[harishhm74]

Found this article
https://bangaloremirror.indiatimes.c.../68570357.cms?
The speed tracker costs 2.5Lakh - and now will need cc cameras to monitor

[Mukund]

Overworked drivers make cab rides a risky affair in Bengaluru
According to the traffic department, about 60 per cent of the road is occupied by cabs run by private operators, leading to congested roads. Most cab drivers work throughout the day in order to earn extra incentives, even if that means staying at the wheel at the cost of their sleep. Exhausted and drowsy taxi drivers are becoming a prime cause for accidents in the city, traffic police officials say.
“Ola, Uber and private cab drivers, in order to extra money, accept rides at night too, after putting in a hard day at work. As they are sleepy, they fail to pay attention to the road, thus causing accidents,” P Harishekaran, Additional Commissioner (Traffic), said.
Most of the accidents occur on the Outer Ring Roads and the airport road, a source from Ola said. “At least 5-6 accidents in a week occur due to drivers not taking adequate rest. Most of them take a 10-minute nap while waiting for the next ride and when they suddenly wake up, they are half sleepy, leading to a crash. Just last week, a cab crashed onto the divider on KR Puram Road. Most of the cases are not reported to the police,” the source added. Most of the accidents usually occur between 3am and 6am. Comissioner (Traffic), said.

Source.

1. Traffic department acknowledges that 60% of the road is occupied by Cabs? Why is nothing being done to reduce the traffic load?
2. Overworked drivers make only the rides dangerous and not the roads?
3. Acknowledging the lack of enforcement of labour laws?

P.S: I used to see one cab on the divider under the Bellandur flyover infront of central mall every week late in the night. No longer go through that place late in the night so don't know the current situation.

[am1m]

Originally Posted by Mukund

Traffic department acknowledges that 60% of the road is occupied by Cabs?

Glad there are some stats to back this up now. A lot of us think that Uber and Ola have gone a long way towards reducing traffic congestion. They have not. They have made it worse. True, cab aggregators will probably reduce private car ownership somewhat (only somewhat- because owning a car is still a status symbol in India and will continue to be so for at least a generation or two more), but unlike private cars which will be parked inside homes (at least some of them, those who have parking inside at home) and in offices during the day, these cabs will be on the roads, either with fares or will be parked somewhere on the side of the road while the driver waits for a call or catches a nap.

The only solution to traffic in cities like Bangalore is a Metro+Bus+Auto/Cycles for last mile connectivity. Not Uber/Ola. The government should go a step further and heavily restrict traffic movement and parking on roads already connected by a Metro line IMHO. Drastic, yes, but so is the traffic situation here. Not even going to get into the road manners or general thuggishness of your average cab driver in Bangalore.

Always tell my family that it is better to spend the extra hour it takes to use the airport bus to get to the airport and back. Especially for late night/early morning flights. Always found the cabbies very unsafe for that run at those times. Glad there are stats again to back that up.

[OrangeCar]

Originally Posted by Mukund

[*]Overworked drivers make only the rides dangerous and not the roads?

At silkboard junction, coming from BTM, going towards HSR.

Signal is green. I am on the left most lane. A beaten up Indica cabbie on the right most lane and much ahead of me.

I move forward. He too is moving forward. I suddenly notice the cabbie is moving towards the left lane, without indicator, ofcourse!

I honked.. and then honked again.. and then honked like a crazy man! But to no avail. I sped up a little, since there were vehicles behind me (I couldn't stop abruptly). And the eventual thing happened. A kiss on the side rear right bumper, resulting a two big lines throughout the length of the bumper.

Stopped and got down. The driver had stopped behind me, because I had stopped he could not move forward.

I move towards the car, the dude is busy on his phone with a Ola/Uber app. Still hadn't realized what happened. I ask him to get out of the car. He goes.. wassup? He gets out. I see his droopy eyes showing lack of sleep. Chewing away tobacco/paan masala to compensate for lack of sleep with a kick. Showed him the mark on my car's bumper. He goes on.. 'are you sure I did this?'. My jaws drop. And also almost have a smile. And little bit of fury too.

Did not want to block traffic. Asked him which direction he was headed. He said straight to HSR. Asked him to stop after signal. He nodded like a school kid. And signal turns green. In the hustle, he disappears taking a left towards Madiwala underpass.

What had happened? The taxi guy had just got a ride near Madiwala. Doesn't matter he was on the right most lane. Doesn't matter he was looking into maps and steering left. Doesn't matter there was no indicator. And wooooshhh he was gone.

Not that I was looking for a solution or answer to the beautiful straight line scratch on the bumper. But.. was just wondering what Uber / Ola has done to drivers. Long hours in tiring traffic with no sleep. Drivers compromising long term health for short term benefits. Plus putting riders, other road users safety to grave risk.

Solution? Uber and Ola together have to ensure no driver works for more than 8 or 9 hours. Data to be shared about drivers between platforms and after 8 or 9 hours, no more rides.

