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Old 10th December 2013, 11:03   #2056
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Originally Posted by callvvijay View Post
This happened today (Friday) morning in front of Tidel Park. I work in Tidel and was just entering the campus. To enter Tidel, one will have to drive through the side-lane behind the Tidel bus stop (opp. to Thiruvanmiyur MRTS station). This lane is very narrow (that's why its a lane., if not it would have been a street/road :P)

My dad used to say this - "There is a difference between an educated person and a literate person". I could only think of that. Working in Tidel doesn't mean that you are educated!
Very true what your dad said! It's atrocious to overtake in that narrow lane. Hope the Zen guy matures.

This lane often being used by the cabbies coming in opposite direction itself is enough to cause headaches. It's daunting to think of pulling such risky and stupid stunts where sometimes pedestrians too are thrown into the mix.
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Old 10th December 2013, 11:45   #2057
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re: Traffic and life on the roads in Chennai

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Originally Posted by TwentyDeewar View Post
Oh what a mess is the taramani-velachery road!!!!

I stay in perungudi, and normally take the OMR -> 200 feet road to get to office, preferring to pay the toll. Today, I had to drop a friend at velachery, so decided to brave the taramani road and got awarded with scratches on my rear bumper.

The stretch of road till TCS has only two lanes for both sides of traffic owing to one side of the road being completely dug up. This stretch is especially chaotic during office hours. Anyway, a biker coming from the opposite side decides to suddenly take a right turn into one of the bylanes, and comes directly in my path. I screech to a halt, and while I am going through with the routine of throwing the biker a dirty look, a luna from behind crashes into my bumper. Both bikers go on with life without a bother.

This is my second incident on the same stretch, the first was scary and happened a year or so back. A crazy dude on a kinetic honda in front of me kept swerving to the right (in the face of oncoming traffic) to overtake the car in front. During one of his attempts he sees a bus coming from the opposite side, and takes evasive action towards his left. He unfortunately hits the rear bumper of the car in front and comes crashing down on the road directly in my path. I step on my brakes and pray. I literally stopped a few inches from his face. What does the guy do? He gets up, picks up his scooter, smiles at me and zooms off.

What is scary is the nonchalance of the bikers in both the cases. Its as if they believe that they are immortal. Can someone stuff some sense into these guys??
I stay at velachery and had to do this every day for my office commute. My new verna has a scratched at first and now a broken right side mirror, scratches on the door side and few bruises on the bumper. All of them caused at standstill traffic by bikers! phew! the side mirror was broken by a stupid tempo driver trying to overtake me on the opposite lane to realise the oncomming bus and barged into me. Could not get out since it was raining heavily and did not want to cause a jam on the already clogged traffic. I had to shell out the money from my pocket to fix it.. 6k for the side mirror alone! Got sick of driving in chennai and started using trains even though i had to walk a good stretch!

planing to buy a used tata nano or something to have a stress free commute!

Last edited by razorBlades : 10th December 2013 at 11:46.
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Old 10th December 2013, 12:56   #2058
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re: Traffic and life on the roads in Chennai

Today was absolutely riddled with instances which made me blow my top everytime i think about it. A share auto behind me honks away to glory and shouts at me to move int a non-existent space at front. He then had the audacity to bang the rear of my car with his fist. . Some people are absolute nincompoops. I wonder if he was a professional moron or just a gifted amateur .
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Old 10th December 2013, 14:03   #2059
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Originally Posted by Arch-Angel View Post
Today was absolutely riddled with instances which made me blow my top everytime i think about it. A share auto behind me honks away to glory and shouts at me to move int a non-existent space at front. He then had the audacity to bang the rear of my car with his fist. . Some people are absolute nincompoops. I wonder if he was a professional moron or just a gifted amateur .
Actually those share auto and auto guys move on their own pace. If they are in a hurry, they'll force you to even drive over the median.
But at times they block the whole road and are least bothered to your honks.
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Old 11th December 2013, 12:36   #2060
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re: Traffic and life on the roads in Chennai

I am surprised(want to say i was, but i am still) to see 98% of cabs on road are plying with drivers wearing seat belts. Hope this continues for ever.

