[sachinpk]

Originally Posted by Jaguar

Why can't the schools ask all the kids to assemble at a common point and pick them up? It will ease traffic and also reduce the travel time. I suppose part of the blame is on the parents also these days, who don't want to take the trouble to walk the kids even a small distance to the bus stop.

In the area where I stay (South East Bangalore), there are huge apartment blocks. But what they have decided is that:-
1. None of the school bus would enter the apartment complex.
2. There is a main road going in front of the apartment complex, which thankfully does not have high traffic. There is also a bus stop out there, even though none of the BMTC buses ply the route.
3. The kids assemble at this bus stop. One thing I noticed is that every kid is not being accompanied by a parent. In some cases senior kids bring the juniors along. Or one parent would also take care of the kids of their neighbour. This is not a typical IT/Techie apartment complex, so there are parents out there who are "stay at home".

May be parents too want all the comfort & security at their door steps. And a reason could be that people also do not have very close connects (or trust) with each other, and tried to do every thing by themselves.

[Jaguar]

Originally Posted by etrast75

That is not going to reduce the number of buses needed to ferry the kids to school. Yes it will result in lesser traffic in interior roads but I doubt if the overall commute time will reduce...
There are a lot of practical issues nowadays with both parents working ( how else would one be able to afford the astronomical fees), it becomes imperative that the bus stops right in front of your house as there may not be anyone to pick up the kids from a common point.

Why won't it reduce the commute time? A bus stopping once instead of ten times and reduction of traffic in the interior roads will lead to faster commute to the school right?

And you talk about practicality. People driving in a car alone, people parking in no-parking zones so as to not walk 10m to the shop etc is all due to their practicality. People want everything to happen as per their convenience and are not willing to make any change to their lifestyle. Until and unless this mindset changes, things won't improve.

We can sit all day and discuss about corrupt govt and politicians not doing anything but we must also first do whatever we can don't we? People want all the comforts in the world but whenever there is a talk to sacrifice a little of their personal convenience, they won't budge even a bit. I am not pointing fingers at you but this is what I see everyday in my building and around.

[m8002?]

Originally Posted by Jaguar

Why won't it reduce the commute time? A bus stopping once instead of ten times and reduction of traffic in the interior roads will lead to faster commute to the school right?

And you talk about practicality. People driving in a car alone, people parking in no-parking zones so as to not walk 10m to the shop etc is all due to their practicality. People want everything to happen as per their convenience and are not willing to make any change to their lifestyle. Until and unless this mindset changes, things won't improve.

We can sit all day and discuss about corrupt govt and politicians not doing anything but we must also first do whatever we can don't we? People want all the comforts in the world but whenever there is a talk to sacrifice a little of their personal convenience, they won't budge even a bit. I am not pointing fingers at you but this is what I see everyday in my building and around.

Totally agree with this. We can see it all places.
People double park in front of the shop doors ( dont bother about how the first guy will pull his car out ).
At school, everyone wants to drop their kids right in front of the gate (people arriving from both sides park the cars with the nose pointing at the gate and then later start shouting at each other).
Yesterday, had a traffic jam under the Ecospace flyover at 10:45PM because none of the "educated" IT folks exiting Ecospace driving their big cars wanted to follow the one-way. And it was a free for all.

Many times people want others to follow the rules so that they themselves can happily violate them. And over time the violation becomes the rule/norm.

[etrast75]

Originally Posted by Jaguar

People want all the comforts in the world but whenever there is a talk to sacrifice a little of their personal convenience, they won't budge even a bit. I am not pointing fingers at you but this is what I see everyday in my building and around.

