[audioholic]

I vote for converting bus lane to exit lane + bus lane, inevitably it will become. After screwing the happiness of commuters by reducing the width of the carriage way and ending up getting stuck behind a slow truck, at least give respite of cruising at 50kmph continuously from Iblur to ISRO junction and vice versa. That will be slightly better than the current setup.

By the way, I discovered that these bollards are pure rubber and highly flexible with the touch. So in case of an emergency, dont worry about damage to vehicles.

Originally Posted by paragsachania

I think to make this track, they would have asked babus from the civic authorities to provide an architecture diagram of magic box underpass. Look at how perfectly it is holding water and reminds us all of the infamous waterlogging in such underpasses.

Maybe they thought that the magic boxes would also drain water magically Contractor to babu "Saar, fullu magicu" and walked away with the deal

[sridhu]

https://twitter.com/sridhu/status/13...944622080?s=19

I had tweeted this at BTP and they have brought in HSR PS.

Perhaps we should put some pressure on them - the situation is very serious with may be 40% of peak traffic.

Someone, probably on a two wheeler, is going to die soon.

Two wheelers drive in the remaining lanes slowly, as they are naturally afraid and maniacally, as is the norm. Cars, vans etc overtake stupidly assuming people will give way as usual. But they don't have any place to move to.

It is impossible to drive safely. You cant stick to a lane because there is a vehicle crawling along in that lane - overladen, over cautious, whatever. You cant weave between lanes because there are no clear paths (ignoring the fact that it is bad driving anyway. But it could be a safe option in Indian conditions)

The system might work if we had the discipline to drive within lanes. But the inherently varying speeds make that infeasible too.

HOVs may be the only answer but enforcement is impossible.

Any other ideas?

Obviously, this makes the assumption that the rest of the bus lane design is safe, sane and well designed. It is not. For example, you have to do hi jinks to get to the 27th Main side road in HSR from the ORR when coming from Bellandur over the Sarjapur overpass

So the point is probably moot anyway. Once we have something approaching regular traffic, it will all get gridlocked and we will all get stuck there for 12 years!

[paragsachania]

Don't rant If you witness lawlessness on Bangalore roads for the next few days and see no cops around on duty:

Bengaluru cops are coming to your home to collect fines.

Traffic cops are going from house to house collecting fines from repeat offenders. There’s Rs 150 crore pending in challans and the men in white and khaki won’t listen to any excuses

[balenoed_]

Ah! What is this new develpment. Resembles the olden days where banks send goons for credit card payment collection.

Are they not supposed to leave it that to the court and send summons for appearing in court?

And I have like 3 addresses across 2 licenses and 2 RCs and I stay at a 4th address now.

[nagarjun]

I am missing the rants on this thread. It used to be a routine to check this page every time I logged in to team-bhp as a first thing in the morning. Its 9 days since a rant on Bangalore traffic.

Some positive out of this terrible Pandemic.

[srvm]

Not really a rant about Bangalore city traffic but related to it.

I did Chennai-Bangalore last Monday via Chittoor-Palamner-Kolar route. I entered KA around dusk. This road up until last year was peaceful since the 4-laned section ended at KA-AP border. Now roads are good and wide up to Chittoor. This time, the idiotic drivers (particularly car drivers with Bangalore registered cars) reminded me of Sunday evening traffic on Mysore-Mandya-Bangalore highway. Absolutely no patience, overtaking at any cost, flashing LED headlights to blind others etc.
Adding more misery to this -
(1) Mindless placement of barricades (without reflector stripes) at so many places
(2) Tractors and 2-wheelers with non-working tail lamps and headlamps resembling a candle light yet driving at 60-70 kmph
(3) Some bikers with bright, multiple LED lamps driving on the wrong-side on the shoulder and blinding correct side drivers

On the whole, yet another peaceful road lost to maniacs

[dark.knight]

Originally Posted by nagarjun

I am missing the rants on this thread. It used to be a routine to check this page every time I logged in to team-bhp as a first thing in the morning. Its 9 days since a rant on Bangalore traffic

Well, you asked for it.

Q: What's the current population of Bangalore?

A: 30 million, 10 million civilians and 20 million traffic cops.

Q: What's the estimated daily revenue of BTP?

A: Immeasurable, but conservatively in the hundreds of billion $ range, on a good day should touch multiple trillions.

Q: Why is Bangalore called a "Maha"nagara?

A: Beats me, though the problem isn't with the word "maha", mahagrama should be accurate.

Q: Where did Bangalore's roads disappear to?

A: A sad tale of a lustful alliance between smart-city, white-topping and the everlasting drain-pipe laying program which commenced 5000 years ago.

[am1m]

Have been driving around South Goa the past few days. One thing is VERY obvious to me, the KA and MH registered drivers are far more impatient than the local GA registered vehicles (esp. KA-03 and MH-12, it has to be said). Just yesterday, heading to Palolem from Margao, it's a narrow highway for quite a distance, the GA cars inevitably wait for side before passing safely, the others keep ducking and weaving, honking till they pass. Also if another vehicle is trying to turn, or there are cows or sheep crossing, it's always the KA or MH vehicle that will move on to the other side of the road just waiting for a gap to slip through instead of just waiting the perhaps 3-5 seconds extra to continue on the correct side of the road! Happened more than a few times to be just a co-incidence.