Sad to see politicians are ignoring this basic need and are still not following the rules.

Whats worrying is the number of vehicles with no seat belt to begin with. So can i argue that my car does not have a seat belt? Will that work?

Say for these maxi cabs, lorries and delivery vehicles?
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Old 11th December 2013, 14:14   #2061
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re: Traffic and life on the roads in Chennai

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Originally Posted by VW2010 View Post
Whats worrying is the number of vehicles with no seat belt to begin with. So can i argue that my car does not have a seat belt? Will that work?
Say for these maxi cabs, lorries and delivery vehicles?
The old ambies and other such cars were given time to retrofit seat belt setting in their cars.
So you cannot argue that your car doesn't have factory fitted seat belt.
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Old 11th December 2013, 14:22   #2062
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re: Traffic and life on the roads in Chennai

According to a report I read, some taxi drivers are claiming fatigue as a reason not to wear belts. I don't think they can have sufficient brain cells to drive!

Others say that they don't need because of their skill. Sadly, most of those probably don't really have a clue about what real driving skills actually are.
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Old 11th December 2013, 14:27   #2063
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re: Traffic and life on the roads in Chennai

Quote:
The old ambies and other such cars were given time to retrofit seat belt setting in their cars.
So you cannot argue that your car doesn't have factory fitted seat belt.

What about buses or trucks or those delivery wans, kutti yaanais etc. Do they fall under the category of time to retrofit or they are exempted?

But a good sight is to see fastrack and NTL enforcing the same for their drivers. Did not see one fastrack driver without seat belts.

If the heat is up for few more months this can turn into a habit rather than fear based activity.
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Old 11th December 2013, 14:57   #2064
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re: Traffic and life on the roads in Chennai

IIRC I have seen seat-belts in Tata Ace (aka kutti-yaanai). Might be wrong too.

And yes, what starts off as compliance due to fear of parting with few hundred bucks (+ some wasted time) will hopefully become a habit which people won't be able to do without once they start using it.
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Old 11th December 2013, 14:59   #2065
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re: Traffic and life on the roads in Chennai

Yes, the kutti yaanai has seat belt provision. I have seen some of the Tata Marcopolo buses too that come with the seat belts for the driver.

Quote:
Originally Posted by supremeBaleno View Post
IIRC I have seen seat-belts in Tata Ace (aka kutti-yaanai). Might be wrong too.

And yes, what starts off as compliance due to fear of parting with few hundred bucks (+ some wasted time) will hopefully become a habit which people won't be able to do without once they start using it.
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Old 11th December 2013, 15:43   #2066
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Originally Posted by supremeBaleno View Post
IIRC I have seen seat-belts in Tata Ace (aka kutti-yaanai). Might be wrong too.

And yes, what starts off as compliance due to fear of parting with few hundred bucks (+ some wasted time) will hopefully become a habit which people won't be able to do without once they start using it.
In fact seat belt is mandatory for co-paseenger sitting in the front. So what about seat belts for co-passengers in these big vehicles? Let the traffic police try to enforce lane discipline among road users first which will solve most of the problems.
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Old 11th December 2013, 16:04   #2067
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re: Traffic and life on the roads in Chennai

Quote:
Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom View Post
According to a report I read, some taxi drivers are claiming fatigue as a reason not to wear belts.
Ha ha - Nice.
Give them time; we can get more creative reasons.
=> Seat belts restricting the breathing.
=> Heart / Asthma patient.
=> In case of accidents they can't jump out at the last moment to save themselves


Quote:
Originally Posted by Gokrish View Post
Let the traffic police try to enforce lane discipline among road users first which will solve most of the problems.
Talking of the lane discipline, the earlier laned mount road was segregated based on traffic type (Bus on left most, car in the middle and two wheelers, auto in the right most). I would rather segregate based on speed.
30's on left most, 40's in the middle and 50's in the right most.
I guess this would avoid so much of frustration from the normal or fast moving vehicles. Don't you guys think it will work?

