[Reisender]

I got challan'd for tints on last Friday night near at Pallikaranai 100Ft road toll. SI told me that tint is too dark and 50% -side and 70% front & back allowed. Simply gave me a challan for 100.

Went to GP road for installing aftermarkets in my brother's new XYLO refresh D2 and heard from the folks that RTO approved only one brand to go as of now and if you go for that brand it will a have sticker to help you avoid pullover by cops.

Planning to change the tints this weekend possibly.

OT: SI was quoted to his colleague that the POD that they have to issue challan will easily tell us if that vehicle is a stolen one.

[the.city]

Stepping away from the window tint topic and moving to exhausting my rant on Chennai traffic ..


Does anyone else feel that Chennai has some special affection for one-way traffic? There are soooo many one ways here! You use one route to go, and another completely different route to come back! There are no two (sufficiently far) points in the city which you can travel using the same route in both directions. I genuinly feel that Chennai would have the highest percentage of one-way traffic among major cities in India.

The metro construction has made the situation even worse. I understand that this helps in managing traffic flow (which I love), but seriously, it is so easy to get lost. No amount of GPS can help you.

Anyone else feel the same way?

[binand]

Originally Posted by the.city

Stepping away from the window tint topic and moving to exhausting my rant on Chennai traffic ..

One moment please... I am arriving in Chennai on Saturday in my heavily tinted car (which I had grounded ever since BTP went into an overdrive to implement the SC ruling), so need to know how good is the enforcement now?

Originally Posted by the.city

Does anyone else feel that Chennai has some special affection for one-way traffic? There are soooo many one ways here!

Being a regular driver in three of the four major south & west Indian cities (and having lived for 7 years in the fourth), I think the increasing order of one-ways is: Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai and Bangalore. It is very rare to find an arterial road as a one-way in any of the top three (Mount Road notwithstanding). On the other hand, Bangalore - oh boy! For every problem that anyone poses to BTP/BBMP/whoever, the solution is "let us set up a one-way and put up some speedbreakers" (see the ranting thread for Bangalore if you don't believe me).

Originally Posted by the.city

The metro construction has made the situation even worse. I understand that this helps in managing traffic flow (which I love), but seriously, it is so easy to get lost. No amount of GPS can help you.

This is one area where the power of crowdsourcing has been put to good use. I believe Openstreetmap (OpenStreetMap) is the best of the lot.

[VW2010]

There are soooo many one ways here! You use one route to go, and another completely different route to come back!

Personal experience is that this one way traffic has helped traffic move rather than stagnate like how it happens in bangalore. Drive for few days in banglore and you will know why moving traffic is much better.

Understand the city map helps a lot. Knowing which road connects to where can actually help you avoid some one way roads. Reaching Satyam from Guindy has so many routes that i chose different routes different time of the day. Some days i even take adyar route to reach TTK road and actually reach sathyam in less than an hour from Tambaram.

Things i have learnt is to know traffic vs time mapping. There are roads which are crawling with traffic at 4pm and the same roads are pretty empty at a differnet time. Just knowing that helps plan your starting time.

Best way to move in chennai now is using trains. Even 2 wheeler will push you to limits of frustration.

[the.city]

Originally Posted by VW2010

Things i have learnt is to know traffic vs time mapping. There are roads which are crawling with traffic at 4pm and the same roads are pretty empty at a differnet time. Just knowing that helps plan your starting time.

Couldn't agree more. Living on OMR, this is a critical for my survival. The shortest routes aren't always the fastest.

Originally Posted by VW2010

Best way to move in chennai now is using trains. Even 2 wheeler will push you to limits of frustration.

True for some areas only. The train connectivity is not good enough. We're still quite far from reaching a Delhi-like train/metro connectivity in entire city.


@all -- Guys, I understand the Bangalore traffic rant. Actually, I visited Bangy recently and I feel for you (really! I do). But still, I feel Chennai is worse. Roads are marginally better, and traffic police very active and hence one-way nuisance is a bit overshadowed. In reality, it is as bad as it gets. The damn routes keep changes every few days, even with time-of-day. (ex. the IIT Chennai flyover suddenly becomes two-way at whim of some people!)

