Rants on Bangalore's traffic situation

[Spitfire]

Originally Posted by mayankk

prevention is better than prosecution

I agree.

Originally Posted by IronH4WK

btw, i was looking for a cyclist on the ORR last evening. didn't find anyone

I was in stealth mode.

What time? I pass by between 1700 to 1800 hours.

Originally Posted by poloman

To take a contrary view here..Surprise factor is key to reduce traffic violations.

Good point. But you think that has helped? Direct enforcement is required. All this factors don't count.

[msdivy]

Originally Posted by niranjanrvce

Aah this is not new at all my friend. I was challaned for doing 62 kmph on Mysore road highway (after kengeri) 3-4 years ago in a very similar fashion. This was supposedly a 60 limit stretch.They were waiting just after a gradient as usual.

This reminds me of Austin (TX) airport. We dropped a friend & continued on the cab. The cab driver was driving dead slow. When asked, he said the speed limit is 15 miles/hr in the road in front of airport and there is always a cop around the corner who will give a ticket for those exceed this limit. Surely there was cop car in the corner. 15miles/hr is ridiculous for that road. But we stuck to this limit even when we drove our car there.

[mayankk]

Originally Posted by Selective

How do we prevent? Add speed breakers (humps) on the road?



Is it really practical for cops stay open everyday which makes sure we dont cross speed limit?



I experienced the same abroad, cop used to hide in a turn/curvy-road or behind tree, and if we drive in carpool lane, catch them red handed! And cop used to come randomly in rush hours to make unpredictable.

Prevent, by showing presence.

About standing out in the open, is that the only way to show presence?
let them think out of the box.
A cop can stand duty as far as practically possible(thats what the TP is for, no?)
A warning sign above major prone areas. proclaiming speed camera ahead, a dummy speed camera if the money collected so far cannot be traced(), something.

what happened with you abroad, where was this?
did they not employ any preventive measures before utilizing the red-handed method?
no education, no points system, no "bribery is punishable", no nothing???


Half the cops in delhi at least, this is the SOP:
"challan 3 million rupees(exaggeration, but it will always be some obscene number)/papers or vehicle is to be seized etc etc, just to get you on the back-foot.
HOWEVER, you look like an educated, busy man.Give me 300 bucks, and we'll rafa-dafa (sweep under the rug) it."

[IronH4WK]

Originally Posted by Spitfire

I was in stealth mode.

What time? I pass by between 1700 to 1800 hours.

OT:

i was passing through there at that time. couldn't find you with your cloak mode on

[benbsb29]

Originally Posted by libranof1987

The funny part is, there *was* a no U-turn board until a few months ago. And every few weeks, cops guarded that place and minted money.

Seems like some big-shot happens to have shifted in that lane and wants some convenience! If that median is closed, trust me, Marathahalli signal to the next signal will be a breeze. There are countless jams because of that median.

That median break is important because there are a lot of colonies after the Tulsi theatre on that narrow lane. Also, closing this median before Brand Factory wouldn't work, because the next bottleneck when coming from Marathalli junction towards HAL would be at the Marathalli market, where the temple is located quite close to the road. Try getting that shifted!

Look at it this way, for someone coming from HAL, if he has to go towards Tulsi theatre, the only other option would be going under the Marathalli bridge, and then coming back. In India, that wouldn't work. I remember when they blocked the right turn from HAL towards Innovative multiplex on the ORR at Marathalli, and the locals blocked the road during peak hour traffic for over 4 hours.

The hapless cops had to rollback on that decision.

Jai Hind!

[Selective]

Originally Posted by mayankk

Prevent, by showing presence.

About standing out in the open, is that the only way to show presence?
let them think out of the box.
A cop can stand duty as far as practically possible(thats what the TP is for, no?)
A warning sign above major prone areas. proclaiming speed camera ahead, a dummy speed camera if the money collected so far cannot be traced(), something.

what happened with you abroad, where was this?
did they not employ any preventive measures before utilizing the red-handed method?
no education, no points system, no "bribery is punishable", no nothing???


