[shankar.balan]

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

How is today’s traffic scenario on the Iblur-Outer Ring Road area looking?

I have to travel from HSR around 12noon, for a work-lunch appointment to a hotel near Marathahalli on the Outer Ring Road and get back around 2pm.

Quoting myself since no one replied. I did go. Left at 1110 am and reached the destination on ORR at Marathahalli by 1145. No problem. Returned from there around 145pm. Was home by 215pm despite the heavy traffic buildup. It was moving along reasonably today.

[drive2eternity]

Originally Posted by jkrishnakj

I had to attend a dinner event at Bannerghatta Road on a Sunday evening (three days back).

No more Sunday evening jaunts. That’s it!

Originally Posted by airguitar

Its' becoming common. Sat afternoons and Sunday evenings are as bad as weekday mornings or evenings.

Originally Posted by sachinpk

+1. Social life is practically becoming zero.

Agree with all of you. I can feel my social life going down the drain. Forget about going too far in the city, even traveling within a radius of 2-4 kms is usually challenging.

Weekdays: The roads are clogged 8am (sometimes earlier) onwards till about 11am, and then from 4pm onwards till late night. Just getting back home after a day at office is an accomplishment. If you ask me - When was the last time I attended a social event on a weekday, I wouldnt even remember.

Weekends: Saturdays are pathetic from 12 noon onwards till late night. I always insist to my wife to plan our outings to at least start by 11am on a Saturday BUT it doesnt always materialize and then I am stuck in traffic, cursing the city, the roads, the infra, everyone and myself.
Sundays are better but evening post 4pm, there is definite built up which eases only by 9-10pm.

Hence my most preferred social gathering/outing is - Sunday brunch/lunch

And I am talking about the HSR - Bellandur - Sarjapur Road area in my above sentences. My wife hates me for ranting so much about traffic and always checking google maps the moment she suggests we go out somewhere!

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

Quoting myself since no one replied. I did go. Left at 1110 am and reached the destination on ORR at Marathahalli by 1145. No problem. Returned from there around 145pm. Was home by 215pm despite the heavy traffic buildup. It was moving along reasonably today.

You were there at the leanest of times sir - cheers to you!

[shankar.balan]

Originally Posted by drive2eternity

Weekdays: The roads are clogged 8am (sometimes earlier) onwards last time I attended a social event on a weekday, I wouldnt even remember.

Weekends: Saturdays are pathetic from 12 noon onwards till late night. I always insist to my wife to plan our outings to at least start by 11am on a Saturday

Hence my most preferred social gathering/outing is - Sunday brunch/lunch

And I am talking about the HSR - Bellandur - Sarjapur Road area in my above sentences. My wife hates me for ranting so much about traffic and always checking google maps the moment she suggests we go out somewhere!

You were there at the leanest of times sir - cheers to you!

I completely 100% resonate with what you are saying. I absolutely hate going out. I don't like going to office either and since the pandemic have happily freed up all the people who work with me to make their own choices whether they want to WFH or not. We have not reinstated mandatory WFO as a company either. I think a lot of time is wasted unnecessarily in the commute and people are much happier WFH.

I intensely dislike socialising especially when it involves going out in the evenings. My activities are confined to early mornings for exercise, walks, dog walks, countryside and highway drives and golf. Sometimes I ll do afternoon golf.

Golf is the beginning and end of any socialising that I do in Bangalore.

If at all we go out we do an early lunch on Sat or Sun at some favourite restaurant but only provided I can park comfortably and safely in a secure environment. I am happy to pay and park in UB City for example and walk to someplace like Sunny’s for lunch. We always leave this HSR area early and go to places like Blossom book shop on Church Street (paid safe parking at that Shoba Mall with the RCB cafe) and other parts of town like Forum Mall where there is great parking and get back also quickly. The sheer volume of traffic on these Bangalore roads is unbelievable. And the road conditions also are truly and indescribably horrid. So even for a drive in the city, its better to take the Mahindra Thar or Gypsy.

Luckily my wife is supportive of my quirks. If at all she wants to catch up with her friends she takes an Uber/ Ola and spares me the irritation of traffic and the bad drivers who live in this city.

I am much happier to hang out at home quietly with my dog and read or watch some car videos on YouTube or fiddle with my scale model car collection or mess about with my cars. I vastly prefer even hanging out at the garage fiddling with my Gypsy than battling Bangalore traffic.

[Nalin1]

The condition of roads all over is unbelievably horrible. Either potholes, bumps, thumps humps, patches, craters, construction etc.

A Bharath Ratna to all the BMTC, Ola, Uber, school bus, office bus drivers for enduring this day in and day out.

[shankar.balan]

We had some strong rains in Bangalore more or less throughout last night. The roads in consequence seem to have plenty of waterlogged areas. Worth being watchful if going out today, though today has awoken with the promise of sunshine.

[ashis89]

The drains are packed and there's minor waterlogging on the Yemalur road but hundreds of cars are back from the basements on to the road side parking. Can't confirm if the basements/roads were flooded but it is worth avoiding stepping out on the road, if possible.

[sachinpk]

Originally Posted by ashis89

The drains are packed and there's minor waterlogging on the Yemalur road but hundreds of cars are back from the basements on to the road side parking.

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

Worth being watchful if going out today, though today has awoken with the promise of sunshine.

Checked the usual channels. Looks like no major water logging problems at the infamous Doddanekkundi, Bellandur side as of this morning as of around 0900Hrs. Traffic was also slightly less on the usual route I take, perhaps many people have decided to work from home. Tomorrow, I foresee problems if it rains heavily as there would also be a heavy flow of traffic outbound from the city as Deepavali/Diwali holidays are coming up.