[Gansan]

Originally Posted by binand

One moment please... I am arriving in Chennai on Saturday in my heavily tinted car (which I had grounded ever since BTP went into an overdrive to implement the SC ruling), so need to know how good is the enforcement now?

Enforcement happens in fits and starts at some places. The chances of getting caught in one is about the same as being struck by lightning!

[DWind]

Binand the chances of you getting caught if your car has out of state registration is even more. CTP like any state police invariably flag down a car with non-TN plates and then decide what kind of fines can be enforced. This Sun film is just another pretext which is currently in vogue. If not, they can ask for PUC else your papers. Having said that I have seen more Police checking recently (probably in current rule) than before in Chennai.

[binand]

Originally Posted by DWind

Binand the chances of you getting caught if your car has out of state registration is even more. CTP like any state police invariably flag down a car with non-TN plates and then decide what kind of fines can be enforced. This Sun film is just another pretext which is currently in vogue. If not, they can ask for PUC else your papers. Having said that I have seen more Police checking recently (probably in current rule) than before in Chennai.

Well, I drive a TN-07 vehicle, so I guess that helps. But you are right, I was once flagged down in Mumbai - same car, had just arrived in town so had toll receipts etc. handy - with the cops arguing with me that (a) my Bangalore-issued PUC isn't valid in Mumbai, (b) my Hyderabad-issued DL isn't valid in Mumbai and finally, (c) the front passenger hadn't put his seatbelt on. Since I could speak passable Marathi I could talk my way out through all that nonsense, though.

[Jack Sparrow]

Did anyone notice the traffic congestion for the last 3 days. I travel from Santhome to Velachery and take the Adyar, Madhya Kailash route via SRP tools to Velachery. The traffic has been worse from Monday and it takes me a minimum of 60 - 80 mins to reach office. Is it only me or has anyone else noted it? It wasn't the case last week.....

[sjcherian]

A lot of confusion is caused by the signal in front of Anna University on Sardar Patel Road - the automatic timing of the signal is manually controlled in the morning and goes from Green to amber to green and red at the whims and fancies of the policeman stationed there. I saw all colors this morning within 30 seconds !
The flyover near IIT is suddenly now a 2 way flyover in the morning from around 9ish and causes great chaos at that time in both directions. The Police attempted this for a week several months ago and then abandoned it. Traffic cleared up on Sardar Patel road immediately. Hope they do abandon the two-way system again.

[Kaumad]

Has anyone else observed this or is it just me?
The initial part of TTK Road stretch from Park Sheraton to Home Centre, Alwarpet - this road is actually two-way till it intersects the SIET College road but drivers on this stretch have scant regard for vehicles coming in the opposite direction!! It practically becomes a one-way and people just do not stick to lanes. Cars just seem to hurtle down the road on the right side. I really dont know why - but this phenomenon seems to be heightened on this stretch alone!

[Archish]

Originally Posted by Kaumad

Has anyone else observed this or is it just me?
The initial part of TTK Road stretch from Park Sheraton to Home Centre, Alwarpet - this road is actually two-way till it intersects the SIET College road but drivers on this stretch have scant regard for vehicles coming in the opposite direction!! It practically becomes a one-way and people just do not stick to lanes. Cars just seem to hurtle down the road on the right side. I really dont know why - but this phenomenon seems to be heightened on this stretch alone!

This road was one way for a long time. Even I used take up all the lanes till about a month ago. Then only I realized that it had become two way. I think its failure of traffic police to make ppl know that it has become 2 way.

[Kaumad]

Originally Posted by Archish

This road was one way for a long time.

I agree it was one-way earlier, but is has been a two-way stretch for a fairly long time now. I take this stretch everyday.

[the.city]

Originally Posted by sjcherian

The flyover near IIT is suddenly now a 2 way flyover in the morning from around 9ish and causes great chaos at that time in both directions. The Police attempted this for a week several months ago and then abandoned it.

Are you sure that it's abandoned? From what I understood, the flyover is a converted to two-way during both morning and evening rush hours. I'm not sure of exact timings, but I've observed it to be a two way in evening several times in past.

[sjcherian]

One - ways I can tolerate as long as the traffic can move freely.

I have begun to hate flyovers that do not have dividers - especially the ones on Usman road and the Chamiers-Cenotaph one. Bikers/autos/cabs overtaking rashly on them with no botheration about their own or other road users safety !