[audioholic]

Originally Posted by ampere

Advance your office time by another half an hour to make sure you *are* in office by 7. Then all it takes is 30-40 minutes to drive. If you leave by 3/3:15 it would work out the same way for return. The day you cant manage that, work from home!

+1 to this. I will swear by it.

Originally Posted by procrj

Leaving home by 6.30 am is gonna be hard. Will arrive at a best fit solution after a week of experimentation

Once you get used to the kind of traffic at that time, especially inside the city, even if you leave ten minutes late, you will find it annoying. Empty roads will mean you reach office peacefully, with a little better economy as well as an enthusiastic drive. But on the ring road, there is considerable traffic even at those times especially comprising of buses and cabs. Hence, I dont like taking it in the morning. Generally these days I leave home at 6:45 and reach office at 7:25-30. I leave office between 4:30-45 and reach home between 5:45-6:15.

[reignofchaos]

Originally Posted by procrj

For the last 4.5 years, I have been escaping the madness that is daily office commute but starting 1st June, I will need to travel from Malleswaram to Graphite India Plan is to start by 7.30 am from Malleswaram and hence my commute options are:
1. Malleswaram - MG Road - Marathahalli - Kundanahalli - Grahite India : This is my first choice as I know that traffic is fast moving for most of the route and the serious bottle necks start only after marathahalli market
2. Malleswaram - Hebbal - KR Puram - Phoenix - Graphite India: Weary of the tin factory pile up and hence planning to avoid this route. I am sure that once rains start, tin factory & KR Puram is going to be insane
3. Malleswaram - Majestic (bike) - 335E Volvo to Graphite: Can wrap up some work on the go and not deal with the chaos of Bangalore traffic. Any idea on how long it might take If I am able to board the volvo from Majestic at 8 am?
4. Malleswaram - Majestic (bike) - Metro to SV road - Feeder Bus to Graphite: I did see a few post from audioholic regarding the time taken from SV road to ITPL. Any others who can comment on this?
5. Yeshwantpur/Bangalore Cantt - KR Puram by train & KR Puram-Graphite India by Bus: Not sure if anyone here has used this option. Any feedback?

I tried this for a couple of months in 2009 and then gave up. Now it will be much much much worse. The fastest route that time used to be via Cox Town, OMR, Tin Factory, Whitefield Road.

This was before the Phoenix mall and similar chokes were created. Marathahalli, Varthur Road route took a lot longer at that point of time.

However I realized after a couple of months that the commute is taking a toll on my health and hence gave up. I'd suggest you move somewhere closer, even if it is a bitter pill to swallow.

[procrj]

Originally Posted by reignofchaos

I'd suggest you move somewhere closer

I will need to do this for the next 4-5 months after which my work place will move to Indranagar and hence the decision not to move.

[Mr_Bean]

Ampere and Audioholic.

I've been doing this for the past 2 years, It was an absolute bliss to drive in the morning. I commute from Koramangala to Kadubeesnahalli, leave at 7:20 AM and reach my office in less than 20 minutes.

But off late, I noticed that many IT folks have adopted the same approach and see quite a number of personal vehicles on ORR early in the morning. The addition of new tech parks hasn't helped matters either, resulting in increased number of cabs.

This is not the real solution to the problem, with the increased number of vehicles everyday, we might have to shift our timing backwards to experience a relaxed drive to office.

Rgds,
Vinod

[ampere]

Originally Posted by Mr_Bean

I've been doing this for the past 2 years, It was an absolute bliss to drive in the morning.

And I have been at it for 10+ !

But off late, I noticed that many IT folks have adopted the same approach and see quite a number of personal vehicles on ORR early in the morning. The addition of new tech parks hasn't helped matters either, resulting in increased number of cabs.

Agreed on this problem. Thats why I keep varying the start times. Over the years, even I have been advancing my times. But that said, there is also another problem to comprehend. 7 onward you also will see school buses on the road within city. These days its relatively easier as there are none of these buses. But once they start; beyond 7AM its a problem for sure.

