[sachinpk]

Looks like the season's first heavy rain fall has hit the Eastern & South Eastern parts of the city. I left ITPL side by around 1830Hrs, but this time for a change I checked Google Maps. Clotted blood kind of red marks at Varthur Kodi near Forum Value Mall, and then beyond all the way till Varthur Police station. Decided to take the Karnataka Darshan route. Reached Gunjur by around 1925Hrs and EC area by around 2020Hrs. Did a quick check on Google Maps, and I see that Varthur Kodi side is still chocked :(.

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by redcruiser

Are you talking about the complex that has Airtel office,Justbake and kritungna restaurant ?

Yes exactly. If you visit that place, do be careful where you park your car. It is a classic scam.

[nma83]

Was rear-ended by a cab today inside Manyata tech park. Was riding my just-over-a-month-old FZ25 .
There was another cab (Etios) in front me, both of us waiting at an intersection - on the right most lane - inside the campus, as were lot of vehicles behind. Suddenly heard revving and was jolted ahead by an Indica, whose driver claimed later that his accelerator pedal got stuck just as he tried to inch forward.
Had enough reflex to swerve left since there was some space, but smashed my right handlebar and hand on the tail light of the Etios ahead. Managed to stop the bike a little ahead and got down to see blood profusely flowing from the fingers of my right hand. Wanting to treat it immediately, parked my bike, which looks relatively intact, near the security post and took off to the in-campus columbia asia clinic.
At the clinic, on cleaning up a bit, saw a deep gash on the forefinger and a minor scratches on the other fingers. There was no one to stitch the gash up, so they dressed it up well and told me to go to a hospital soon for sutures.

Went back to where my bike was and saw the Etios driver waiting. He started demanding money from me for his slightly cracked tail light! I got livid at such an illogical argument and gave him a piece of my mind. Seeing that I would not give in, he said he will catch the cab driver who hit me and settle the matter - the security had noted down his number. I am pretty clueless and irritated at having to deal with such inhuman people after getting physically hurt.

As for my machine, the rear mud guard is dented and touching the tyre. Otherwise, there does not seem to be much visible damage. I am worried the rear wheel took some of the impact and something internal could have broken. If it is only the mud guard to be fixed, I have to admire the build of this bike, for taking a hit from a car and not showing much for it.

[TorqueyTechie]

So the dedicated bus lane experiment is going to be introduced in few more areas now. After the failure of having a dedicated bus lane in Old airport road, now BTP have suggested to implement the dedicated bus lane in few more areas.
Source : TOI

The traffic office has instructed the respective jurisdictional police to get started with the bus lanes at three places in the city. In central business district (CBD), the lane is going to be introduced on Rajaram Mohan Roy Road, starting from Richmond Road till Pallavi theatre next to Hudson circle. Another lane will be introduced on Old Airport Road between Suddaguntepalya and Pai Layout. The third lane will function from Silk Board Junction to Madiwala Traffic Police Station.
The move comes after traffic heads realised that the average vehicular speed in Bengaluru city has touched an all-time low of 4 kmph.

[NPV]

Originally Posted by TorqueyTechie

After the failure of having a dedicated bus lane in Old airport road, now BTP have suggested to implement the dedicated bus lane in few more areas.

The report mentions Suddaguntapalya to Pai Layout on Old Airport Road, that is actually on Old Madras Road. Will be interesting to see how that is planned, since there is already a bus lane just before the Suddaguntapalya junction (outside the Baiyappanahalli metro station) and this has already become a bottleneck​ for traffic heading straight as this is the place where one needs to make a U turn to go towards Indiranagar (for vehicles coming from Kasturi Nagar via NGEF road).

[kavensri]

Originally Posted by NPV

The report mentions Suddaguntapalya to Pai Layout on Old Airport Road, that is actually on Old Madras Road. Will be interesting to see how that is planned, since there is already a bus lane just before the Suddaguntapalya junction (outside the Baiyappanahalli metro station) and this has already become a bottleneck​ for traffic heading straight as this is the place where one needs to make a U turn to go towards Indiranagar (for vehicles coming from Kasturi Nagar via NGEF road).