[ShreyG]

Early morning Rant coming up-
What is with the wrong side driving in the city? At first it was only the delivery folks on Yulu and scooties. Then we progressed to the autos and today I have seen the likes of Tata 407 and Aces. Was on Kundanhalli Main Rd going towards CMRIT from Old airport road. As it is the road is short on space and was clogged up.
We had a daring packers and movers Tata Ace coming up on the wrong side of the road amidst all the traffic and chaos. There were a couple of traffic cops merrily sitting in the shade chit chatting but not daring to get up and clear up or even stop the Tata Ace guy.
Does this mean that soon we will see those huge BBMP tippers and BMTCs also driving on the wrong side to take a U turn or beat the traffic on the right side?
Seems like tax paying, mango janta is easy fodder to reach their targets and traffic congestion is least of their concerns.
Just today there is an article about all passengers (rear as well) requiring to wear seat belts within city limits. The rule is effective immediately. These police folk would have gotten up rubbing their hands together, delighted at their new source of income.

P.S - I am all for it and ask people to belt up when we hit the highway. But the suddenness of the implementation might catch a lot of people unawares.

[adi_gt]

Originally Posted by jaganm

I Was discussing with a friend, what are the top choke points in our Ooru? There was a time when we used to talk about Sony World, but it has got a whole lot better now. In my experience, these are the 3 spots that are in the God tier
1. Goreguntapalya junction
2. Silk Board
3. ORR Sarjapur Road near Agara/Iblur
4. Hebbal to Windsor Manor on Bellary Road

Anything else?

These jams are all in the "finite" category with some hope howsoever far that may be but still there is hope. Check Varthur - Gunjur Section after 11am on Saturday (provided you can survive Hopefarm signal). This jam comes under hopeless category, with no finite limits to it. I have stood at one place near Varthur PS for 1.5 hour with nothing much to do once. And such an end of the world scenario is not very uncommon to the residents and commuters in that area.

[EV NXT]

How is the block from Silk Board to Richmond Circle with the Metro work going on? Would it be bearable on a Sunday afternoon?

[Funny]

Experienced mad traffic today. Never seen so bad traffic in many years now. Had to do loop of Whitefield-OMR-KR Puram-ORR-Bellary Road-Malleswaram and it was choked at so many areas especially while returning back on OMR it took me 1.5hr+ to cover the stretch from ITI to Kadugodi that I usually cover in 30mins and this section consists of few kilometers of Highways too but it was chock-a-block traffic everywhere since many turns have been barricaded and people were queuing up at the limited turns available, seems like everyone were out on the roads today.

[gtonsing]

I was returning home on Sunday and going over Lingarajpuram flyover around 1 pm on 23rd. The whole thing on the direction going towards hennur was standstill traffic. We spent easily an hour trying to complete that flyover. Things didnt seem brighter even after the flyover so when we hit a slightly lower road divider, I took a U-turn (I knew my Creta would be able to climb over that, maybe not team TBHP-like behaviour but I had two very hungry children in the back) and went back towards the city, diverted to Banaswadi side and went home. Any idea what went on at that time in that area? I would like to know the reason.
Monday was pure bliss and joy to drive in Bangalore. I didnt go to many areas but from where I live (Kannur) till National Games Village in under 40 mins! I blessed everyone I saw on the road and those that I did not see for freeing up the road to 20years ago conditions and even if it was for just that day, it was pure joy, the Bangalore we loved returned for that day.

[ninjatalli]

Originally Posted by gtonsing

Monday was pure bliss and joy to drive in Bangalore. I didnt go to many areas but from where I live (Kannur) till National Games Village in under 40 mins! I blessed everyone I saw on the road and those that I did not see for freeing up the road to 20years ago conditions and even if it was for just that day, it was pure joy, the Bangalore we loved returned for that day.

So was Tuesday (/today). Left home at 10:40 am for my office at Bellandur and normally this would have been suicidal; but today it took me only 31 mins (from Trinity church to Bellandur) and that too traveling via the ORR (Koramangla - Agara Lake - Bellandur). Similarly returned early by ~4pm and again travel was seamless and I reached back home in ~30 mins. All roads were less than 50% filled throughout the day. No honking, people were driving sedately and not hurrying around. I thought I was in a different city entirely!

[PreludeSH]

City roads were empty today. Roads look wide and traffic lights were turned off in most places.

I think there is also impact of eclipse. I saw very less people in hotels and some of them were even closed !

[Rajeevraj]

Originally Posted by gtonsing

Monday was pure bliss and joy to drive in Bangalore. I didnt go to many areas but from where I live (Kannur) till National Games Village in under 40 mins! I blessed everyone I saw on the road and those that I did not see for freeing up the road to 20years ago conditions and even if it was for just that day, it was pure joy, the Bangalore we loved returned for that day.

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

All roads were less than 50% filled throughout the day. No honking, people were driving sedately and not hurrying around. I thought I was in a different city entirely!

Always been the case during the Diwali week in Bangalore. The only time the city really feels emptied out. Expect it to be similar for most of this week with tomorrow also being a holiday for schools and many companies.

This is the week when one can be daring enough to go from say a Sarjapur Road to Malleswaram/Yeswantpur or a Kengeri to Whitefield for no particular reason. . If you want to visit a part of the city which you always wanted to go, but never did thinking of the traffic, this week is the time to do it.