[harishhm74]

The problem with Ola/Uber monitoring driver drive time is a bit tricky - they might have long breaks between two trips - and hence there may not be clock-in clock-out for a driver who are incentivised by number of trips or other such KPIs.

One idea is they have to strictly define a clock-in event and automatically clock out after say 10hrs or some predefined number or trips or kms driven whichever achieved before.

But what if the driver switches from Ola to Uber after the Ola clock out is reached? Unless they have some coordinated central entity where the driver DL and vehicle is logged to prevent such cross hopping between hire apps.

That is a distant dream for now as we Indians can beat any system

[pratyush6]

There are two arguments to the taxis causing traffic problems. Yes, the car density has increased and it just won't go down. As time goes on, people will buy more cars not less. So, no matter what authorities plan, cars on Indian roads are going to increase. Taxis are good that it supplement incomes or give someone a legal choice to earn a living.

The point after that is, what are we doing to cope with the increased density. Again comes down to planning, conditions on roads, removing bottlenecks and creating mass rapid transit systems (MRTs). Untill and unless, we make MRTs, there is no way in the world car traffic goes down. If my car gets me from A to B in 45 mins and Public transit in more or less 69 to 90 minutes that too in smelly conditions, I doubt people will choose it.

[Rajeevraj]

Bore the full brunt of Ecoworld Traffic yesterday. Had to go towards Old Airport Road from Sarjapur Side. Saw a note about accident on ORR, main Sarjapur Road was chocked as usual. In spite of my instincts screaming to avoid getting into Ecoworld Road from the Kannalli-Panathur Road, I thought, it may be ok and turned in. Ended up being a total night mare. 1.5 hours to move from one end of Ecoworld and exit on to the ORR near Passport office. On weekends I regularly take this route which is empty and it takes me 3 min to go from one end to the other.

The rate at which the buildings within Ecoworld were spitting out vehicles was mind boggling.

[wildsdi5530]

@msdivy The high beam is more focussed and useful for distant objects in the line of the beam. The low beam is spread and shows the sides of the road better.

Let's stop bashing the cabbies. These guys were conned to leave their homes and take car loans to buy a car promising high rewards. I remember a time when cabbies used to make over Rs. 1 lakh per month, infact one of my junior doctors was very keen to start driving a cab to supplement his meagre earnings. But now with 60% of the roads occupied by cabs, these guys hardly make 30-40k per month. Thus they feel the pinch. Since they are often self driven, they cannot depend on a paid driver to do proxy service. Usually they recruit a friend or a relative to do the honors, often without any accreditation. Also remember this 60% occupancy is also a flawed figure. A true figure will be got only if the number of kilometers run x number of cars is compared.

Most people who have access to comfortable public transport use them in preference to private vehicles. Many colleagues who have luxury cars used to travel by metro when it used to run only till Mantri mall. Now it is too crowded and they have resumed using their own vehicles. Plus metro doesn't run all day. Even the night bus services have been stopped for the past 15 years or so. Riding a 2 wheeler is plain dangerous except for people who can avail paid medical leave and don't mind permanent disability. Car pooling is not practical in a country like ours where there are no labour laws. The few people who have a regular schedule are already car/ cab pooling.

Unfortunately there's no real solution to our traffic woes. We have to live with it or leave it. Any noise that we make is just going to bring about stupid new rules which will make the situation worse.

[dark.knight]

Originally Posted by wildsdi5530

Let's stop bashing the cabbies. These guys were conned to leave their homes and take car loans to buy a car promising high rewards. I remember a time when cabbies used to make over Rs. 1 lakh per month, infact one of my junior doctors was very keen to start driving a cab to supplement his meagre earnings. But now with 60% of the roads occupied by cabs, these guys hardly make 30-40k per month. Thus they feel the pinch. Since they are often self driven, they cannot depend on a paid driver to do proxy service. Usually they recruit a friend or a relative to do the honors, often without any accreditation.

I should seek pardon for playing the devil's advocate here, but why is it that in India, we always root for the weaker links of society (underprivileged in this case) and then excuse them for whatever menace arises out of their actions? To me its simple, want to be a cabbie? Know how to drive, drive safe, do not honk and badger other vehicles, do not drive with high beams on and be a considerate, logical motorist above all. If they were conned into the job with a six figure salary per month, its their fault that they didn't see the trickery, I knew it wouldn't last.. even if they added up the total fare of ALL the passengers per month it wouldn't come to 1 lakh, leave alone profits of 1 lakh.. it was only logical that UBER/OLA were baiting them, flush with funds from VCs.

Unfortunately there's no real solution to our traffic woes. We have to live with it or leave it. Any noise that we make is just going to bring about stupid new rules which will make the situation worse.

You may be right.., its a grim, grim scenario to paint but it is right nonetheless. Between the vote-banks and the tax-banks, the government either screws one or the other and its better to be silent and perhaps do a mass exodus if and when things get too much to handle (unfortunately this is the only city we love and know, and with roots too deeply entrenched, I have zero options).

[balenoed_]

Folks travelling from Kalamandir towards Bellandur, watch out. A serial rear ending just happened under Marathahalli under pass.

