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-   -   Traffic and life on the roads in Chennai (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/street-experiences/68789-traffic-life-roads-chennai-16.html)

I thought companies provided Cabs to the one's working in late shifts?

No news on this even at Siruseri office.

They provide cab service for late shifts, but not to people leaving office before 8pm AFAIK.

What I intended to say is, it's better to be alert and safe than sorry. I find quite a lot of people - men and women alike, wearing their company tags, talking loudly on (expensive) mobile phones, etc., while walking along narrow and dimly lit streets. Sometime last year, a friend of mine saw her room mate's chain getting snatched by a man on a pulsar, a few metres away from her hostel. The place is Neelangarai, and the hostel is just 25 metres away from the ECR, but the street did't have working streetlamps. Because she started screaming immediately, the assailant dropped the chain and fled.

Another friend of mine was relieved of his mobile phone from a share auto, in broad daylight - his mistake was that he finished a call and instead of putting it back into his pants' pocket (probably the rick was crowded), he put it in a pocket in his bag which was on his lap.

You would notice one more peculiar behaviour - autos & bike drive the American way(keep left becomes keep right) while turning in - i.e they are too lazy to do the full turn/bend and actually cut across road. In case you are turning into another road, watch out for 2wheelers and autos who actually come straight into you rather than using their part of the road :Frustrati
I honk my horn before every turning - its safer to alert the mahatmas driving auto/2w rather than getting into a fight later as to who was right.
Cheers !

I agree with your comments.
When I returned home after a stint overseas and started driving in India, the first thing that irritated me was the opposite traffic "keeping right while turning".
I used to get worked up with such disorder and arrogance, but now as you say I save myself from these incidents to irritate me any more.
Actually now I am getting used to "full opposite side driving" by 2 and 4 wheelers who do not want to go ahead and take a turn.
I try to be cautious expecting the unexpected and protect myself.

HC

Today morning, coming down the new bridge in Perambur going towards Ayanavaram a few bikers were riding on the left side of the road. I give a mild honk as I pass them just to give an alert (not heavy honking) and then a moron riding a Pulsar wants to pick up speed and tries get ahead of me into my lane. I had the momentum and was almost parallel when he decided not to give me space. Then, he gets a bit ahead of me with no space to go and decides to cut across in front of me and slow me down. In this attempt he loses balance, I brake hard to avoid running over him and finally both of us stop without any contact. He brakes right next to me near the left front door.

I asked him what he was trying to do, he explains he dint like me honking and I should give space for bikers first. My wifey gave him a few blessings for which he said he knows what rules are and we need not advice him about that. Chose to move on and then I notice these exact words on the back of his bike :

'Vazhga Tamil' & 'Kaval'

No wonder he mentioned he knew the rules! :D

Was that on the number plate or on the rear fenner? If it were on number plate, then he's a perfect moron!!! No point talking rules to him.

Offlate I've been noticing, Police, Defence, TNEB, Secretariat, Army & even "Private sector" kind of red colored letters on the number plate; and this also increasing day by day. It was better with black background & white lettered number plates :Frustrati

I'm thinking of putting, "Proud of not working in Govt sector to accept bribe", unfortunately, I cannot write such big sentence on my motorcycle.

Some/Many of you might travel via velachery, take the toll road near Thoraipakkam, and reach Shozinganallur and beyond like me. Am traveling all along and find this route take a much more long time and distance, compared to the alternate route.
Alternate route is Near the Kamakshi hospital dont take the Thoraipakkam Road, go to Pallikaranai, Medavakkam, take left toward sozhinganallur. The problem with the alternate route is it doesn't have a median (so will have to carefull for all types of crossings till you reach medavakkam junction - 4 kms) and you wound not able to cross 2nd gear till you reach the Tamilnadu hospital (now renamed to global hospital)... Keep cool, better to tail back a bus.
Average time to reach sozhinganallur from Kamatchi hospital junction
Route 1 : 50 mins
Route 2 : 35 mins
Distance
Route 1 : 8.8 kms
Route 2 : 8.7 kms

And if you office is before the toll gate at sozhinganallur junction (HCL), then you would also save the toll fee (19 Rs one way, 35 Rs return)

Route 1 : route in wikimapia (use the link below )
Wikimapia - Let's describe the whole world!
Route 2 : route in wikimapia
Wikimapia - Let's describe the whole world!

This is what happened to me yesterday at the signal after The Lemon Tree Hotel just before turning to Anna Salai towards Kattipara flyover. I was behind a Fortuner and as I reached the signal, a Maruti in front of the Fortuner grazed an auto and the auto driver stopped him in the middle of the road and an argument was going on. Since the signal was green, vehicles were moving except for the queue behind the Fortuner. I managed to just pass the Fortuner through its left and just as I passed the car a traffic cop on a bike came out of nowhere and started shouting something outside my window. I lowered my window and I couldn’t understand anything that he was saying because everything was in Tamil. But when the word “Signal” fell out of his mouth I realized he was saying that I jumped the signal. I was sure that signal turned yellow just after I passed the Fortuner. Finally he started waving as if asking me to move the car so I started moving. Then again he came up to my side and started asking me to pull over and I parked my car to the side of the road. He came up near the window and I rolled down the window again. And the following conversation ensued.