Hence my take that you be at the destination before the problem manifests itself! And this is particularly true for folks working around ITPL. It just is not worth getting stuck in traffic for more than 1.5 hours. Hence if some one commutes long distance (say South Bangalore like JP Nagar, Jaynagar etc to Whitefield), this should be the only solution. (Or until we see a good Metro connectivity).

[Vysakh]

Originally Posted by audioholic

Tin factory is more or less sorted out these days and it hardly adds five mins to the overall commute time even if its jammed.

What? When?
I reach Tin Factory every day at 8:10 and it'd be around 8:35 or 8:40 when I cross the KR Puram railway station.

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by Vysakh

What? When?
I reach Tin Factory every day at 8:10 and it'd be around 8:35 or 8:40 when I cross the KR Puram railway station.

At least during the times I commute, usually before 730. Today was the most crowded, and I passed the stretch in ten minutes. As I enter the stretch, I make sure I am in the middle or the right lane. They move quicker.

[sandeepmohan]

Originally Posted by audioholic

Tin factory is more or less sorted out these days and it hardly adds five mins to the overall commute time even if its jammed.

I am not so lucky as you. Last Friday and yesterday, that is 5/16, going towards ITPL, traffic had piled up right up to the start of the KR Puram bridge, at 630am! This morning was slightly better but still piled up half way on the side of the bridge. In fact, the jam continues for a short bit even after you clear the station exit area. Why? Station parking gets extended on to the road by means of a string as the boundary mark, cabs parked on the side of the road waiting for customer bookings, people standing all over the place waiting to catch a ride home. If you look at the opposite flow of traffic, it looks like the chaos during evenings. Both sides are piled up. This point has become a nightmare for traffic.

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by sandeepmohan

I am not so lucky as you. Last Friday and yesterday, that is 5/16, going towards ITPL, traffic had piled up right up to the start of the KR Puram bridge, at 630am!

What I have observed is that at that time, the cops would have not yet arrived at the scene. When I leave home google maps shows red along the side of the bridge. Once the cops reach the scene, and by the time I reach something like 7:10 the situation would be better. They will clear the cabs parked near the bridge and move them forward. If there are no cops then people there do what they feel like. Buses would have been parked haphazardly and cabs will be all over the place.

[binand]

This finally got mainstream press coverage today:

http://www.bangaloremirror.com/articleshow/52316186.cms

These robbery attempts have been going on for weeks now; some people from my apartment complex too were victims. It was escalated to BCP via multiple channels but evidently it continued unabated. Now hopefully Vimanapura police (under whose jurisdiction this stretch falls apparently) will increase patrolling of the area and keep the known offenders under observation.

This is the stretch between DRDO and the Challaghatta junction on Wind Tunnel Road; when going towards Challaghata there is a small bridge and a curve beyond which it is a straight and lonely stretch completely out of sight of the security of the defense installations. Map: https://goo.gl/maps/nGWMLBCEoA12

This road is taken by many as a congestion-avoiding connection between IRR and ORR; please be careful if you are among this group.

[bejoy]

Any idea what is the reason for the massive jam at Doddanagundi? My wife started from hebbal at 8 and is stuck at ORR near emc for the past 1.5hrs.

[jkrishnakj]

No change yet. I left Bagmane world tech park half hour ago and I'm still to reach the Rainbow hospital junction.Attachment 1508542

[sairamboko]

Originally Posted by bejoy

Any idea what is the reason for the massive jam at Doddanagundi? My wife started from hebbal at 8 and is stuck at ORR near emc for the past 1.5hrs.

I believe the underpasses are flooded.

[jkrishnakj]

Yes. The underpass below the railway line is badly flooded. There was water logging at the entry of the flyovers too.

[sachinpk]

Originally Posted by jkrishnakj

Yes. The underpass below the railway line is badly flooded. There was water logging at the entry of the flyovers too.

Looks like there is some water logging in main roads at HSR lay out. And the traffic police predicts that if the BWSSB does not do some thing about it quickly, one more rain would make the situation unmanageable.