the signal and served with a variety of options you can turn left, turn right, make a U-turn and if you go straight, you are again given more options to turn left on to TC Palya main road, or go straight to one of the most congested main roads in the the city, Ramamurthy Nagar main road. Imagine doing this when people around you have absolutely ZERO intentions to follow the traffic rules of at least indicating which directions they want to go, add to that an abundance of people who should have ended up inside some contraceptives on their or mostly rented gear less scooters from any direction, mostly without helmets, over speeding and on the phone, jumping the red light while having 2 or may be more pillion riders on what is actually supposed to be one pillion rider. And then there are the ladies (no disrespect to them) most of them have no idea what they are doing with their scooters, they just sit on them and twist the throttle, no mirrors checked... no nothing. It becomes the responsibility of the driver in front of them, behind or besides them to be careful, except them.

The roads on this side of the town are so badly designed and now like a perfect cocktail, now they are all dug up for drainage, water supply and what not. For almost 2 years the entire area awaits new roads, instead everybody traveling through this side is greeted with tons of dust. It is such a depressing sight to see and experience. Pair it with people who give a rat's bottom about traffic rules and concern for others on the road, it is a complete train wreck. To an extent it is the lackadaisical approach of authorities but you have to hand it over to the citizens too. Particularly the ones on 3 and 2 wheels as well as the ones on overloaded Tata Ace's and similar vehicles. Regardless of which part of the country people are from, when we get on the road we prove our citizenship hands down. You may not want to, but you will be forced to. It is a fact. I know it may offend some, but this is something we need to think about every single time we get our vehicles on the road.

I think I lost my point somewhere but if you have got until here reading my post, you get the idea. If this kind of ignorance is not changing, as the number of vehicles increase by the day, we will get into a situation of absolute gridlock before we know it.

[anandhsub]

Originally Posted by ron_9191

This is definitely not off topic may be a bit off the thread it follows. I live at NRI layout, not the most famous of the places but this used to be a peaceful layout sandwiched between Ramamurthy Nagar and Horamavu.

One of my aunts used to stay right next to Koshys hospital and when I was new to Bangalore used to be a frequent visitor there. The signal on top of the underpass and then that fork between TC Palya Main road and Ramamurthy Nagar Main Road used to be a mess even then ( early 2010s). Can only imagine how bad it is now.

[am1m]

So with a lot of IT companies asking employees to work from home this week, how is the traffic? Anyone still commuting? Noticed a dramatic decrease?

(I've been indoors past 3 days, been looking at gmaps and it shows beautiful green lines on normally dark-red zones! )

Am feeling a bit restless being indoors, but also am feeling so peaceful. I always knew commuting to work was contributing to my stress levels, but I just didn't realize how much.

[SideView]

Originally Posted by am1m

So with a lot of IT companies asking employees to work from home this week, how is the traffic? Anyone still commuting? Noticed a dramatic decrease?

(I've been indoors past 3 days, been looking at gmaps and it shows beautiful green lines on normally dark-red zones! )

Am feeling a bit restless being indoors, but also am feeling so peaceful. I always knew commuting to work was contributing to my stress levels, but I just didn't realize how much.

Agreed.One positive thing out of this horrible situation.

This shows that WFH is a viable option for IT crowd (vast majority) so shouldn’t government bring in some policies to mandate this. We should use what technology allows, easiest route out of this infrastructure road mess. Bangalore would be a much peaceful/happier place.

[Red Liner]

Originally Posted by SideView

. Bangalore would be a much peaceful/happier place.

Our great Indian management will never allow this. They will have less control over their fiefdoms.

Some of my friends are still going into work. Sitting in air conditioned offices with glass enclosures. Why? Because some numbskull at the top doesn't have the spine to call this an emergency and get his people out.

Every single one of these HR and indian country heads just have to be fired and never be hired again. Go till the fields.

[SideView]

Originally Posted by Red Liner

Some of my friends are still going into work. Sitting in air conditioned offices with glass enclosures. Why? Because some numbskull at the top doesn't have the spine to call this an emergency and get his people out.
.

That is just bad, who takes care if the employee gets sick and God forbid something unforeseen happens.