I stay in SG Palya and i know how painful it is to navigate through this stretch from NGEF cross till SG Palya cross, especially during peak hours. Most of the time, this dedicated bus lane will be used by auto fellas and other vehicles, thereby forcing BMTC buses to stop it in the main road itself. So, unless this is sorted out, these dedicated bus lanes are always bound to fail.

[TorqueyTechie]

Originally Posted by NPV

since there is already a bus lane just before the Suddaguntapalya junction (outside the Baiyappanahalli metro station) and this has already become a bottleneck​ for traffic heading straight as this is the place where one needs to make a U turn to go towards Indiranagar (for vehicles coming from Kasturi Nagar via NGEF road).

Originally Posted by kavensri

Most of the time, this dedicated bus lane will be used by auto fellas and other vehicles, thereby forcing BMTC buses to stop it in the main road itself. So, unless this is sorted out, these dedicated bus lanes are always bound to fail.

Some of the ideas being tried out are actually good if everything and everyone behaves properly. But the vehicular junta of bengaluru are in a parallel universe of their own. What they do, how they drive and where they drive are all correct in their own universes and all others are wrong. I don't believe that this issue can be fixed anytime in the near future and this thread will exist some 20 years hence with the same issues still being discussed.

[Nalin1]

Originally Posted by TorqueyTechie

Some of the ideas being tried out are actually good if everything and everyone behaves properly. But the vehicular junta of bengaluru are in a parallel universe of their own. What they do, how they drive and where they drive are all correct in their own universes and all others are wrong. I don't believe that this issue can be fixed anytime in the near future and this thread will exist some 20 years hence with the same issues still being discussed.

Well said! That typifies the worst planned city in India. A city that is not even half the size of metros like Bombay or Calcutta has been converted to a metro with chaos ruling.
All the traffic jokes in Bangalore can be seen all over India, but Bangalore takes it to another level.

[hothatchaway]

Originally Posted by nma83

As for my machine, the rear mud guard is dented and touching the tyre. Otherwise, there does not seem to be much visible damage. I am worried the rear wheel took some of the impact and something internal could have broken. If it is only the mud guard to be fixed, I have to admire the build of this bike, for taking a hit from a car and not showing much for it.

Sorry to read about this and glad that it was not worse. Nothing you can do when cabbies and autowallahs are involved. If the bike is rolling smoothly do not think any damage is done. A quick visit to the SVC should put your mind to rest.

Ride safe.

[dark.knight]

Originally Posted by Nalin1

Well said! That typifies the worst planned city in India. A city that is not even half the size of metros like Bombay or Calcutta has been converted to a metro with chaos ruling. All the traffic jokes in Bangalore can be seen all over India, but Bangalore takes it to another level.

I'm not saying that you're wrong, on the face of it the situation is indeed as you describe. However the numbers speak differently :

- Bangalore is the single largest developed city in India, comfortably exceeding the erstwhile Mumbai's size by over 100 sq.km. Only Delhi (Old+New) is larger in size. The proof is that the city is close to 100 kms between its extreme ends (Attibele to BIAL). Assuming I take the length between Virar in Mumbai to Churchgate the overall distance falls well short not to mention Mumbai had lesser land area as a city compared to Bangalore which isn't coastal and hence has almost twice the land availability. Of course Mumbai has expanded and expanded fast with the newer towns like Navi Mumbai giving much needed breathing space.

- I've travelled to Mumbai, Delhi (several times), NCR (Noida, Gurgaon, Ghaziabad etc) and Chennai, each city has its problems, yes Bangalore's issues are severe and I've myself ranted here one too many times, but the difference is about 5% more than other overcrowded cities in certain areas, not much.

- Traffic jokes are fun to crack, it isn't the city's mistake though, the people who live here consider the city as a playground and an earning opportunity, they do not feel obliged to give back to the city which has given them so much in return, no one wants to obey the traffic rules, re-register their number plates (which would make traffic violation identification easier) or even consider themselves Bangalorean to start with.

- Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata (the original four) had the luxury of time, most of them started their growth and development during the colonial era whilst Bangalore was just a colonial outpost, an army center & a relaxation spot so to speak. Its all the same amazing how the city coped with this amount of rapid development including an increase in population of over 400% in just 2 decades, no other place had such an influx.