Cop : Can’t you see the signal? (In Tamil)
Me : I couldn’t see the signal because of the big vehicle right in front of me and you saw the accident that happened there and the whole road was getting blocked. (I manage in Tamil).

Again he says something which I couldn’t understand and I tell him I cant understand Tamil.

Cop : You Malayalis?
Me : Yeah, I am from Kerala.
Cop : Show license.

I hand him the license.

Cop : Cant you see signal? Why cross when red?
Me : Why would I jump the signal on purpose? You saw the accident and it was causing the block. I just took the vehicle to avoid creating a block.

He takes my license and takes his bike and takes me to the signal where you turn to Anna Salai. I park near that signal and get out and goes near him. He sees that I am dressed in formals and that I have my id tag. Suddenly he is friendly.

Cop : Which company?
Me : XYZ.
Cop : Velachery?
Me : Guindy.
Cop : You gentleman. Engineer. Why jump signal?
Me : I already told you the details. You just write me the receipt and I will pay it in court.
Cop : I write. No problem. You want to pay 1500?
Me : I don’t mind I will pay in court.
Cop : You want me to adjust. We will settle for 500. (Without me saying anything about adjusting)
Me : If you are that insistent I have 50 with me I will give you that. I don’t have anything else with me.
Cop : The ATM is there. You can go take money.
Me : No.
Cop : You can take money and settle it for 500.
Me : No I am not taking money and settling it. Write the fine and give it to me.
Cop : You have to pay1500. Leave car. Go to court there. Only then you get car.
Me : I know the rules. I won’t leave my car here. You can give me the receipt and I will go pay the fine in court. But I am not leaving my car here.
Cop : Don’t jump signal.

And he hands me back my license and I am on my way.

I have heard you don’t have to leave your car there for a petty case like that and that too the fine comes to a maximum of 200 or something. I don’t know how much of it is true but I took a chance and luckily he didn’t call my bluff. I cant believe how greedy these people can be. He wanted 500 for such a small thing. Felt like slapping the fellow.

Yes it is true.

Also guys, beware of the signal when you're coming from Velachery & turning towards Alexzander square towards Guindy bridge. The signal works fine & there're cops on the left side (almost hiding) besides the BPCL petrol pump. I've seen the cops catching hold of several people when they jump on this one specific signal. Its easy to miss this signal assuming its a free left (once upon a time) & also due to the flow of traffic.

Free Lefts are the most confusing thing to me about driving here.

Sometimes there is a "no free left" sign, but I see cops signaling me to go if I stop, and I notice that traffic always treats the turn as a free turn. Thirvanmiyur junction, heading to ECR is such an example.

Sometimes there is no notice, but there is a green-left-arrow among the signals. If there is a green left light, then I think it is not a free left.

How to argue all this with a cop, if need be? How to argue with the guy who is hooting behind?

Nice story Nitin. You held your ground and won! Luckily the cop was not on a meet-your-targets day.

Absolutely true

Even if there's a board stating "No free left" the other guy will argue back to you saying "why don't you move when everyone's going?"

Yeah!!! Rs 1500 is too much & Nitin really stood firm. IMO, the max fine they could charge would be...
GP02 - Stop line violation - Rs 50
GP06 - Signal violation - Rs 50
both above under sec 119 of total Rs 100!!!

This morning unusually the signal after the manapakkam signal was working & was showing RED & unfortunately I was driving car due to rains; I moved to left side of the road & stopped before the stop line & as usual few people struck behind me started honking to which I pointed the signal. Seeing me, few others stopped & few other was hassily moving.

Finally a cop appeared out of no where & signalled to moved. Damn!!! the signal went kaput :Frustrati

Every weekday on my way home from work, I use this route and the signal has me totally confused.

When this signal is green for me, I would expect the vehicles from RajBhavan side to be having a red signal allowing me to take the left. But instead, the flow from RajBhavan is highest when its green for me. So much that taking the left is really tough and more so in my case, where I have to then move to the right-most lane to go towards Saidapet.

But when it is a red signal for me, the road is empty with Raj Bhavan side also seeming to have a red signal. I could never understand this. :confused:

^yeah I have noticed this too, taking the right to Saidapet is a real pain

Both sides are red to enable pedestrians and cyclists to cross that junction.

...and motorists (2-wheelers) to cross over. I guess many people need to cross over from the Saidapet side to the Velachery road, but they dont want to take the RajBhavan roundabout way.