Traffic and life on the road in Chennai

[Blue Thunder]

Originally Posted by silversteed

... a trailer had got stuck, causing the snarl. Any updates? ...

Our company bus got delayed by 30 mins due to this reason. The traffic jam was from just after SRP tools, vehicles did not move for quite some time, then there was inch-by-inch movement. When we finally came near the LifeLine hospital signal, realised what the cause was. A long trailer with some heavy machinery had tried to enter the Andrew Yule factory. Because of the drainage works on the road-side, the entry path was like a big, long hump. The middle of the long trailer had beached on the hump, and the trailer body was blocking half the road. This, coupled with peak-hour traffic, had resulted in a log-jam going back almost upto 'SRP Tools' signal.

[Thad E Ginathom]

jeevmenon, even though it seems obvious that the barriers should be moved after the night, could a person not get into trouble for interfering with something the police have put there?

[Archish]

Originally Posted by SafeDrive

They were basically just using the path the ambulance created and following it recklessly. Couldn't they have just waited like everyone else?

I hate these fellows who follow Ambulance. There might be a person who is dying inside the Ambulance and all these guys care about is getting home or office faster. I call them the lowest being on this earth.

But the flip side is... I heard from many friends who are doctors that these guys simply switch on the siren to get past signals and traffic jams even though they are in no urgency.

[Zombie69]

Well I did witness the ambulance chasers yesterday in Chennai! I'm basically from Bangalore and was in Chennai on work! I was going from Airport road to Vadapalani. Heard the siren and i asked my driver to slow down and move to the side. He managed with great difficulty (peak hour traffic) As soon as the Ambulance passed our car, I could see 7-8 guys in their bikes chasing it! I know everybody is eager to get to their destination early but chasing an ambulance and adding to lot more chaos. Mind you all these guys looked educated to me.

-Z

[rajushank84]

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.)

Hey! I got irritated seeing these barricades at around 6PM in the evening, a couple of days back. It was causing a horrible traffic jam, and even worse the huge buses were bullying the cars to make way by coming centimeters close. But I don't/didn't know that these are only for the night time. I thought police had put them intentionally there, and it is illegal to move them. Maybe thats why no one is doing it (surely thats the only reason I am not doing it).

Are you sure its ok to move these barricades in peak time?

[jeevmenon]

@thad @rajushank84

6PM? Wow! I will stop by and ask the policeman (if seen: 8 am is too early for him ) about it the next time and let you know. We need to know this. We pay Rs 35 on a toll-road (I use only 1km of it) and meet up with signals and barricades! Btw, the barricades I meet up with is right at the signal and there is a perpendicular left village-road meeting at the junction. Its a T - not a cross-road. The traffic was atleast 200m piled up, I could see as I took the "U" at the signal. What if the traffic had piled up a km. It would have created more issues at the Thoraipakkam signal and it would have been 9 am peak by that time. One small block heaps up problems exponentially.

I would still say ok for an ECR kind of stretch - high speed traffic coming in from Mahaps/Puducherry, no dividers, villagers crossing over, a side-road merging into it, no signals available OR midnight within the city to curb rash driving, helps the night patrol to stop mischief-mongers.

Can anyone in this forum give their thoughts on why the barricades should be in force on a divided up/dn lane and that too at a signal and when the signals are functioning?

@rajushank: Which place was this? Was the policeman still available?

[DWind]

^^^^
To the question of barricades, there have been lots of accidents (fatal and non-fatal) because of people jumping signals and side roads traffic not being able to cross across in spite of signals favouring them.
The main culprits are MTC buses (no body can stop them. Even if a car is observing the signal, they honk like crazy and intimidate them to cross), the autos (owned mostly by policemen themselves) and Share autos (who do all things crazily possible because they pay regular hafta/mamool to Police). Now if these people jump signals, naturally the 2 wheelers/cab divers also follow them. It comes to a point where all (private car owners are a non-significant minority here) of them are oblivious to the signal. The Police know that they cannot catch the main culprits. As a result everybody has to suffer.

[joshguy]

Originally Posted by sterlingjames

d) The registration numbers are also a revelation of the character of the vehicle and rider. TN 21 XXXX the underlined number is inversely proportional to the education and IQ level of the rider.

How is this possible?? You stole my words ,this is the exact statement i used to tell my friends,in fact we have had bets on this and i have one.

We can easily find out these outstation guys by the way they take turns,stand int he signal and off signal.

Few dumb characters whom i hate are...........

The one who takes the gap between the platform and your car while you are taking left.

The one who peeps out ,and drives just behind to your right taillamp in a crowded raod and goes behind your car each time a vehicle comes in opp direction.

The one who tries to takes the gap between divider and your car (approc 1/2 feet) go in front of the convoy of vehicles so that he can get out of the signal FIRST

The one who keeps honking behind you when the signal is RED and there are no vehicles in the direction which has green signal

The one who goes in the oppisite direction of the road to take the green signal,obstructing on coming vehicles.

The one who takes the opposite lane to avoid a long U turn in a highway.A normal scene in chennai to bangalore road

ok the list will go on and on...let me stop here.

Hope every one will agree with me

[rajushank84]

Originally Posted by jeevmenon

@thad @rajushank84

6PM? Wow! I will stop by and ask the policeman (if seen: 8 am is too early for him ) about it the next time and let you know. We need to know this. We pay Rs 35 on a toll-road (I use only 1km of it) and meet up with signals and barricades! Btw, the barricades I meet up with is right at the signal and there is a perpendicular left village-road meeting at the junction. Its a T - not a cross-road. The traffic was atleast 200m piled up, I could see as I took the "U" at the signal. What if the traffic had piled up a km. It would have created more issues at the Thoraipakkam signal and it would have been 9 am peak by that time. One small block heaps up problems exponentially.

