[audioholic]

Speaking about BMTC, how rude a driver is directly dependent upon how well he is connected with the staff union. While some enjoy being fully secured by the union against any problem, both internal and external, others have to suffer their wrath. When I was in my 11th and 12th, I used to travel by Vajra everyday, out of which a specific route 500P and 600M used to pick me up from the end of my road and drop me near college within no time. Over the two years, I used to have a lot of conversations with the conductor of the bus. The starting point was near my college so there would be just me, and if at most one or two extra. The driver was an innocent chap, who used to drive the bus with utmost care. They earn a meagre amount of 6k-7k a month. Upon that, each accident will cut their increment. It once happened that this guy lightly brushed against a car while taking a sharp turn. If one has observed, the volvo has a huge front overhang, and that makes the entire front swing around a large radius. He had not judged it properly and nicked the vehicle. The bumper of the car had gone in.

The lady owner was a non-kannada speaking person and she has directly complained to the depot manager, after keeping quite at the a spot. The driver of the bus was literally begging the lady over the phone in order to take it back, and assured he would pay up for fixing the damage. Felt sorry and as he did not know english properly, I had to speak on his behalf.

That day, he narrated how good and how bad are the lives of the Bus drivers and conductors. They have to bribe the depot manager for a leave. Some of the veteran drivers, not all, are well established, and even if they get involved in a major accident, they will find a way out he said. We pay our driver 10k for a sedan, and these BMTC fellows, especially those driving the volvos deserve more IMO. Sad state of the affairs in our country is a major problem, and unless systems are made strict, the bad will continue to happen, and the good will continue to be suppressed. Same is with KSRTC. Driving an Airavat was once considered a special duty, the same is dreaded now, due to the various loopholes in the system.

One such loophole, as mentioned by the bus driver is so: Normally drivers with very less accident history is given charge of a volvo. They get a small increment for this. This makes other staff jealous, and he loses support of the union. Any small case will be made a big issue. So naturally the drivers history will go bad. So back to square one.

[benbsb29]

Originally Posted by audioholic

We pay our driver 10k for a sedan, and these BMTC fellows, especially those driving the volvos deserve more IMO. Sad state of the affairs in our country is a major problem, and unless systems are made strict, the bad will continue to happen, and the good will continue to be suppressed.

One such loophole, as mentioned by the bus driver is so: Normally drivers with very less accident history is given charge of a volvo. They get a small increment for this. This makes other staff jealous, and he loses support of the union. Any small case will be made a big issue. So naturally the drivers history will go bad. So back to square one.

From what i had read, the drivers with better overall records were given the Volvos to drive. Looks like that isnt the case anymore, with any madman getting his hands on one these days.

Also, the better working environment provided by a Volvo in a way is a promotion. All said and done, there is no justification for the rash driving by those driving the BMTC Volvos. They literally shove other cars off the road.

[binand]

Got caught in a nasty jam between Hebbal interchange and Nagawara junction on the ORR yesterday late evening (10:30 PM) while on my way back from the airport. It took me more than 30 minutes to cover what, 4 km? Did not even understand what the jam was all about. The pile-up in the other direction extended till Banaswadi and probably beyond.

So I have decided that henceforth, I will trust my Android's "Traffic" layer a lot more. The traffic status prediction on the phone was very accurate (which I ignored).

[rohanjf]

Chaos at Kodathi railway crossing near Decathlon today morning. I was returning home to Sarjapur by bike. Policemen were trying hard to manage the traffic after the gates had just opened. Once I got across the train tracks, I saw a huge pile of vehicle glass on the road, a BMTC bus parked on the field, a crowd and a bunch of policemen. There was no other vehicle, but so much glass could have come only from two large vehicles.

A little ahead, in front of St Patrick's school, a yellow schoolbus with a completely flat right front tyre had gone off road and a bike was under it. There were policemen too.

First of all I take my bike out once in 2-3 weeks. Now even that confidence in me is shaken!

[vinu_h]

Originally Posted by akshay380

Remember what I told you here? http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/street...ml#post2969299 But there is always a silver lining. Dont give up. Attend the monthly meeting with area traffic PI and make some noise. That way they take action fairly fast.

They don't bother to penalise those who park on the footpaths that are right in front of the police station they work out of. I'm not wasting time meeting them.

The only alternative I think will work and more importantly be supported by the locals is if, a group of volunteers took it upon themselves to stop and penalise violators and invested the collections back into the locality they collected it from.

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by vinu_h

The only alternative I think will work and more importantly be supported by the locals is if, a group of volunteers took it upon themselves to stop and penalise violators and invested the collections back into the locality they collected it from.

I am all in for something like this. Like how they have traffic wardens, they can also call in volunteers to collect fines. In fact, I read somewhere that any government officer can collect fines from pubkic in certain cases and deposit the same in a police station with a receipt. Not sure how this system would work though. But I m sure I read something like this.

