Rants on Bangalore's traffic situation

[Spitfire]

So I was driving back from Goa on Sunday. And the Bangalore madness was in full view 100 kms away.

While two trucks were hogging both lanes. With the right one faster then the left one. I was right behind in the right lane. Speed of about 60-70 kmph.

From behind me comes a i10, honking and flashing headlights. Like I treat all small fry I ignore. So he jumps to my left. I have now opened a small gap between me and the overtaking truck infront as it is safer knowing the wrong side riding on this road.

Our i10 guy now squeezes into this gap cutting me of from the left?? I get irritated and think to myself. Welcome to Bangalore already.. LOL!!

So our guy is now tailgating the truck in the right lane. Overtaking maneuver complete the truck now starts moving to the left lane to let me pass. He has not seen the i10 I believe.

What the i10 does is what we all in Bangalore can recognize with. He moves to the left lane to overtake the truck from the left. He has no patience for the truck to go left and then overtake from the right lane. What a stupid move. I know the truck driver has not seen this pest. And so our hero is pushed off the road and off it. He brakes in a huge cloud of dust. The slower truck behind narrowly misses the moron and all of us continue on.

The idiot in the i10 risked two fatal maneuvers in a space of 30 secs?? What sort of people are these?

He then came barreling again. Overtook the truck probably spoke some words to him and then shot off in the horizon.

About 1 hour+ later I found him at the Peenya flyover toll booth. LOL!!

PS: There were many more incidents on NH4 attributed to Bangalore registered vehicles. But then its out of scope of this thread.

[kaushik_s]

Originally Posted by IronH4WK

what i meant was you being on the wrong side of the cops, not the law.

Whoopssiee, Sorry I misunderstood your statement. It was late at night so I guess I was bit un-attentive.

@Spitfire, about that i10, as one of my friend used to say about these kind of drivers- He was probably in a hurry as he was running with lot of back-pressure (if you know what I mean )

[Spitfire]

Originally Posted by kaushik_s

He was probably in a hurry as he was running with lot of back-pressure (if you know what I mean )

There are quite a few places to release this back pressure on the route. If that was the reason he must have let go of the pressure at the Yeswantpur-ORR Junction. He was there along with me for about 30 mins in that jam. LOL!!

Coming to wrong side of the Traffic Police, trust me I have seen the ugly. Its bad. Wont sound like that broken record that you mentioned but a lot of this is true. Seen it and experienced it. I though have only 2 violations in 7 years.

[praful]

Originally Posted by Spitfire

From behind me comes a i10,

Was it a black i10?

If not the same, I had a similar chap when I was driving back from Panjim April last year. Was surprised to his "zest" if I may call it that at 3AM on the Tumkur-Bangalore stretch!

[suhaas307]

Presenting: One of the worst bottle-necks in Bangalore City.

What are the factors that make it a bottle-neck? Here goes:

- 4 lanes on one side become two. Yes! It merges into 2 small lanes.

Well, actually it isn't really 4 lanes, but if we were to fit vehicles within the breadth of the road, we can place as many as 5, I'm sure.

- At the point where the lanes converge, one will encounter massive pot-holes, plenty of stones, caved-in bits and lots of mud. You cannot get into 2nd gear while you're on this 20 meter stretch and if you do, your under-carriage would have seen better days.

- Traffic coming from Cambridge flow into this road. It's a T-junction. And unfortunately, the part where the roads merge is where the you'd find undulations and pot-holes.

[kaushik_s]

Originally Posted by Spitfire

There are quite a few places to release this back pressure on the route. If that was the reason he must have let go of the pressure at the Yeswantpur-ORR Junction. He was there along with me for about 30 mins in that jam. LOL!!

Ha ha that won't be a pretty sight I guess but seriously I sometimes don't understand this psyche of some of these smaller and more maneuverable car drivers (ok, even some bigger ones in SUV's also try the same) to wriggle through the traffic when there is no need at all. Even I do drive a bit on fast but doing stunts like that is a strict no no. Normally a long distance traveller has to be well composed, well behaved and very alert all the time and one has to put that instinct of cutting lanes suddenly or overtaking without looking/planning at home if he doesn't want to reach his destination in a body bag.

Coming to wrong side of the Traffic Police, trust me I have seen the ugly. Its bad. Wont sound like that broken record that you mentioned but a lot of this is true. Seen it and experienced it. I though have only 2 violations in 7 years.

May be I've been plain lucky all these years, touch wood. Hope I won't see the worst side of BTP and God forbids, if it happens I'll sure put an update here.

[Spitfire]

Originally Posted by praful

Was it a black i10?

It was a red one. Your i10 guy might not be around if the zest he showed that night continued for a while.

Originally Posted by kaushik_s

Normally a long distance traveller has to be well composed, well behaved and very alert all the time and one has to put that instinct of cutting lanes suddenly or overtaking without looking/planning at home if he doesn't want to reach his destination in a body bag.

The reason we see the horrific accidents on our highways. Very true. I don't exceed 100 kmph and stay within 80-90 kmph all throughout. I saw another silver Vento being driven like crazy. The guy was doing 140+ speeds for sure. I was doing 90 and this guy just vamoosed past me in a blink. On our roads that's calling for some real divine intervention to keep you safe.

May be I've been plain lucky all these years, touch wood. Hope I won't see the worst side of BTP and God forbids, if it happens I'll sure put an update here.

The key here is to not break any rules, whatever the provocation. Once you are in the right. However bad the other guy is, you dont have to worry. It has worked for me, quite well.

[Santoshbhat]

Almost had a heart attack couple of weeks back on the elevated road just after Nelamangala going towards Yeashwanthpur.