Last edited by iamswift : 11th December 2013 at 16:08.
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Old 13th December 2013, 11:12   #2068
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re: Traffic and life on the roads in Chennai

Quote:
Originally Posted by Gokrish
In fact seat belt is mandatory for co-paseenger sitting in the front. So what about seat belts for co-passengers in these big vehicles?
Seat-belt should be worn by all (not just front-row occupants) for their own safety. And while the enforcement is slow (started with driver, then front row and hopefully soon it will be for rear passengers too), am sure we will one day get there.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Gokrish
Let the traffic police try to enforce lane discipline among road users first which will solve most of the problems.
Apart from the constraints about enforcing each and every rule (lack of cops, monitoring equipment/budget etc) there are other issues which are unique to our roads (not just Chennai). Eg, unlike US / EU where almost 99% of the traffic is cars/trucks, we have every conceivable contraption running on our roads, including bullock-carts and even the occasional horse-rider (yes, true). And add to it the fact that our roads are bursting at the seams given the exponential increase in traffic over the years. Plus other things like not having lane markings, folks not aware which lane to use etc. So, more than enforcement, I would think the cops need to start with creating awareness so that those who were driving wrongly due to not being aware of the rules, can change. Plus ofcourse those who are aware (like tbhp-ians) can help lead the change.

In Kerala, after enforcing helmets/sun-films/seat-belts/DUI, now the cops have turned their attention to speeding and lane-enforcement on the NH, using cameras all over the place.
Hopefully this will make the roads even safer and a few months down the line, we will know the effect and other states might also follow suit.

Quote:
Originally Posted by iamswift
I would rather segregate based on speed. 30's on left most, 40's in the middle and 50's in the right most.
That is how it is universally. But in the case of Chennai, since Mount Road has a different setup (bikes on right-most), folks seem to assume that it is how it is and IMO it is why we see 2-wheeler riders on the fast-lane on roads like the IT-corridor, which is very unsafe for them.

P.S.: BTW, the initial Mount Road laning system had cars in right-most and then bikes/autos. But the 2/3 wheelers found themselves in a vulnerable position with buses on one side and cars on the other. So CCTP switched lanes for cars and 2/3 wheelers to arrive at how it is now.

Last edited by supremeBaleno : 13th December 2013 at 11:36.
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Old 13th December 2013, 12:08   #2069
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re: Traffic and life on the roads in Chennai

Quote:
Originally Posted by iamswift View Post
auto in the right most). I would rather segregate based on speed.
30's on left most, 40's in the middle and 50's in the right most.
Quote:
Originally Posted by supremeBaleno View Post
That is how it is universally.
In my view, neither is optimal within cities (speed-based or vehicle category-based). Within cities, what works best is a system that depends on direction of journey. At the simplest, it would have the leftmost lane dedicated to all traffic that needs to turn left at the next junction, the middle lane for folks who go straight and the right lane obviously for those who turn right.

I doubt the "universally" comment. It is speed based on inter-city roads and highways/expressways, but cities usually have speed limits (Chennai's is 40 kmph). One needs to keep in mind the difference in traffic profile of within-city roads and inter-city roads.
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Old 13th December 2013, 12:35   #2070
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re: Traffic and life on the roads in Chennai

Yesterday was flagged down near the karapakkam bridge by one policeman. They are the ones who usually do the speed check in that area (opp TCS). Was wondering why as my speed was below 50. Then when I rolled my window down, the cop shook my hand and said "You are wearing seat belt. I like it very much!!!"

Said thanks and continued. Made my day
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