[srinih75]

In my opinion the only time when traffic in Bangalore will become normal is when we run out of petrol and diesel. This way no one will get to drive their vehicles, so no more driving and forget about anyone trying to drive "rash".

Collecting fines, putting people in jail or confiscating the keys/cars, etc will only cause pain for that individual. The rest will see and say to themselves - "oh god I am saved for now".

Our roads are narrow, filled with potholes, is amidst busy population (market place, or residential areas). In these places people will park their cars or slow down or stop. The person behind will be in no mood to slow down as probably his thought is - "darn I now have to slow down and change my gears, I am not going to do that". He then will cut his vehicle to one of the sides and get into trouble or more importantly - get someone else into trouble.

[binand]

Originally Posted by audioholic

I am all in for something like this. Like how they have traffic wardens, they can also call in volunteers to collect fines.

Wouldn't work. Without the legal backing to do this, it will be extortion. If GoK tried to bring a law that enabled this, it will surely be contested (and shot down) in a court of law.

[mannubhai]

Originally Posted by vinu_h

They don't bother to penalise those who park on the footpaths that are right in front of the police station they work out of. I'm not wasting time meeting them.
.

This photo was posted by arun_josie in the bad driver thread. Look at that cop. The guy in the moped is with out a helmet and 2 feet away from him. Instead of pulling him up for a violation, he is assisting him cross the road. This is the attitude that needs correction. Immaterial of how trivial the offense is, violations should be treated with same severeness.

[msdivy]

Originally Posted by mannubhai

Look at that cop. The guy in the moped is with out a helmet and 2 feet away from him. Instead of pulling him up for a violation, he is assisting him cross the road.

If the cop manning the junction takes a minute off to issue a ticket, then there will be mayhem at the junction !

[VeluM]

Originally Posted by msdivy

If the cop manning the junction takes a minute off to issue a ticket, then there will be mayhem at the junction !

Beg to differ. In my experience, whenever there is a traffic jam at a junction it generally is because of traffic cops. Traffic in Bangalore tends to sort itself out (somehow), but the cops tend to resort to trying to "clear out" all traffic from one direction before allowing crossing traffic to resume. That is impossible to achieve and just causes a humungous jam in the crossing lanes waiting for 2-3 and frequently more minutes.

I agree that this cop should have issued a ticket to the moped rider. May not fix everything, but if they fined people immediately for crossing the stop line, coming down the wrong lane at signals to jump the queue, and left the junctions to the automated signals (with sane waiting times), I think it would help.

[deep_bang]

Originally Posted by VeluM

Beg to differ. In my experience, whenever there is a traffic jam at a junction it generally is because of traffic cops. .

That is a very generalized statement. I can see in several places how cops help quite a bit.

[mannubhai]

Originally Posted by msdivy

If the cop manning the junction takes a minute off to issue a ticket, then there will be mayhem at the junction !

There is not a thing called the fear of the system. That guy knows he wont be stopped. Hence dares to stand along side the cop. What is alarming is that the cop is helping him cross the road eventually.

That is lackluster approach.

[benbsb29]

Manu, this is more of an issue owing to lesser number of cops with respect to the overall traffic populace. In developed countries, even if the number of cops are less there is a traffic system which takes away such manual tasks, giving the cops a chance to keep tabs on traffic offences.

Even in this case, if there was an inspector along with this cop manning the junction, this chap "may" have gotten a traffic ticket. I see this quite often at the EPIP junction, Whitefield where an additional cop alongside ensures traffic offenders are caught, while one mans the traffic.

[vikram_d]

Originally Posted by benbsb29

Manu, this is more of an issue owing to lesser number of cops with respect to the overall traffic populace. In developed countries, even if the number of cops are less there is a traffic system which takes away such manual tasks, giving the cops a chance to keep tabs on traffic offences.

We do have systems in place which are meant to take away such menial jobs like managing a junction away from cops. But the sad reality is nobody follows them. I'm sure we all see dozens of people jumping signals on a daily basis.

Heck I have seen people jumping signals even when there is a cop around and this also happens on a daily basis.

For example, let's take the case of South End Circle. This circle is a huge one and there are normally a couple of cops keeping an eye on things and making sure things are going as planned. A two wheeler rider approaches the junction and checks where the cops are. If they are not close by he eventually jumps the signal without a care in the world. I see this happen everyday and South End Circle is a pretty big one. I have seen this happen on much smaller circles also. The cop can't do anything about it. If the cop is lucky he will see the vehicle's number plate and note down the number, but in 90% of the cases even that is not possible as we have all sorts of decorative number plates where the number can be barely read.

It's not the cops who should change, it us the people who need a lesson in good manners and road etiquette.