[dark.knight]

Originally Posted by freedom

I am seeing a lot of news coverage on the horrible state of roads in Bangalore. Are those seriously so bad? or is the the usual case of media hyping it up?

I mean, I have pretty low standards when it comes to public roads. Pune roads are nothing much to be proud about in the first place!

Let me assure you, on-ground situation in Bangalore is much, much worse than what this thread, newspapers or even t.v channels might show you. The BHPians in Bangalore are pretty calm and polite when describing the scene here.

On road its a jungle far scarier than even Amazon rainforests with its poisionous spiders, infinite mosquitoes & piranha. To describe the scene more accurately, imagine one stretch of an approximate distance of only 20km, namely from Bellandur to Whitefield on one end, Bellandur to Old Airport Road on the other, and an adjoining Sarjapur Road > between these 3 roads which are connected by hardly 2 routes we have massive offices of Cisco & Wipro.. and I mean massive (>10,000 employees), those are the big ones and then smaller firms <2000 employees each would be another couple of dozen to say the least. Imagine close to 50,000 people leaving for work or back to home at the same time, with 2 roads (approx 4 lanes) being the maximum available? Seems shocking? Here are more numbers, another 10-20k vehicles moving towards BTM Layout or towards CBD either for official or residential reasons and thats just a conservative guess. They use the same roads as above leading to nothing short of an unimaginable gridlock when heavy rains are thrown into the picture. Let me also include another I.T belt called Electronics City which houses the Infy HQ & huge campuses of Wipro,Siemens & HP, among a dozen others (another 50K employees). When these 4 routes converge onto the same signal its Nightmare on Silk Street (Silkboard Junction).

[naveenroy]

The sky looks ominous. I am already dreading the ride back home from office

Thankfully though, I have a call till 8:30, so will leave a little late. Time for a prayer.

[KiloAlpha]

A simple example of why Bangalore roads are as bad as they are.

Yesterday evening, BETL was choked. Traffic coming in from E-City towards Silk Board was stop-go. The jam stretched out for several kilometers. Even at 9:00pm. Why?

I drove home at 9:30pm along the following route:
Bommanahalli (Hosur Road, below the BETL) -> over Silk Board flyover -> Madiwala -> St. Johns -> Check Post -> Forum -> Christ College.

Traffic was moving slowly because:
1. Madiwala underpass had 1-2 inches of standing water
2. Private buses parked haphazardly in Madiwala
3. Pedestrians jaywalking, autos/bikes/taxis driving badly between Silk Board and St. Johns.

Once past Forum, it was smooth sailing till I reached home. No hold ups whatsoever.

So, traffic in a 1km stretch of arterial road slowing down - no stoppage, mind you - just slowing down, caused a 10-12km tailback.

[freedom]

Originally Posted by ashwin.terminat

That is not hype, my friend.

Originally Posted by dark.knight

Let me assure you, on-ground situation in Bangalore is much, much worse than what this thread, newspapers or even t.v channels might show you.

Originally Posted by ambivalent_98

Stay in Pune and be happy and hope you don't get ideas of moving here for a job

Not thinking of moving there. That means one less person on the road LOL

I spent a year in Bangalore about 10 years back. I really liked the city. The cool weather and sudden showers every other week is something I really miss. I don't even remember one instance of getting stuck in traffic for more than 10-15 mins.

I guess things have really gone downhill since that time.

Hang in there guys.. don't give up.

Hinjewadi was a similar story day in and day out.. but things have improved a bit now. Its no where close to ideal, but its improved from what it was 2 years back. Everything goes for a toss once it rains. Sigh.

[nkrishnap]

It has already started pouring at 3 pm. Knowing that it would rain, I am working from home. Did that yesterday, doing it today and may be need to do that tomorrow too. Prefer it this way (also one vehicle less on the road) than struggling out on the roads amidst the rat race between cabbies and white board drivers with zero sense.

[hybridpetrol]

Originally Posted by KiloAlpha

So, traffic in a 1km stretch of arterial road slowing down - no stoppage, mind you - just slowing down, caused a 10-12km tailback.