Innova, Rapid, Polo and a company bus. The Polo suffered the worst, back side is crumpled beyond repair and airbags deployed. Even the bus windshield is shattered.

Further ahead, near Wells Fargo, an i10 is being rear ended by a truck.

This underpass is always dark and patchy. I wonder why nothing is been done about it. Not sure whether they forgot about the state of this underpass.

[am1m]

Originally Posted by wildsdi5530

Let's stop bashing the cabbies.

Usually, I'm all for considering the background circumstances and stuff like that, but the majority of these guys are absolute thugs on the road and thugs in general. It's a basic attitude issue.

The few times I've been in a cab in Bangalore, I usually end up chatting with the driver, since they're usually happy they have a fare that speaks to them in Kannada. So they automatically assume I'll share their attitudes. Have heard things like "Why should white-board vehicles even use the roads, we cabs have to earn so we should have priority" "These IT guys sit in ac all day, I drive a cab, so he should give me way when I horn" "Why are all these outsiders coming to Bangalore?" (leave aside the fact that most cabbies are not from Bangalore either, but from smaller towns around) "Look at these guys, they should be taken care of soon" (said while we were passing a line of people from a particular religious community leaving their place of worship)

Yes there is the odd good chap, but the majority aren't fit to be driving around our cities. Simple daily observations: if I'm in front of a cab and stop because there's simply no room to move ahead or for a red light, versus being in front of a private vehicle, who do you think starts honking like an idiot first? On the Bellandur Lake road every time there's a jam because some idiot tried to cut into the oncoming traffic and get ahead, 4 times out of 5 it's a cab (or an auto) and not a private vehicle.

Sympathy is fine, but it's obvious who the bad drivers are.

Originally Posted by wildsdi5530

Now it is too crowded and they have resumed using their own vehicles.

In cities the world over that have cracked efficient public transport, incentivizing the use of public transport goes hand in hand with discouraging private vehicles. Hence discouraging private vehicle usage on routes already connected by a metro is the way to go. If people still choose to use their private transport, that's their call.

Originally Posted by dark.knight

To me its simple, want to be a cabbie? Know how to drive, drive safe, do not honk and badger other vehicles, do not drive with high beams on and be a considerate, logical motorist above all.

+1 to that!

[vnabhi]

Originally Posted by vnabhi

A question for BLR guys. I am flying to Bangalore this week, and driving back to Hyderabad on Saturday or Sunday from Leela Palace area.

I am not sure if road works on the ORR towards Hebbal have been completed. I normally use that route via Indira Nagar. Please advise if that is ok now, or should I stick to the Trnity Circle/ Raj Bhavan route?

Thanks in advance.

Originally Posted by himanshugoswami

Venu Bhai stick to raj bhavan road. you will save at least 30 mins.

Originally Posted by ajmat

To get to Raj Bhavan

Drive to Command Hospital, turn right at the traffic light, join MG Road. Turn right at next traffic light onto Dickenson Road, take next left onto Cubbon Road

Originally Posted by adi_gt

Take the ORR with eyes closed. No whitetopping work at the moment. If it's early morning (before 7am) than you can think of Rajbhavan road etc. You will get stuck behind really slow moving traffic with in the city.

Originally Posted by LonelyPlanet

All work on ORR is completed. It’s a breeze once you get down from Beningahalli bridge.
Stick to ORR is my suggestion.

Originally Posted by mpksuhas

A slightly different route I would suggest if place of your stay is on Leela Palace side of the road.

Take Jeevanbhima Nagar BSNL office road - Join Old Madras road - Proceed till Ulsoor lake and take right - Cross MEG center and take right at next circle - Proceed on Millers road - Cross RT Nagar TV tower - Mekhri circle.

I have felt this is the faster route from Indiranagar area during peak time.

Thank you guys! As I had started at 5 am on Sunday, I took the route via Trinity and Raj Bhavan , and crossed Hebbal around 520 am, and reached the Devanahalli toll another 15 minutes later. It was a real breeze. And I found it surprising that even at that hour, all vehicles were sticking to the 80 kmpl limit till Devanahalli.

[ankan.m.blr]

What is happening in ORR? It's midnight and still dark red on ORR at Kadubisenahalli!

[speedmiester]

Originally Posted by ankan.m.blr

What is happening in ORR? It's midnight and still dark red on ORR at Kadubisenahalli!

Does that place need a reason to host a traffic jam?

It has become a part of our lives like the polluted air we breathe.

[shamanth]

Originally Posted by pratyush6

Again comes down to planning, conditions on roads, removing bottlenecks and creating mass rapid transit systems (MRTs). Untill and unless, we make MRTs, there is no way in the world car traffic goes down.

At-least we are responsible for blocking projects for removing bottlenecks. Every-time govt comes with proposal(Hebbal steel bridge, elevated corridors) some 100 people go and protest in road, we forward the same in social media talking of environment, etc. And project gets shelved for good.

And we are in same spot, voicing to improve public transport, removing bottlenecks. And nothing happens.