The employees should sue them, that would teach them a lesson.

Thankfully my employer is not so heartless.

[mazda4life]

Originally Posted by am1m

So with a lot of IT companies asking employees to work from home this week, how is the traffic? Anyone still commuting? Noticed a dramatic decrease.

I am one of the souls who is still commuting as I need to access some heavy files and the connection at home doesn’t support such bandwidth requirements. Traffic is absolutely sparse and attendance wafer thin , in my company which is a world leader auto OEM I saw 3 people in the office. I take precautions as laid out by our HSE and hopefully this situation will ease in the coming days. Incidentally, I saw the geniuses at BTP laying the markers for the bus lane just after Silk Board junction and towards Agara.

[am1m]

Originally Posted by SideView

This shows that WFH is a viable option for IT crowd (vast majority) so shouldn’t government bring in some policies to mandate this.

Can't expect the government to regulate everything and that's not a good thing either. Am sure there are some IT companies that require some part of the workforce to remain in the office. And some employees might prefer to come to the office. But yeah, for roles that really don't require one to be physically present at work and for employees (like me!) who hate Bangalore traffic and don't want to add to it, I think it's a no-brainer, hope companies realize that and make wfh the norm for those roles. The business will also save by not having to maintain such humongous offices in overpriced 'IT parks'.

Originally Posted by Red Liner

Our great Indian management will never allow this. They will have less control over their fiefdoms.

Absolutely! From a business pov, it would be better for a company to identify those 'management layers' that have no other function but to monitor what people do at work. Hope that realization dawns too and we get rid of those roles.

[fordday]

Though our company allowed wfh for this week, I have been going to office just to enjoy the empty roads

I ride from BTM via Silkboard to Ecoworld, one of the scariest as far traffic is concerned. Its a 12 km route and on a normal day it takes minimum of one hour. These days I am commuting in 20-25 mins.

Surprisingly I didn't have to touch my brakes even once from Slkboard to Ecoworld.
Ah, what a feeling!!

[sbkumar]

Though I understand the urge to enjoy the traffic free roads, I believe staying back home is really the right option, especially when you have a choice. It's not worth risking yourself, your family and the society overall in the current scenario.

[jkrishnakj]

I had to get to work yesterday. With my office being at Mahadevapura, and my commute being Nice Road, Hosur Road, Jail Road, Iblur, EcoSpace, Marathalli route, the big surprise is that i got to slow down only on Nice road deviations and no where else.

For the first time ever, i covered my 48KM office to home return commute at 10 pm in 50 minutes, which is a record that i don't think i will ever break anytime in the future.

[am1m]

Originally Posted by sbkumar

Though I understand the urge to enjoy the traffic free roads, I believe staying back home is really the right option, especially when you have a choice. It's not worth risking yourself, your family and the society overall in the current scenario.

Relevant point worth discussing I think. What if own transport is used, and no close contact is made with anyone else? Should be ok then.

For example, we intend to go to Cubbon park on Saturday and spend the day there in the open, keeping a safe distance from any other people. Even during normal weekends, it's possible to sit quite far apart from other people in the park. Am thinking during these times the crowd in the park will be even less. Also, driving to some destination, eating food packed at home shouldn't be an issue I think. Will be within the safe limits of social distancing.

Of course opinions, thoughts welcome. But I think a few outside excursions will help make the enforced indoors situation a bit more bearable.

[shamanth]

Originally Posted by am1m

Relevant point worth discussing I think. What if own transport is used, and no close contact is made with anyone else? Should be ok then.

For example, we intend to go to Cubbon park on Saturday and spend the day there in the open, keeping a safe distance from any other people. Even during normal weekends, it's possible to sit quite far apart from other people in the park. Am thinking during these times the crowd in the park will be even less. Also, driving to some destination, eating food packed at home shouldn't be an issue I think. Will be within the safe limits of social distancing.

Of course opinions, thoughts welcome. But I think a few outside excursions will help make the enforced indoors situation a bit more bearable.

Not sure if parks are open to public anymore due to this CoronaVirus issue. Home Quarantine is suggested as virus can spread even by touching something which an infected would have touched few hours before, like door handles, park benches, etc.