You cannot compare people behaving irrationally when it comes to parking and things like that with people wanting safety for their kids in the face of the maniacal traffic and people we face in the roads..
Fact is that in a lot of families, both mom and dad work and they do not have anyone else to take care of grown (10 + year) old kids. These kids come back from school and take care of themselves till their parents arrive. The only way that would work is if the bus drops them off in front of their house or apartment complex. We can debate a lot about if both parents should work or not and should be looking their kids but that is the choice they made and they need a system that makes that choice work. Dropping kids off at a common point (even if it is 500 meters away ) is not safe in this case.
A lot of people will make a lot of sacrifices or common sense decisions (I drive my wife mad trying to look for a proper parking space even it if it is some distance away as I would not have it any other way) but when it comes to kids safety, we will not make sacrifices or adjustments.
The buses coming inside are not the reason for 3-4 hour commutes anyway. Yes it does add 10-15 minutes to the overall commute.. The jam happens on the main roads which all buses have to take. All school buses on sarjapur varthur road have to take SH-35 to drop the kids and most of the jams happen there. All buses which drop kids on sarjapur road have to take that road and that is where jams happen. Making buses pick up and drop kids from a common point is not going to reduce the jams and thus reduce the increased commute time due to these jams.
What you are basically saying that since the govt is dysfunctional, we , as citizens, should put our kids safety at risk as a token gesture of our sacrifice towards society..
There are a lot of situations where people can sacrifice their convenience a bit (taking public transport, taking office transport, walking to nearest grocery store, car pooling to work etc etc..) but this is not an example of that kind of sacrifice.

[sunishsamuel]

On the bellandur frothy lake, why is that people are taking so much of risks to cross the bridge and ending up wasting, fuel, damage to cars etc, in addition to threat of slipping on to the lake (especially during odd times with no one noticing such incidents) I understand a longer commute might not be favored by everyone but would not that be a better option that struggling daily through this route ?

[ashwin.terminat]

Originally Posted by Jaguar

We can sit all day and discuss about corrupt govt and politicians not doing anything but we must also first do whatever we can don't we?

Originally Posted by m8002?

Yesterday, had a traffic jam under the Ecospace flyover at 10:45PM because none of the "educated" IT folks exiting Ecospace driving their big cars wanted to follow the one-way. And it was a free for all.

To add my own experience, just yesterday, after enduring a mindnumbing traffic jam while getting to office, I saw two educated youth riding an FZ; both wearing Cisco ID cards. They were going against the One Way near the Lakme Salon near HyperCity, Kundalahalli. When I gestured to them asking what were they doing, they were pointing to a turn that was "just" 30m ahead. I called them "idiots" as I passed them and went about the rest of my gruelling 140 minute ride.

Further in my ride, I was on the road leading from Vydehi Hospital to Divyasree TechnoPark. At one junction, there was a huge jam caused mainly by people who lacked the patience to let other people through when could make no significant progress. I waited back amidst people honking and waited for the jam to clear out in the space I had provided and soon, everyone was moving smoothly.

A small example, but goes to show that no matter how educated you are, how good a company you work in, how much you earn, you look for shortcuts for personal gain even if it means inconveniencing scores of people. All it takes is a little patience to sort things out.

All our people need is a little patience, empathy and some common sense. Alas, in my 50,000km of travelling around Bangalore, I realize that is too much to ask for.

[nkrishnap]

Originally Posted by ashwin.terminat

All our people need is a little patience, empathy and some common sense. Alas, in my 50,000km of travelling around Bangalore, I realize that is too much to ask for.

+1000. Another example is people getting down from auto rickshaws right in front of the gate blocking the inward and outward movement, causing uneasy situations. Education does not give people common sense.

[NPV]

Originally Posted by ashwin.terminat

All our people need is a little patience, empathy and some common sense.

Add discipline to that list too - and if we had all those 4 things we wouldn't have a thread running into 660+ pages just to discuss one (bangalore) city's traffic woes

[ashwin.terminat]

Originally Posted by nkrishnap

+1000. Another example is people getting down from auto rickshaws right in front of the gate blocking the inward and outward movement, causing uneasy situations. Education does not give people common sense.

