[Newpunter]

Originally Posted by airbus

Yesterday we had an early morning flight to catch and booked Mega Cab for airport drop at 2:45 am. After travelling about 15 kms, I noticed that the driver (should be around 50 years) was not driving normally and appeared sleepy. I was sitting next to him. I told him to stop the car and wash his face, which he did but again I saw him sleeping while waiting at the toll gate. I had offered him to drive if he is uncomfortable but he said he is fine. Rest of the distance I had to actively monitor him until we reached the airport.

I was in this situation once when I was returning home from Malaysia. I hadn't slept all night and was looking forward to sleeping in the taxi. This was at around 2 AM in the morning and the driver was falling asleep every few minutes. I couldn't sleep because of this and kept monitoring him continuously. He stopped twice for washing his face and getting a tea. Inspite of this, he fell asleep again and almost ran the car off the road before i shouted and woke him up. After that, I made him sit in the passenger seat and drove the rest of the way .

[am1m]

Originally Posted by airbus

I noticed that the driver (should be around 50 years) was not driving normally and appeared sleepy.

Originally Posted by Newpunter

This was at around 2 AM in the morning and the driver was falling asleep every few minutes.

This has happened so many times to so many friends of mine, and I've seen other posts on this forum about this, it seems to be the norm for early-morning/late night airport taxis. This is why I always take the bus, even if it means leaving early and waiting at the airport, or having to wait at the airport and then catching the next bus.

Originally Posted by ajmat

Problem is getting a BMTC bus after midnight. Their operations are a little sparse till 5 am

True, I think there are no buses between 12 and 3, but before/after that there's at least one every hour. Still, personally I'd prefer to wait rather than risk a sleepy/cranky cabbie. Or at least I'd opt for an 'Airport Taxi'. I find their drivers better than the average Uber/Ola guys these days.

[arindambasu13]

Originally Posted by airbus

Yesterday we had an early morning flight to catch and booked Mega Cab for airport drop at 2:45 am. After travelling about 15 kms, I noticed that the driver (should be around 50 years) was not driving normally and appeared sleepy.

This is an extremely, extremely dangerous situation. Several months back, someone I know was in the same situation. Some time around 4 am, he was headed to the airport and the driver dozed off for a split second. The car rammed into the back of a truck ahead (both were traveling at speed of course) and as a result, the passenger and driver both suffered nasty and very severe injuries. Thankfully both got out of the situation alive but with long recovery times.

On another occasion, when I was in a situation where I could see the driver dozing off, I did not leave him with a choice. Got him to sit in the passenger seat and drove myself to my house. It was an odd time with little chance of getting a replacement cab, and I was running on a tight schedule, and hence I chose to drive myself. Otherwise, I would have stepped out and taken another cab. Asking the driver in these situation will always elicit a response that he is perfectly fine. Its better to judge yourself and take matters into one's own hand rather than risking the lives of everyone involved - including the driver himself. In my opinion, there is no question of continuing to let the let the driver drive, because if he is seen dozing off once, he will be doing it again and again - no two ways about it. These guys have very long work hours and often, do not know when to give themselves the requisite rest.

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by Newpunter

I was in this situation once when I was returning home from Malaysia. I hadn't slept all night and was looking forward to sleeping in the taxi. This was at around 2 AM in the morning and the driver was falling asleep every few minutes. .

Looks like this is a common occurrence. Off late I land in Bangalore at 2-3AM and the first time I did it, I booked an Uber Premier. Faced this issue of driver dozing off and then stopping for tea and so on. Earlier I used to take a later flight connection and land at 9AM which would be ideal for someone to pick me up. But this early morning flight schedule gave me a bad experience right from the first time. Then on, I started taking Uber SUV or Ola prime SUV or executive. I either settle for an Innova or Ertiga at the worst case. Of the five times I have done this so far, I have got drivers who are fresh and active. Either they are company cab drivers who have come for an executive drop and want to make some money on the way back or they have only started the duty with a drop to airport. Compared to this, the regular sedan and hatchback drivers would have driven all around town and then come to the airport. These guys try to take a short nap or no sleep at all and will be desperate to ride back towards the city so that they can head home. These are to be avoided at any cost.

Originally Posted by airbus

Yesterday we had an early morning flight to catch and booked Mega Cab for airport drop at 2:45 am. I will also consider taking BMTC KIA Service even with family, which I regularly take if I am travelling alone on personal trips.

Originally Posted by ajmat

Problem is getting a BMTC bus after midnight. Their operations are a little sparse till 5 am

I have seen KIA buses at all times at the airport. However towards the airport, its quite less but manageable if we reach a bus station with enough time to spare. For me, from Jayanagar bus station there are buses but I feel its a hassle to take bus while heading towards the airport. Another option is to take cab till hebbal/mekhri circle and then catch a bus since many routes pass by.

[grevvity]

Originally Posted by airbus

Yesterday we had an early morning flight to catch and booked Mega Cab for airport drop at 2:45 am. After travelling about 15 kms, I noticed that the driver (should be around 50 years) was not driving normally ...

I have had similar experiences multiple times and now found the solution to avoid this by using self-drive one-way rental cars. They are super convenient, gives you an extra seat if required and more luggage space (back seat) without any 'chik chik' of the driver. You can drive at your own pace, take a break in the middle as and when you want without having to deal with a sleepy driver. Perfect!