What makes us so impatient?! (I drive a KA-03 registered vehicle myself.)

Now if I see a KA or MH reg in my mirrors, I pull to the side and slow down as soon as I can and wave the guy through. I'd rather have those idiots far ahead of me than honking right behind me, so that I can enjoy these gorgeous, winding, tree-lined roads!

[Nalin1]

How many times in Bangalore have we seen high beams in your face blinding you and no reaction even if you flash?

When I was in Goa for the first time and finding the way to the resort at around 8 p.m. using GMAPS, I was not allowed to switch to high beam even for a second by the local vehicles . Every car coming in the opposite direction will flash and force me to lower the beam immediately.

Then I realised this is not Bangalore and standards are different. Until I drive out from here, different behaviour is required .

Driving all the time in the garden city means that our mind is polluted to the core. Even a semblance of decency anywhere we find outside the city and we have a quizzical look on our faces, before realisation dawns that I am not in my hometown.

[whitewing]

Originally Posted by Nalin1

How many times in Bangalore have we seen high beams in your face blinding you and no reaction even if you flash?
...

And in our Bengaluru, in most of the cases the oncoming party doesn't even bother reacting to the flashing of lights.
The issue is not limited to oncoming traffic and exists when tailed by a hi-beam vehicle (esp the white LED ones), what I've seen is some cases the driver respond to a hand gesture.

[wildsdi5530]

A question which is probably off-topic

How do you guys deal with dings and dents caused to your car. While driving, rocks and stones are thrown against the sides by the tyre of other vehicles. While driving in residential areas, flying balls hurt your roof. Parking in the street invites branches and fruits falling on the roof. These cause severe dents and dings.

Will you repair it as it happens? claim insurance? Now with 4 dents my roof looks ugly.

[Nalin1]

Originally Posted by wildsdi5530

A question which is probably off-topic
How do you guys deal with dings and dents caused to your car. While driving, rocks and stones are thrown against the sides by the tyre of other vehicles. While driving in residential areas, flying balls hurt your roof. Parking in the street invites branches and fruits falling on the roof. These cause severe dents and dings.
Will you repair it as it happens? claim insurance? Now with 4 dents my roof looks ugly.

Depends on the size and visibility of the dents you are collecting. Minor ones all over the car which are not eye sores, can wait while they accumulate. Then get all of them fixed at one shot during service or anywhere outside.

Major ones which are clearly visible and cause a heartache everytime you look at it are different. In my opinion, it is better to fix them (with or without insurance) as they are image breakers on the road. Especially with a TEAM-BHP sticker!.

[GrammarNazi]

Just this January, Bangalore was rated as the World's most congested city, and while I'd been out running errands for the past month, I marked a substantial reduction in travel-time.


Ofcourse the air is better & the climate is heavenly. But theres also tragic disruption among various strata of society. The consequences of which will eventually merge in different unforgiving forms.

[am1m]

Originally Posted by GrammarNazi

Of course the air is better & the climate is heavenly. But theres also tragic disruption among various strata of society.

True, and truly unfortunate that it takes a pandemic to improve drive-ability and air quality in our city.

Also interesting and sad that most of us have given up on the possibility/hope of the same results being achieved without a covid-like situation. I mean, surely there are cities around the world that have achieved good air quality and decent traffic conditions just by proper planning, efficient use of public transport, and traffic rule enforcement, right? But I've heard this sentiment expressed a lot (from me included) around me that it can only be a covid-like event that will enable us to de-congest our cities and make them more livable.

Yet, I still have hope. The CBD area of Bangalore has definitely taken steps towards this goal. There are gaps and inefficiencies, and it's taking it's own sweet time, but as a visitor to that area since childhood, I can certainly say that it has improved with the Metro and the facilities that have come up for pedestrians, like the good footpaths. There was a time 10 years ago when we wouldn't have dreamed of visiting MG Road, Cubbon Park and the surrounding areas. But the past few years, I've been a regular visitor thanks to the Metro and footpaths. (Yes, I know a lot of that area is a mess right now because of the ongoing road work and Metro usage is curtailed because of covid, of course.)

Perhaps eventually that model will spread to the rest of the city. Might take a couple of lifetimes but...

[srivibhu]

I feel that the new dedicated lane from silk board to marathalli and beyond is just stupid.
It's all fine and dandy when there's hardly any traffic in roads.

I'm dreading the time when next year it rains JN the evening with full traffic and 2 buses and a லாரி breaks down on one of the flyovers.

The last time I got stuck in such a situation a couple of years back too my 4 hours agara to marathalli. I took an dinner break in marathalli and hence only 4 hours.

With this beautiful lane system I think i can easily expect a 6 hour gridlock.
And the bikes are just going crazy weaving in and out of traffic or riding bank in the middle of the road at 30kmph blocking the lanes because that are insecure to allow cars on the side.

This system and bangalore traffic management is getting stupider by the day.