I would still say ok for an ECR kind of stretch - high speed traffic coming in from Mahaps/Puducherry, no dividers, villagers crossing over, a side-road merging into it, no signals available OR midnight within the city to curb rash driving, helps the night patrol to stop mischief-mongers.

Can anyone in this forum give their thoughts on why the barricades should be in force on a divided up/dn lane and that too at a signal and when the signals are functioning?

@rajushank: Which place was this? Was the policeman still available?

This is near the Amaravathi hotel, Marrybrown area. I have been seeing two sets of barricades here for a few days now at around 6PM, so I think it is intentional. No policeman anywhere in sight. Probably someone trying to cross the road complained that cars come too fast here (which is also true by the way), so some birdbrained officer got a birdbrained idea to put two sets of barricades here. These barricades are very dangerous in the evenings because

(1) the person on the wrong lane (not realizing there is a barricade) wants to switch lanes immediately,
(2) the person who knows there is a barricade has carefully positioned himself in the correct lane, so he is in no mood to let (1) through
(3) a share auto or Tata Ace or bus comes to the extreme other side and tries to bully both (1) and (2) to make way for him.

None of these are willing to wait, so they all come within scary inches of each other, and the most reckless of the lot goes through first. Of course, all this is slowing everyone down, so a line of vehicles piles up behind with everyone honking like crazy. God forbid a newbie driver to get caught in this, he will have the scare of his life, with everyone else behaving as though he is the one doing something wrong, slowing down! And we have a traffic jam for absolutely no reason!

Something like this:

[2theMax]

^^^ There's one before Infosys (coming from Kelambakkam), beats me why a barricade is put up there, no left, right, T or whatsover, no crossings possible, no shops or a soul on either side..

[jeevmenon]

rajushank84 - good diagram. No one would ever want to be in such a traffic. This evening went to Tiger Cave for the nth time (4:45 PM to 8 PM.) Love this place. I saw the barricade again. It was there in the morning when I went for a 2 hr stop at the office and it was there again in the evening. Both the times no policemen. However, its not a working day on OMR today so it probably did not create a fuss.

Another thing there were lots and lots of barricades all through till Tiger Cave. I still cannot get the funda behind this. What are the rules that govern that barricades are needed at a particular point? Its to cut speed and accidents on ECR but...

Another point - why was ECR made this way? It was a great road some years back and now if anyone has tasted the GQ, they would find ECR as pathetic - and more so for something which was made in the 90s (?) supremeBaleno mentioned once that he goes to Tindivanam on the NH and then cuts into Pondicherry rather than taking the ECR. Makes sense!

[joshguy]

Originally Posted by 2theMax

^^^ There's one before Infosys (coming from Kelambakkam), beats me why a barricade is put up there, no left, right, T or whatsover, no crossings possible, no shops or a soul on either side..

This is what exactly what i posted few days back on the forum

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/chenna...ml#post2042532

[hellstar]

Originally Posted by jeevmenon

Another thing there were lots and lots of barricades all through till Tiger Cave. I still cannot get the funda behind this. What are the rules that govern that barricades are needed at a particular point? Its to cut speed and accidents on ECR but...

Another point - why was ECR made this way? It was a great road some years back and now if anyone has tasted the GQ, they would find ECR as pathetic - and more so for something which was made in the 90s (?) supremeBaleno mentioned once that he goes to Tindivanam on the NH and then cuts into Pondicherry rather than taking the ECR. Makes sense!

The biggest killer on the ECR road is alcohol and the speed limits and the Barricades do nothing to stop this on the road, thats why even after doing all these things the accident rates dont come down on the road, Another issue i see is that the ECR was fine they way it is when it was built but since then the traffic density and also the avegrage speed of the vehicles are capable of on that route has grown manytimes over ! plans on upgrading the ECR i belive are already on the cards but , for me its already too late !

Trust me if you are going to pondy on a weekend, it makes a lot of sense for you to use the highway than the ECR road, alteast you run into lessers number of morons !

[jeevmenon]

Monday 8:00 AM: Both left and right barricades seen, no police, was scared by Thad/rajushank84 questioning about legality in removing the barricades, did not remove this time.

Tuesday 9:55 AM: Both had been set aside. No police seen.

Inference: Either the police moved it and its strictly for night-use Or some one else moved it and its still illegal. If its the former, I would not mind moving it everytime I see it.

[Gansan]

Metro rail work has started full swing between Little Mount and Guindy flyover, as well as in front of the Toyota showroom, the point where you exit from the kathipara flyover. Another spot is right in front of Mount post office.

Today I spent 40 minutes to reach my office (Spic Centre) from Kathipara. Today being Janmashtami, it is a holiday for my wife and son. So I told my wife I will have breakfast at the office canteen and left home at 8.30 AM. What normally takes me just 20 minutes took 95 minutes today, so no breakfast.

I have decided not to take the car to office at all and use only the bike. If even that proves to be difficult, there is no other go but to commute by train till this work is over. Till about a year back we had two tyraffic mad spots - in front of the airport and at kathipara. Things were a breeze after the airport and Kathipara flyovers opened up, but the relief has proved short lived.