Traffic and life on the road in Chennai

[Gansan]

Originally Posted by VW2010

Now does that mean more delay to cross that stupidly constructed over bridge. Four lanes on either sides converge to 1.5 lanes. Only we can design such bottle necks.

Having observed the diversion from my grand stand vantage point for the past four hours, I don't think there is going to be any undue snarls at the exit just before the bridge. Though the acid test will be the evening peak hour traffic. The new road inside the university premises seems to be a lot better than the one outside!

[anachronix]

Originally Posted by supremeBaleno

Read about this only yesterday on DeccanChronicle. And funny thing was they had a snap of a colleague in the paper which someone had posted on the FB page and he was fined for dangerous driving. Can't fault the cops because from the snap, it looks like half of him is out of the driver window of his Fortuner, when driving !!!.

Check out this mate! These guys have got away easily with just a 1050 fine.

‪How to drive a Fortuner_.flv‬‏ - YouTube

[supremeBaleno]

Yeah, pretty dangerous driving. Can't imagine the disastrous results for them/others if things went wrong.

[hajaar]

I am driving on OMR now and the taxi guys are far worse than I remembered. Even if I want to drive in decent fashion, these guys bring out the animal in me.

[VW2010]

I am driving on OMR now and the taxi guys are far worse than I remembered. Even if I want to drive in decent fashion, these guys bring out the animal in me.

I guess you have to say to yourself, stay on the right lane and just drive calm. I want to get a scorpio to just drive these nuts of the road when they try to squeeze me. Driving a jetta i have to be absolutely slow and careful and let these moron do what they are doing and hope they dont disturb my peace.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by anachronix

Check out this mate! These guys have got away easily with just a 1050 fine.

Seems he is a project manager for Cisco ... so, anybody buying Cisco services, could make a difference by refusing to have him manage your project!

[Suess]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

.....Google maps shows a small bridge connecting Pandian Road from ECR to OMR just near the toll. Anybody know it?

...

yes, there is a small bridge(strangly it is called Wooden Bridge for some reasons which i guess as narrow as bridge itself), I use to take this route sometimes when i want to drop my daughter in School and want to reach there fast and free! but only with my Scooter, with car i have seen some guys crossing the bridge and i would say one can do that safely but then the road is really bad and non-existent, so whatever you will gain by shortcut would be lost in potholes. I would say give it a try.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Thanks, Suess, that's exactly what I needed to know. I won't do it then.

Sometimes, when the Kandanchavadi road was blocked by perpetual roadworks, I would take the small road that comes to the MGR Main Road junction to reach the Canalpuram road, but the roads are, especially in wet weather, only really suitable for trucks.

[VW2010]

yes, there is a small bridge(strangly it is called Wooden Bridge for some reasons which i guess as narrow as bridge itself),

Is this the same bridge where a brick laden lorry fell into the canal while trying to use the bridge. I had a horrible time once in my swift trying to use this bridge though roads on the other side of the bridge is fantastic.

[callvvijay]

Originally Posted by Gansan

Having observed the diversion from my grand stand vantage point for the past four hours, I don't think there is going to be any undue snarls at the exit just before the bridge. Though the acid test will be the evening peak hour traffic. The new road inside the university premises seems to be a lot better than the one outside!

Have been using this piece of road for two days now. Traffic was badly hit yesterday. I'd to crawl from (after) Anna University till I reached this spot. It was not as bad today. However, once we cross this piece, its kind-of okay-might be I've got used to it.

[Gansan]

^^ I cross this spot at 5.45 PM and there is only a slight backing up of traffic. May be delays me by 2 - 3 minutes more than usual.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by VW2010

Is this the same bridge where a brick laden lorry fell into the canal while trying to use the bridge. I had a horrible time once in my swift trying to use this bridge though roads on the other side of the bridge is fantastic.

No, that is a looong way to the North. That bridge connects OMR to Indira Nagar, and is being rebuilt. A huge amount of civil engineering seems to be going on all along that stretch of canal, or maybe it isn't huge, but just taking a long time!

My usual bridge is Palavakkam (Kandanchavadi) (being rebuilt). The roads are narrow but ok.

We are talking about a few km further South of that.

[anachronix]

There was a bad accident today at the Cenatoph Road flyover by around 8:45PM. All I could see was a car facing the opposite direction with the headlights ON as I took the road below the flyover. An ambulance was rushing to the spot while I was waiting at the Chamiers Road signal.

Anyone got info on this?

[PAVAN KADAM]

Off-late i have visited Chennai ( Korattur - Ambattur - Kodambakkam - Neelankarai and other adjoining areas ) frequently.

And everytime i am there, thats the only time my friends collection of VW's move out of his garage for my regular run-about.

People have no respect to the fellow motorist, forget the poor soul on foot.

One word to describe - INDISCIPLINED.

When i started debating this with my friend who sat with me as a co-driver, He says " PAVAN, This is Chennai, nothing can ever be done."

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by anachronix

There was a bad accident today at the Cenatoph Road flyover by around 8:45PM. ...

That flyover is so narrow, you would think it obviously dangerous, however, the continual overtaking stunts prove otherwise.

There was a road engineering study in UK, a while back, that showed that people tended to drive more safely when they could see the dangers, so over-engineering and trying to design the dangers out with lanes, barriers, etc, actually made people drive less safely.

If they did that study in India, I guess the conclusions would be quite different