Originally Posted by NPV

Add discipline to that list too - and if we had all those 4 things we wouldn't have a thread running into 660+ pages just to discuss one (bangalore) city's traffic woes

What baffles me is; Bangalore wasn't always like this!

I remember that as recent as three years ago, people riding on the wrong side of the divider was unheard of! One clown started the practice, all others idiots followed suit. Same goes for footpath riding, the first time I argued with someone riding on the footpath was back in 2009 perhaps. And it was a one-off case back then. But fast forward to 2015 and finding someone who doesn't ride on the footpath is like finding a needle in a haystack.

It frustrates me to no end to see people riding on the footpath and honking at pedestrians on it! I mean, the nerve!

Cabbies honking for no reason whatsoever, Auto drivers driving their autos as if they were dancing to a Bollywood item number, more people driving through a red light than a green, pedestrians crossing on the road when there is a footover bridge right above them, buses stopping bang in the middle of the road, anything with Infant's or SRS on it on a quest to kill everyone in their path, almost all motorists on a mission to blind everyone in front of them because 90% of them inadvertently bribed the RTO to get their driver's license, BBMP and BWSSB training normal citizens to dodge landmines while travelling in their vehicles should a war ever come about, footpaths having more two wheelers than they do pedestrians.

Don't mean to pinpoint, but just this morning, I saw a Honda City with a "Live To Drive" sticker at the back entering my workplace. A bus was standing at the entrance while passengers were deboarding. Instead of patiently waiting for the 30-odd seconds it would take for all of them to deboard, our hero started honking! To serve what purpose?

Same goes for letting pedestrians cross the road, all you need to wait for is around 10 seconds. 10 seconds; that is all. Alas, our people are so punctual that reaching at 10:00:10AM is not acceptable when they need to reach at 10:00:00AM.

[Jaguar]

Originally Posted by etrast75

You cannot compare people behaving irrationally when it comes to parking and things like that with people wanting safety for their kids in the face of the maniacal traffic and people we face in the roads..
There are a lot of situations where people can sacrifice their convenience a bit (taking public transport, taking office transport, walking to nearest grocery store, car pooling to work etc etc..) but this is not an example of that kind of sacrifice.

You can enlist the help of other non working parents/grand-parents with kids going to the same school, or have an older kid take care of the younger ones. Other working couples and appoint a maid perhaps to walk the kids back to the apartment. If needed, there are many ways to ensure safety and IMO this isn't a matter of security, rather a matter of convenience for the parents. Anyways, this is going OT and let us keep the discussion to the traffic matters.

[Chetan_Rao]

Originally Posted by ashwin.terminat

..........reaching at 10:00:10AM is not acceptable when they need to reach at 10:00:00AM.

And one dare not mention the proud road warrior's horror of horrors: leaving a bit early to keep an appointment.

Where's the sense in doing that when one can indulge in vehicular (near-miss) homicide everyday instead trying to make up precious seconds.

[audioholic]

What should be done to such morons?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSsqulAQO18

Did not even feel like yelling at them. Looks like they are too stupid to even get some lessons.

[tharian]

Originally Posted by audioholic

What should be done to such morons?



Did not even feel like yelling at them. Looks like they are too stupid to even get some lessons.

Sometimes I feel I'm watching a cartoon with cartoons like these on the road.
There is no point even talking to them calmly, they will still stand by their act.

[etrast75]

Originally Posted by audioholic

What should be done to such morons?

Nothing can be done.. Get the hell out of their way... Darwin awards candidates..
The way people take risks with their lives everyday in traffic is a sight to behold. We have too many people in our country and too many idiots among them.

[Jaguar]

Originally Posted by audioholic

What should be done to such morons?

Originally Posted by etrast75

We have too many people in our country and too many idiots among them.

We should encourage such idiots with the hope that they would soon die an early death. Some innocent lives would be lost but that is a side effect. In the animal kingdom, only the fit survive, wish that was true for humans too.