[ambivalent_98]

I had a strange experience yesterday evening. A bullet rider smoking and riding tried to cut ahead between me and a cab. There was no contact of any sort but I honked as he was too close. This offended him and he start gesturing towards me. I paid no attention and just kept driving (20 kph in lots of traffic). On going ahead there was a left turn i.e. the whole road had a 60 degree turn. This person came from the left and inorder to try to stop me hit his hand hard on the car from the left. I saw him do it. He thought I would think he had hit my car and would confront him. I still paid no attention as I had seen him do it. He again stopped in front of me waiting for me to storm out and angrily fight. But I did not react at all as there was no damage done and I was slowly realising this guy wanted to pick a fight and create a tamasha. The stop and stare happened a couple of more times after which he was probably bored.
This must have happened with a lot of 4 wheeler drivers but my surprise was the biker wanted to pick an argument. But since there was absolutely no contact of any sort and me not reacting at all in any way gave him nothing to fight on. Lesson learnt by me - art of fighting without fighting.

[shreyascashyap]

I was driving my car on the ORR near Manyata on Friday evening and got to experience someone trying to con me first hand!

It was pouring rain and the traffic was crawling forward a few feet at a time. I was at the extreme right with the median next to me. I was tailing a lorry in front and there were 2 autos to my left.

One young guy brandishing a helmet in his hand came up to my window and banged hard on it and started screaming at the top of his voice about what an irresponsible driver I was and how I ran over his leg with my car (his words were a lot more colorful! :P) and he demanded I roll down the window. I refused to do so and didn't roll the window down or open the doors. I just looked away from him and focused back on the road - which was when I saw another guy standing by my passenger window. Every time I glanced away from the guy by the driver window, he kept banging harder to distract me and get me to focus on him.

After about 2-3 minutes of being unable to get my undivided attention, the guy just walked away. Have to admit, he moved quite sprightly for someone who apparently had his foot run over by a car 5 minutes ago lol. Unfortunately, it was brand new car and the dashcam was still in the glove box, hadn't gotten that fixed.

[adg_andy]

The previous post reminded me of an incident exactly about a year ago. I was at Manyata for some work overnight. It was Sunday 4:15 am. 2 minutes after I exited the main gate, there was a guy knocking at the left window pane and mentioned something in Kannada, I made gestures that I did not understand him and drove off. After a few minutes, it was the same guy on the driver side!! He now says in English that I had squeezed him on the left and he had fallen and was injured(I do not recall , since it was pretty deserted, and I would have definitely heard a bike falling, or hitting the body of my car). I told him to note down my car number and report to police if required and sped off- they chased me till Kalyan Nagar and then called off. I reached my home in E City under 1 hour that day

[jaganm]

Originally Posted by grevvity

I have had similar experiences multiple times and now found the solution to avoid this by using self-drive one-way rental cars. They are super convenient, gives you an extra seat if required and more luggage space (back seat) without any 'chik chik' of the driver. You can drive at your own pace, take a break in the middle as and when you want without having to deal with a sleepy driver. Perfect!

Can you throw light on which is the car that I can rent to go to the airport or come back from the airport?

[grevvity]

Originally Posted by jaganm

Can you throw light on which is the car that I can rent to go to the airport or come back from the airport?

I have used Drivezy (https://m.drivezy.com/) for airport pick and drop. So far the experience has been good. Timely delivery of vehicles both at home and at the airport with fast check-in and check-out. The money saved is the icing on the cake. I paid 350-400 Rs on one side as compared to 800-900 of a usual ola/uber fare.

PS: I am not affiliated with Drivezy or any other car rental company and only sharing my experience using their services.

[sanjaykk]

Some of the u-turns/break-in-medians on old madras road have been closed - the one in front of Byappanahalli metro and the one at the Indiranagar BDA complex.
Whether it helps ease traffic needs to be seen.

[PrideRed]

Please avoid taking Rainbow-Graphite road. Road on one side opposite my apartment has been dug up and expect considerable delay/jam during regular traffic. This week being festive time, is okay, expect things to go bad next week.

[NPV]

Originally Posted by sanjaykk

the one in front of Byappanahalli metro
...
Whether it helps ease traffic needs to be seen.

I'm not sure if this will help, it will have a ripple/cascading effect somewhere nearby. For traffic coming from inside kasturinagar via Byappanahalli metro station rear entrance/railway station/NGEF and wanting to go towards Indiranagar this was the place for the U turn, now they'll have to go up towards the next signal near Byappanahalli police station. As it is, the number of vehicles (mostly two wheelers) making an illegal U turn near BMRCL office after coming via NGEF is a big problem already, so with this move I expect more two wheelers to do the same

[black_rider]

Originally Posted by NPV

... not sure if this will help, it will have a ripple/cascading effect somewhere nearby. For traffic coming from inside kasturinagar via Byappanahalli metro station rear entrance/railway station/NGEF and wanting to go towards Indiranagar this was the place for the U turn, now they'll have to go up towards the next signal near Byappanahalli police station ...

Totally agree. It is actually the BMTC buses which cause a bottleneck in front of metro station. Buses that don't go into the bus bay, buses that just stick their neck in the bus bay and the rest of their body almost perpendicular to traffic flow. Bus bays are something that neither the commuters nor the bus drivers understand.

[keroo1099]

Originally Posted by NPV

I'm not sure if this will help, it will have a ripple/cascading effect somewhere nearby.

I predict that the cascading effect will become a tsunami at the new junction with vehicles trying to make a 'U' turn, plus traffic trying to turn into Varthur Road. Varthur Road as it is gets partly blocked during peak hours and this brainwave is now going to back up this narrow road for it's entire length, since private vehicles which earlier had two options to cross OMR from bagamane tech park will now flood one Varthur Road and cause complete gridlock.

Stupid decision.