Rants on Bangalore's traffic situation

[FuelInjector]

Originally Posted by karts

Took 3.5 hrs to drive from Coimbatore to Attibelle which is 330 odd kms, and the last 25 kms from Attibelle to Kundanahalli gate took 2 hrs.

Bro - what were you driving? a plane?
jokes apart - assuming you took the salem route instead of the sathy/chamrajnagar route. When did you leave Coimbatore?
2 hours for 25 kms is actually good by bangalore standards. Maybe the pinch was felt even more because of the high speed inertia you carried till Attibele.

[karts]

Originally Posted by FuelInjector

jokes apart - assuming you took the salem route instead of the sathy/chamrajnagar route. When did you leave Coimbatore?

Is it so hard to cover 330 KMs in 3.5 hrs maintaing speeds in 100-110 range? I do Bangalore Madurai in 5.5 to 6 hrs maintaining such speeds. I left Coimbatore at around 9:15 AM from Saravanampatti which is in the outskirts, reached Attibbele at around 12:45 ish and reached home in Kundanahalli at 2:50 PM.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by karts

Is it so hard to cover 330 KMs in 3.5 hrs maintaing speeds in 100-110 range?

People typically drive at such speeds being max and you mentioned that being the average. That means you may end up driving at even higher speeds. 4/4.5 is a more realistic time. And 3 sounds aggressive to most.

Any way I would say lets not go into that debate and refrain from discussing high speed aspects.

The point conveyed being, its the last mile that ate up most of the time and yes that does sound frustrating.

[karts]

Originally Posted by ampere

People typically drive at such speeds being max and you mentioned that being the average. That means you may end up driving at even higher speeds. 4/4.5 is a more realistic time. And 3 sounds aggressive to most.

Sorry, If I was not clear, 100-110 was the highest speed I maintained and could have gone max to 120 for few mins and not the average.

[sachinpk]

Major traffic block at Malleswaram & even Raj Bhavan road even. And another jam at Sony world, Maharajah's & Wipro office in Koramangala. Enjoy!!

[sairamboko]

Some heavy fog since 5am today! Ride safe. Visibility is very poor and don't forget to drive slow. Sitting at my office, nothing is visible in my vicinity!!

[etrast75]

It looks like companies are starting to realize the toll the ever worsening traffic is taking on their employees.
http://www.bangaloremirror.com/banga...w/49954126.cms

May be this will wake up the people responsible for fixing this mess? Nothing like a few companies deciding to move and effect it can potentially have on real estate prices. Only the real estate lobby faced with the prospect of people leaving the city can put some real pressure on the govt.

[binand]

Originally Posted by etrast75

Only the real estate lobby faced with the prospect of people leaving the city can put some real pressure on the govt.

Doubt it. The real estate lobby will also move, that's all. Ten years from now we'll probably have a 1000-page thread here about the traffic woes in Thiruvananthapuram. :-) The real estate developers in Kerala aren't washed-in-milk either; recently they got the Kerala fire chief fired because he refused to rubber stamp pervasive non-compliance with fire safety rules.

[arunphilip]

Workers including care staff, sales reps and tradespeople should have the time they spend travelling to and from their first and last jobs of the day classed as work, the European Court of Justice has ruled.

Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk...-10495697.html

I know that is for people who work outside an office in Europe, but if ever such a rule was made applicable to officegoers in Bangalore, then all we need to do is drive to office, touch the gate and return. And on rainy days, we might just have to hook a U-turn somewhere between home and office

[sdp1975]

Working from traffic is becoming a reality.

More companies have started installing Wi-Fi systems in their transport vehicles to help cope with long, excruciating journeys to work and allow employees to login and start working during their commute itself.

Needless to say, employees are appreciative of the move. Renu M, a techie working in ITPL, said, "The Wi-Fi system in the bus was introduced around 15 to 20 days back. Most companies have login and logout times, and specific number of hours to put in each day. If I punch in late, I have to wait longer at work. It is not like I have not been relaxing in the morning, but stuck in traffic instead."

Source

In a separate incident, cops have filed a case against ORRCA for the incomplete skywalk.

In a conflict of interest, the barely one-month-old HSR Layout traffic police have lodged a complaint against the Outer Ring Road Companies Association (ORRCA) for allegedly digging 20-25 feet wide craters on the road outside the RMZ Ecospace in Bellandur. This was done for the purpose of constructing a skywalk that they have allegedly not obtained permission for.

Source

[john.gt]

I recently got a mail from a consultant for an opportunity. Two questions that stood out were
Where do you stay in Bangalore?
Are you okay with working @ Whitefield location? :

It seems whitefield traffic situation has found its way into job opportunity queries.
May be in the near future, following questions might find its way there
-do you own an apartment in bangalore, if so which location,
-which car do you own, diesel or petrol, manual or automatic

That said, once the nallaruhalli offloading track was rectified, the hour long wait there has reduced. Varthur road too has got some relief after the craters were temporarily filled.

[ashwin.terminat]

Average speeds in Bangalore over the years:



Soon, cats and dogs will overtake our vehicles and will point at us and laugh their hearts out.

[binand]

Originally Posted by john.gt

Are you okay with working @ Whitefield location?

This apparently is becoming more and more prevalent, as a placement consultant we use confided in me. People not living in the vicinity of Whitefield are becoming more and more unwilling to take up jobs in the area. Some companies are finding it quite difficult to hire while based there. Soon I expect there will be an exodus from Whitefield until some sort of equilibrium is reached.

[etrast75]

2 stories on the toll bangalore (specifically whitefield) traffic is taking in people

- One person I know quit his job in a company located in whitefield because he could not handle the traffic and the daily 4 hour commutes
- Another person vacated his own house in whitefield because he could not commute to his office outside whitefield and took up a house on rent closer to his office.

It is becoming clear that if you work in whitefield, only people living in the immediate vicinity should even consider it. This is what happens when you build a locality with office capacity of over 1 lakh and have only 4 roads to speak of to get in and out.

[audioholic]

While everyone everywhere is talking about how whitefield is not a good place to live or work, unless you are doing both, I am silently happy to see no one talking about early morning commute. Recently one of my friend working in Ecospace was grinning about how bellandur is closer to us in south bangalore compared to whitefield and was trying to sympathise with me. I asked him how long will his commute take both ways and he told 1.5+2 = 3.5hrs a day. That time I took pride in telling that I spend less than that much, taking 0.75+1.5 = 2.25 hrs just by starting early in the morning

Friday morning I left home at 6:40, got stuck at chinappanahalli railway crossing and still reached office in whitefield at 7:25
The big circle route I cover everyday: