[pypkmsrikanth]

Originally Posted by jeevmenon

srikanth: Regards Pammal-Tiruneermalai internal road I saw a board which says 3 km to Tiruneermalai somewhere in the interior parts of Pammal and it should most probably the one you mentioned and the rest is clear. However, my original intent and what Gansan mentions as well, from the GST, taking the "Tiruneermalai road" from just under/close to that GST/209 junction flyover, will your (Srikanth's) service road directions backwards connect this road? I want to avoid crowded Pammal.

I would not be able to help you on the point from where the Thiruneeermalai road branches off from GST Road, though mapmyindia shows this point to be close to the Shell Pump. But am sure that if you manage to take the road from Pallavaram side you would be able to get onto the Chennai bye pass, the reason being when you come from Pammal by taking the service road it touches the Thiruneermalai road which runs perpendicular to Chennai Byepass.

If you are coming from Maduravayol side on the byepass what you could do is take a U turn which I had mentioned in my earlier post. Once you get off the byepass and take a right onto the service road the first left would take you to Thiruneermalai & a right here would take you to Pallavaram.

[MAS]

Originally Posted by pypkmsrikanth

There is certainly a way from Pammal to get onto the Byepass, I have marked it in my reply to Jeev. What you will have to do is take a left which is marked at Thiruneermalai road iin Pammal. You will come under the flyover after a km & a half or so. At this point take a left onto the service road which runs parallel to the byepass, basically you would take the service road and continue towards Tambaram for half a km or so. At this point you would find the entry to the byepass, just climb over and continue onwards towards Maduravayol.

Srikanth, i use this road very often as my work place is Thiruneermalai road. The connection between the service road and the Chennai Byepass is closed most of the time by steel pipe gates. It is opened by the HD guys only when it is required by them. Best would be to go to Tambaram and get on the byepass by the new under bridge.

[Gansan]

Originally Posted by pypkmsrikanth

I would not be able to help you on the point from where the Thiruneeermalai road branches off from GST Road, though mapmyindia shows this point to be close to the Shell Pump.

As you proceed towards Pallavaram, the Shell pump will come on your right, Thiruneermalai Road is about 200 - 250 metres away from there, and branches off to your left immediately after you pass under the rotary of the flyover. In fact traffic is regulated by a policeman at that junction, it will be extremely hard to miss.

The Radial road and Thiruneermalai road will be a straight line crossing the GST road when you see a map, but the respective points where they touch GST road are separated by about 100 feet in reality..

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by pypkmsrikanth

I would not be able to help you on the point from where the Thiruneeermalai road branches off from GST Road, though mapmyindia shows this point to be close to the Shell Pump.

When they were still working on the flyover, it was the road where one went through an "archway" of steel scaffolding. I think that had gone last time I took it, though.

If anybody fancies nine days of silence, the Vipassana meditation place is that way. I took wife, took the forgotten sheets, and picked her up again from there. Wonderful place: wish I had the mental discipline to do the course!

[pypkmsrikanth]

I travel on the Chennai Byepass on an average twice a week and at almost all times the steel fence is open. May be you are right that the HD guys might keep it closed most of the time.

[jeevmenon]

Originally Posted by jeevmenon

This morning at 8:15 am on OMR while on my way to work, just at the first signal towards Sholinganallur after the Palavaram/Thoraipakkam Radial road intersection signal, there were barricades - two of them on the right-edge of the road and one on the left edge a little away, you would have all seen this configuration that the police uses to cut speeds on empty city lanes at night. These barricades are sometimes left overnight as is and it creates lot of traffic snarls just because the police guy comes in late in the morning. And no one gets down his car to move it away. Everyones just trying to squeeze in through that narrow gap. The other day, I saw a lady get down from her car and move it out. I thanked her. Today I did it and got thanked by another guy behind me. It reminds me of the after-lunch scene at marriage halls or after-movie scene in theatres - people try to squeeze out of one door just forgetting (just going thru the motions, just saying "if I get out its fine", it just takes 5 sec to unlock the other part of the door and help more people to get out.)

This morning 8:30 AM - Same pt, same stuff. Did it again. If you guys were behind me around that time and found that the traffic suddenly moved out quickly and found that you were not swearing anymore, you know whom to thank!

I needed to fill petrol and thought of driving down beyond the AKDR golf signal to the BP on the opposite side close to Sholinganallur and what do I see - one more double-barricade blocking out the entire fast-lane close to the median and huge office buses and others squeezing through. Did it again! Lots of thumbs up from people in cars/bike behind me but they are probably smiling within and thinking "this guy will be in trouble for doing it".

On the return found a policeman at the CTS/Ponnu-da-dhaba signal and wondered one day may be I would be caught by this guy for doing these stuff. I still dont know if I am doing the right thing, but I feel good (just takes 20 sec and the flow becomes better) and I dont think I will get a good answer from the CCTP personnel standing at the signal. He might say its his duty, barricades are kept for a cause, he will remove it, I am not supposed to do it, etc. Bail me out if I am in trouble, people! Btw, is that bunk good?

[aargee]

Originally Posted by jeevmenon

Bail me out if I am in trouble, people!

Sure, I'm WITH you, IF, you do that again during morning peak hours

But again, per law, I don't think we can interfere with the barricades. You, me & most ppl here know how dumb the cops are thinking in this country. I guess they'll be happy to stay jobless only when everyone sits at home which is the other way round in the west

[jeevmenon]

Two scenarios I feel not right on my drive daily to work:

[A].



1. I follow the red-arrow. But what I found is the green-guy moving at the same time when I am. I find this green guy very irritating. Is this a signalling flaw?

2. I find lot of people stuck at the corner and cycles moving where the green is taking the 'U' turn - the blue dots, even though I see signals for pedestrians doing its red/green colors. Is this a flawed flow design too?