Half the cops in delhi at least, this is the SOP:
"challan 3 million rupees(exaggeration, but it will always be some obscene number)/papers or vehicle is to be seized etc etc, just to get you on the back-foot.
HOWEVER, you look like an educated, busy man.Give me 300 bucks, and we'll rafa-dafa (sweep under the rug) it."

I guess, the prevention is by creating the system by which you can make people think twice before breaking any law! Cops can monitor different roads at random times in different places. If they have to stand in open on every road and every interesection then its not going to scale. This is the situation right now, if cop is around people try (yes, trying) to follow the rules, otherwise damn to rules!

Building the infrastructure for automated monitoring is very complex for India. This can be done in major intersections but we have so many openings in medians, number of vehicles in rush hours etc. Right now we are struggling to maintain the signal lights to function all the time.

The abroad experience was in US (california). The carpool lanes are marked clearly, sign boards are in place, but still people in rush hour tend to step in that lane, out of frustration in traffic jams etc.

[poloman]

How fair is to make cops resposible for all traffic ills? They are underpaid, overworked,understaffed and demotivated. In developed countries I think they are paid on par with may be what an IT guy earns. They are given high end cars and gadgetry. I feel sorry for Indian counter parts seeing the sun burnt, smoke battered face. Can any one of us imagine ourselves standing in the middle of a busy junction atleast for a single day?

[Shubz]

Originally Posted by Selective

I experienced the same abroad, cop used to hide in a turn/curvy-road or behind tree, and if we drive in carpool lane, catch them red handed! And cop used to come randomly in rush hours to make unpredictable.

So relax brothers! Its not just in Bangalore that cops play Hide n seek. It happens in other countries too

The speed guns have started their vigil again on the Airport road, just before Hebbal fly over and also on ORR just before the new fly over construction.

Guess what - Earlier I used to see a lot of 4 wheelers flagged down and challaned. But nowadays I am looking at just 1 or two 4 wheelers caught and 5-6 2-wheeled brethren in the net. what's going on? Drivers are getting better??

[IronH4WK]

found this via a friend's post on Facebook!

Indyarocks Videos - Controlling Traffic Drivers in Bangalore

[Spitfire]

Originally Posted by IronH4WK

found this via a friend's post on Facebook!

That old chap with the co-brother relation was hilarious. LOL!! What sort of a city is this turning into.

[libranof1987]

Do NOT even think of driving on the Jayadeva Hospital - Banerghetta rd stretch today. I was coming from Manipal and the whole F1 thing has messed up BG rd's NICE road entry terribly.

There are traffic jams 1km long on NICE road and BG rd.

[amitoj]

Originally Posted by libranof1987

Do NOT even think of driving on the Jayadeva Hospital - Banerghetta rd stretch today. I was coming from Manipal and the whole F1 thing has messed up BG rd's NICE road entry terribly.

There are traffic jams 1km long on NICE road and BG rd.

That was in the morning i thought.
Is the jam while going towards NICE on Bannerghatta road from Jayadeva or while coming from NICE road and going to city on Bannerghatta road?

[libranof1987]

Originally Posted by amitoj

That was in the morning i thought.
Is the jam while going towards NICE on Bannerghatta road from Jayadeva or while coming from NICE road and going to city on Bannerghatta road?

I was stuck in a jam at 2pm!

It is both ways actually. There's huge truck traffic on the NICE rd; some coming to B'lore, some going towards BG rd and another who want to go on to the Hosur rd exit. Simultaneously, there's already vehicles who want to go on to Banerghetta rd further or get on to NICE rd. So, clearing up takes a LOT of time.

The jam was up till Shell when I was coming back; and again at IIM-B and the Mandovi Motors junction.

[amitoj]

Good news! Traffic on Bannerghatta road was back to normal at 7pm.

[rohanjf]

Today I saw an amusing incident on Sarjapur road near Springfield. A Piaggio Apé was overloaded with some granite slabs, and it wanted to take a right on to Haralur road. Poor guy stopped for traffic and when he wanted to move, his gaddi wouldn't move. When he accelerated too much, his front wheel went up. And that happened 3 times before he managed to move enough to get sufficient torque to keep the vehicle moving. Funnily enough, very few people were honking, because everyone was busy enjoying the circus.