By saying all the things above I'm neither trying to prove that Bangalore is a great place to live in nor undermining the importance of older cities with slightly better infrastructure, I feel all these cities combined provide the bulk of the white collar economy for the nation without which the wealth creation is impossible, as also trickle down economics. Also a city having a variety of people from different states is great, it gives a sense of living in a truly diverse nation. However Bangalore doesn't yet enjoy full unity in diversity, people do not identify themselves as a proud Bangalorean like they do being a Mumbaikar or a Delhiite, Mumbai has many problems too but even if I point out to one in a non-judgemental way my colleagues based out of there start looking at me angry

My 2 favorite places are Bangalore and Delhi, yes I say that with some positive bias based out of personal experiences, but other than that I believe that the nation and each city can only improve if we do what we expect from others and encourage others to do the same as well. Bangalore is/was a great place, its just cracking under extreme overloading plus a government (ALL ruling parties so far have done their role in destroying the city).

The time is ripe more than ever before, to conserve, protect and work as a family. Gandhi — 'The world has enough for everyone's need, but not enough for everyone's greed.'

[binand]

Originally Posted by dark.knight

- Bangalore is the single largest developed city in India, comfortably exceeding the erstwhile Mumbai's size by over 100 sq.km.

Just curious where you got that from. From Wikipedia:

Mumbai - metropolitan area 4355 km^2, population 184 lakhs.
Bangalore - metropolitan area 709 km^2, population 87 lakhs.

[BeantownThinker]

Originally Posted by dark.knight

- Traffic jokes are fun to crack, it isn't the city's mistake though, the people who live here consider the city as a playground and an earning opportunity, they do not feel obliged to give back to the city which has given them so much in return, no one wants to obey the traffic rules, re-register their number plates (which would make traffic violation identification easier) or even consider themselves Bangalorean to start with.

Very well thought out and lucid observations and opinion here. I thank you for this.

Just to give a small example, my office is near MG Road. We have had visitors coming in from other cities who land at the airport at 10.30 am and typically take about an hour and a half to reach from the airport. The first thing they crib about is how long it took to reach from the airport. Mind you, these are people who are based out of Mumbai and Delhi. The only thing I ask them is 'How long does it take for you to commute 36kms in Mumbai and Delhi?'

[vnabhi]

Originally Posted by BeantownThinker

. Mind you, these are people who are based out of Mumbai and Delhi. The only thing I ask them is 'How long does it take for you to commute 36kms in Mumbai and Delhi?'

Good point. However, those people are used to having an airport within the city, so they don't really feel the distance. Same was the case with Bangalore when the old airport was in operation. Hyderabad too was similar.

Now that both Bangalore and Hyderabad have moved beyond city limits, it is common to hear such comments. However, in Hyderabad, the planning was a tad better. Thanks to PVNR Expressway, it hardly takes 40 to 50 minutes to travel 36 kms to the airport from the old airport. Unfortunately it is not so in the case of Bangalore. Once you touch Hebbal on your way from BIAL to old airport, you will certainly face a gridlock, unless you are travelling in late hours.

[rdst_1]

It takes even longer at times to get to the Delhi Airport if you aren't taking the Metro. Sometimes it takes more than an hour and a half just to cross Delhi and if you get caught in a jam at Dhaula Kuan, it can take hours. Once it took me 4 hours just to reach Airport from Mayur Vihar and this was at 3 in the morning. Has to be one of the longest jams I got caught in. They have bypassed Dhaula Kuan now but the bypass can also get jammed up due to the insane no of cars on the road. If I am travelling during Metro working hours, I would always take the Metro to the Airport.

[landcruiser123]

Originally Posted by dark.knight

Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata (the original four) had the luxury of time, most of them started their growth and development during the colonial era whilst Bangalore was just a ......

IMHO that holds the key.

Bangalore as a city has not been developed by the British, Mysore was the major city then.

Driving through Chennai (even with the traffic) is much easier than driving in Bangalore because of wide roads, well planned flyovers/interchanges and roundabouts. There are significantly lesser bottlenecks too.

I can't comment on Mumbai, Delhi or Kolkata.

Seeing the stats shared by Ola (search Team-BHP for the thread), I have to agree with you that the problem affects everyone to the same extent in every major metro city in India.