3. Brown guys, bikes/cycles moving too in an odd direction. This is an allowed thing by the TP, "paavam how will the bikes/cycles go towards Perungudi? Eppudi, they will go to AKDR golf signal and come back?" Come on!


[b].

I have a confession to make. I am the red arrow guy again. Both red and green are on at the same time. Wow! The green guys are a swarm/army of cycles/bikers/autos/mini-vans. The red is almost stand-still. Cannot move, else he will hit. This morning, I did a yield thing, no blue coming in for some distance and I took the U. Dead scared of the green-army!!! I did a wrong. But is the signal flow, correct? Or what I did is also acceptable by TP and in the general consensus ok? The U is only "on" for a short time of 10 sec or so.

If you carefully see A & B are the same. However, I believe in B the "U" turn is actually a signal which glows, but in A there is no U. Can someone confirm?
The U at A is mostly taken by rich IT guys trying to avoid the toll coming thru inner roads and wanting to go to Sholinganallur

Again 35 bucks of toll and unpleasant experiences for a km or two of its usage. Oh and by the way no barricades today 8:30 am (same time as yesterday) and the traffic was already moving very peacefully. So it is not a constant/must thing for the police to have it there. As I listened in to the radio mentioning the Guindy-Kathipara was a "little" slow moving! Tell me something new, I imagined myself telling the RJ.

[vineetmanghani]

From the way you've described these two scenarios, I feel it is in fact flawed signalling. Funny I never noticed this even though I'm pretty regular on this stretch. Probably the feeling is "let me get through when my light is green, just avoid the numerous morons who are coming from all sides anyway".

From what I have noticed in my 6 months of Chennai driving, you can take a U-turn when the traffic coming from the opposite side is stopped (red light). So in the (B) scenario, when the blue arrow has his red light. But as you say, at that time, the green guy will have his signal as green also?

Probably the cops also think nobody really cares, as long as eveyone avoids everyone else and no one gets hit it's OK.

You should see the scene at the MEPZ gate crossing on GST road every morning. There is a signal there which used to work but it hasn't been working for a while now. Then there used to be policemen manning the signal, and things seemed OK, even though a few auto and 2 wheeler guys paid no heed to the policeman and jumped headfirst into the traffic anyway. Now, even the policemen have disappeared from the scene! It's every man for himself. If you're coming from Chromepet side and have to take a right into MEPZ, you need to actually take your chance going through the fast moving (and heavy) traffic coming from the other side going towards Chromepet. And the people coming out from the MEPZ gate and going right also start moving at the same time, so you need to avoid them also. It's a nightmare. This morning I actually saw a traffic policeman standing under the shade in front of the MEPZ gate and looking on as we struggled to enter the gate...

[aargee]

Don't know what's going on, cops are in full swing checking motorcyclists after Nolumbur bridge & Ambattur.

Wednesday I was signalled by the cop to pull over & here's what happened.
Me : What sir?
Cop : Show your bike's papers
Me : To whom should I show?
Cop : Show it to that cop
I pull out insurance, RC & License originals & show to that guy
Cop goes over it several times & asks questions such as what's my name, Father's name etc.
Cop : You're not supposed to use this type of number plates (mine is Utsav one)
I just kept quiet
Cop : The standard one's are the ones you see there (and points his Fierro)
Me : Ok
Cop : There's a fine for it
Me : Ok
Finally don't know what happened; cop hands over all the docos to me & I ride back.

Again today, same location, same set of cops pull me over
Cop : show me the bike's papers
I hand over all the papers
Cop : How much does this number plates costs SIR (he did use that word)
Me : Rs 600
Cop checks all the papers & asks questions such as my name, Father's name & hands over the papers back to me.

When I was riding back, I couldn't help thinking about few incidents reported here on cops making money. On both the occassions I was not made to wait not more than 3 minutes.

[arvind71181]

Many of the cops are very decent and courteous especially the ones on the night duty. Whenever I return from a night show from Satyam, we invariably get stopped at just after getting down the flyover near Kobbler,midnight express.

They politely ask for the License and if it is there just a couple of routine questions and then you are on your way. If my wife is there in the car, then they dont even bother to do that, they just wave us on.

[Thad E Ginathom]

I got a burning sore throat and chest at the beginning of the week, and have been holed up at home since. Better now, and would like to go out, but hey, the streets are full of water!

How is it for you guys who are out there on the roads yesterday and today?

[aargee]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

I got a burning sore throat and chest at the beginning of the week, and have been holed up at home since.

Oops!!! Hope you'll be in full swing from this week; Get well soon

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

How is it for you guys who are out there on the roads yesterday and today?

There's a seperate thread for this - http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/street...s-chennai.html

When I came to office, there wasn't much water logged anywhere. The areas I mean are OMR-Kathipara-Porur-Chennai Bye-pass-Ambattur. But roads have been BADLY damaged between Ambattur Estate & Ambattur just before Ti Cycles factory. God only save me when I go back crossing this place.

Can anyone believe? It takes about 55 minutes from OMR to Ambattur & another 30 minutes from Ambattur to my home.

OMR - Ambattur - approx 32 Kms
Ambattur - Home - 3.5 Kms

[arvind71181]

Came to my office late today around 12. Took the following route - Tidel park - IIT - Guindy - Butt Road. Surprisingly there was very less traffic and none of the main roads were water logged. The only area where I could find lots of water on the streets was near the Sankara school in Thiruvanmiur. Here again, it was nothing unusual.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Thanks, aargee. I'm hoping to gear up again for concert-going next week.

I'll take myself to the thread that you mention for weather-related discussion. I should have known that there was one <Blush>. Thanks for the pointer