There are studies about this in western countries as well.
An irritant driver would have bumped the rear of the car in front. The driver of the front car, if he is equally irritant, even if there is no damage to his car, he would have stopped the car in the middle of the road, got down and started arguing. This would have continued for a minute or two. Until then passers by would have been slowly enjoying the movie taking shape. It is also possible that a traffic cop entered the scene to clear things up and make the traffic moving. If this whole thing takes about 3 minutes of time, it means that one irritant driver has blocked about 200-250 vehicles in busy traffic!
Such problem is also compounded by the fact that, the person travelling in 40 kmph, if he is forced to stop, he cannot immediately move, when the front car moves. He needs some time to get the car moving and to reach the speed of 40 kmph - may be some 10-15 secs in traffic? This is only multiplied, and the whole traffic jam spreads out to the vehicles behind, forcing all the vehicles to slow down.
It goes on, until a point, when the traffic itself is thin, and then the whole jam vanishes.
If we see by this kind of logic, it is like a butterfly effect. Each idiot who is blocking traffic for no important reason becomes a big reason for traffic jam for the hours to follow without even realizing it.
This is also the reason, why it seems there are a lot of vehicles on the road during unusual hours (such as 9 pm) during monsoon.
On a similar note, have you noticed how the traffic flow is entirely blocked at signals sometimes and nobody is able to get ahead, when some one from the rightmost lane, trying to take U turn, and the person from left most lane trying to turn right?

[ambivalent_98]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/c...w/49639921.cms

I do hope the VIP I saw rushing to the lake today morning and who visited got a good look and stench filled his car when he visited.

[TheTeacher]

Today's ToI said it would rain for 2 more days, so plan accordingly!

[srishiva]

Originally Posted by dark.knight

Let me assure you, on-ground situation in Bangalore is much, much worse than what this thread, newspapers or even t.v channels might show you. The BHPians in Bangalore are pretty calm and polite when describing the scene here.

On road its a jungle far scarier than even Amazon rainforests with its poisionous spiders, infinite mosquitoes & piranha. To describe the scene more accurately, imagine one stretch of an approximate distance of only 20km, namely from Bellandur to Whitefield on one end, Bellandur to Old Airport Road on the other, and an adjoining Sarjapur Road > between these 3 roads which are connected by hardly 2 routes we have massive offices of Cisco & Wipro.. and I mean massive (>10,000 employees), those are the big ones and then smaller firms <2000 employees each would be another couple of dozen to say the least. Imagine close to 50,000 people leaving for work or back to home at the same time, with 2 roads (approx 4 lanes) being the maximum available? Seems shocking? Here are more numbers, another 10-20k vehicles moving towards BTM Layout or towards CBD either for official or residential reasons and thats just a conservative guess. They use the same roads as above leading to nothing short of an unimaginable gridlock when heavy rains are thrown into the picture. Let me also include another I.T belt called Electronics City which houses the Infy HQ & huge campuses of Wipro,Siemens & HP, among a dozen others (another 50K employees). When these 4 routes converge onto the same signal its Nightmare on Silk Street (Silkboard Junction).

You are not even close with the numbers ! Just Ecospace is supposed to have 80K vehicles moving in and out (source:Bangalore Mirror) Buildings are coming up deeper into the park. Add to that Cessna, Vridavan/Embassy tech village, Prestige Tech Park. This is just a less than 2km stretch.

This requires some planning that not sure is done anywhere. Prevention would have been the only solution that is now not possible.

[ashwin.terminat]

So here is one example of how bad roads alone can wreak havoc in Bangalore.

This road has two huge potholes towards the end of the road near the Graphite signal. Result? The whole road is jammed!

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by ashwin.terminat

So here is one example of how bad roads alone can wreak havoc in Bangalore.