I was returning from Tumkur, it was early evening. I follow the speed limit on these elevated roads and was doing exactly 80 kph on my Laura. Couple of Innova cab drivers (probably racing each other) passed me from the right and occupied the two front lanes ahead of me, one trying to pass the other. Now these elevated roads are barely wide enough for two lanes. Even pedestrians are not expected on these roads (there is a possibility that they could be squeezed between a bus and the guardrail due to absence of footpaths). All of a sudden one of the Innovas on the left jams his brakes and swerves towards the right to get behind the other Innova. The next sight made me skip a heart beat. A two wheeler carrying someone pillion coming right at me with his headlights on. The road going towards tumkur was choc a bloc due to some blockage ahead and this genius worked out that if he could jump the divider and put his lights on he could jump a long queue of traffic. What's more there were about a dozen more of these 'geniuses' that decided follow their brave leader.

On the narrow elevated road vehicles zip at 100+ overtaking each other from either side as they don't expect any intervention of any sort. What is it worth for these people to put their life on the line? I would piss in my pants just to stand as a pedestrian on that elevated road and here are these brave souls going in the opposite direction. I just can't believe the levels of desperation here. To his credit he was waving his hands and had his lights on.

[Spitfire]

Originally Posted by Santoshbhat

I just can't believe the levels of desperation here. To his credit he was waving his hands and had his lights on.

YOU MUST BE KIDDING ME!!!

I now believe there is no hope for this city. I cannot fathom the stupidity of it all. The lame management of this city has to blamed for this.

[Santoshbhat]

Originally Posted by Spitfire

YOU MUST BE KIDDING ME!!!

I now believe there is no hope for this city. I cannot fathom the stupidity of it all. The lame management of this city has to blamed for this.

Lame management or no management. What about fear for for ones own life? If that is not a deterrent then what is??

I could hear tyres screeching all over the place. I am sure I would have gotten rear ended if I did'nt have the cushion of some distance between me and the Innovas ahead of me (which is the mantra these days if you don't want to get rear ended).

It wanted to tell the guy that it was a miracle that he has survived the 30 odd years of his life and has not yet ended up as some photograph with a garland hanging down from it.

[ethanhunt123]

Originally Posted by Spitfire

YOU MUST BE KIDDING ME!!!

I now believe there is no hope for this city. I cannot fathom the stupidity of it all. The lame management of this city has to blamed for this.

Not at all. I have seen this quite often not only in Blr but on GQ roads. Dont you know in India if you have your headlight on, you can drive on the wrong lane ?

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by Spitfire

YOU MUST BE KIDDING ME!!!

I now believe there is no hope for this city. I cannot fathom the stupidity of it all. The lame management of this city has to blamed for this.

You would have the same expression for my story on the BETL on Hosur road as well.
I usually take the ramp down on the right to get into Phase 1 of Electronics City every day after carefully deciphering the maneuvers of those hogging the right lane and still wanting to continue straight at 40kmph ogling at those glass facades of IT offices or even sticking to their cellphones completely oblivious to those flashing lights or even honking to overtake them.
As the ramp descends down bending over that right curve, I have slowed down to 55-60kmph and what I spot next is a beige Swift facing my car and coming towards me with lights on!!
I probably had about a second before I could react and since I was taking that sharp right bend, even braking or swerving left to change lanes would prove fatal but I was plain lucky.
And it was unusual in a sense that this dude was not reversing but driving in the opposite direction realizing the fact that he's taken a wrong exit ramp.
I was just imagining if it were a bus instead of my car then.

On ranting part, has anyone recently noticed massive jams right from Croma in Sadashivnagar all the way till Sanjaynagar exit on Bellary road in the evenings? It has become a pain even to drive after 9-30om on this road and there seems to be only one thing to blame. The Bus stops at Air force training command center gateand the typical "toothpaste tube" phenomenon of Bangalore roads where 3 lanes merge into 1.5 lanes and exactly where you have a bus stop.

The so called signal free corridor from high grounds police station all the way till hebbal with those match boxes have proved futile and the situation today is worse than what it was when the road had functional signals.

[Spitfire]

Originally Posted by Santoshbhat

What about fear for for ones own life? If that is not a deterrent then what is??

I will tell you what makes him so brave. If he gets hit and killed its over anyways. But if he just gets hit by a guy driving a skoda. He will get all his friends along and along with the authorities here milk the guy of some good money. Its a different matter that even if the skoda guy had ran over the pest he could have gone scott free as per law. He see's the nonsense around him everyday - people getting away with it. He does it too.

Originally Posted by ethanhunt123

Not at all. I have seen this quite often not only in Blr but on GQ roads. Dont you know in India if you have your headlight on, you can drive on the wrong lane ?

I had made the below quote a while back.

Originally Posted by Spitfire

If you switch on your headlights in Bangalore you can get away with murder.

[ethanhunt123]

Originally Posted by Spitfire

I will tell you what makes him so brave. If he gets hit and killed its over anyways. But if he just gets hit by a guy driving a skoda. He will get all his friends along and along with the authorities here milk the guy of some good money. Its a different matter that even if the skoda guy had ran over the pest he could have gone scott free as per law. He see's the nonsense around him everyday - people getting away with it. He does it too.

Well said. Infact, not only a Skoda but any car. For eg. if a guy on a bike is hit by a car/bus, you will only read the following in a paper "Speeding car/bus mows down bike". Like all bikes in our country dont exceed 30kmph and every accident is caused by the larger vehicle.

[IronH4WK]

Originally Posted by Spitfire

I had made the below quote a while back.

i think many people read your quote and went what an idea sirji! now they're putting it into practice

just kidding mate