Attachment 1435066

These days its better you take the ITPL main road till hoodi and take a left turn towards graphite India. That compulsory left there is the most stupid implementation creating a huge bottleneck. From Prestige shantiniketan till KR Puram is these days pretty good at my commute times. The opposite lane is choked though. If one bloke decides to take a U Turn from the left lane cutting across the street, the whole road is jammed.

Originally Posted by srishiva

You are not even close with the numbers ! Just Ecospace is supposed to have 80K vehicles moving in and out (source:Bangalore Mirror) Buildings are coming up deeper into the park. Add to that Cessna, Vridavan/Embassy tech village, Prestige Tech Park. This is just a less than 2km stretch.

I heard that Ecospace is expanding. Which means that things will get worse. God knows why and how such proposals get approved without giving a damn to traffic impact.

[Parth46]

Absolutely horrible traffic experience today -one of the worst ever.

Left Manyata tech park at 3:30 PM today and reached home in CV Raman nagar at 630PM, a full 3+ hours later!

Cabbies and people driving in wrong lanes, massive water logging, amazing pile-ups and gridlocks, you name it and it was there in Bangalore today.

Terrible infrastructure and shocking apathy from the authorities.

[sunishsamuel]

It's unfortunate that the city is going through this phase of traffic woes This thread started in 2006, close to 10 years and still issues are not resolved and just growing

Thinking loud. Probably reiterating.

1) Stop approvals of all tech parks & apartment complexes immediately - the ones within the already current congested limits. New tech parks should come up in the areas that are not developed yet - eg: Devanahalli

2) Spread the traffic instead of piling up - Clear the artery roads of its encroachments and plan up parallel routes. There are a few we can think of but the encroachments and local dadagiri will stop such options - eg: From e-city to hit sarjapur road, the option would be to develop the roads - jail road, kudlu road etc. I feel they would definitely ease out the pressure on the roads. With multiple options traffic would definitely spread out - If there are junctions that needs to be developed do so. Another example is the road that goes inside the Varthur village opposite to JP Morgan office.

3) Remove the unscientific road constructions and make them cleaner - eg; Near Agara fly over, the road beside the flyover is a mess and poorly designed. That's a bottle neck for the vehicles turning towards Jakkasandra, Hanuman temple etc.

And before making the following suggestions, the cops and authorities should think of the following:

1) Public transport - viable only if there is someone who can do route planning, crew training, automated passes, etc. - This should be done professionally not the band aid stuff that we see today. More buses, better availability - i do not think BMTC can transform and arrange more buses in short notice.

2) Car pooling - It is not easy as it would sound - How would people plan the trip ? There will be issues related to settling the gas bills, compatibility issues between passengers etc. Someone might take a call that might irritate another, privacy and what not ? Don't laugh at me, isnt that a valid point ?

3) Cops should get strict (all over india) - Penalize the ones who break the rules; especially the act of surprising other drivers (no indicator but turning to a different direction suddenly, sudden headlight gestures etc.)driving on wrong side and stopping on the middle, break downs by poorly maintained vehicles and the ones who run of out of fuel.

Of course, who is going to implement ? Let's start the cat and mouse game....

[msdivy]

Originally Posted by freedom

I spent a year in Bangalore about 10 years back. I really liked the city. The cool weather and sudden showers every other week is something I really miss. I don't even remember one instance of getting stuck in traffic for more than 10-15 mins.

I guess things have really gone downhill since that time.

Yes a sort of, considering that around 40,000 new vehicles are added every month. But still, non-IT areas have the grace left. In case you are planning to visit, avoid the areas where IT folks work or live - BTM, ORR-KR Puram to Silkboard, Sarjapur Rd, Old Airport Rd, Marathahalli, Whitefield, Bannerghatta Rd. Rest should be okay.

Originally Posted by gopikb

I guess google updates traffic by tracking each android phone user and their movement patterns.

Wouldn't that give the concentration map of Android phones, rather than traffic flow?

[mpksuhas]

Originally Posted by msdivy

Wouldn't that give the concentration map of Android phones, rather than traffic flow?

Google maps traffic feature works by taking average speed of Android devices along stretch of road.

Link