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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-209.html)

Now that all the metro rail related work has been completed and the Nandanam junction, I wonder when the traffic would be turned to its original pattern. Two way traffic on Venkatnarayana road from the Burkit road junction to Anna Salai and strraight through from Chamiers (Pasumpon Muthuramalinga Devar road would help unnecessary detours and traffic pile up thereof.

With the current traffic pattern it is not uncommon to see two wheelers riding on the wrong side from the exit of Chamiers road in to Anna Salai and cut across traffic to enter Venkatnarayana road posing danger to themselves and others as well.

I think it is in progress. The metro is scheduled to open in another two weeks and I am seeing some progress on Mount Road clearing happening every day.

Also, they have removed some of the barricades at the other end of the diversion at GN Chetty Road which made it one way. So, I think they will soon open up Venkatanarayana Road as well as make the exit from Gemini to GN chetty Road accessible.

The other advantage is that it will make Ekayars BP petrol pump a little more accessible. I think it's one of the better petrol pumps in the city and currently I end up taking a long diversion just to access it!

In reading this seems strangely accurate. Though more appreciated for good humour. Ha ha to the description of the jasmine bearing baboon and dirty feet - perfectly understood!

It is unlikely that this flow of South Boag Road, Venkatanarayana Road, Burkit Road will be reverted to what it was. Here are my reasons:

1. Root cause is South Boag Road. This road does not have the bandwidth to become a 2-way road again. The Amudham Colony section has been a royal mess even in the 80s.

2. As a consequence, there'll be a whole of vehicles waiting to right turn from Venkatanarayana Road. This will directly affect any vehicle heading towards Nandanam signal.

3. Wrong side riding in this 1 km radius is commonplace, police turn a blind eye to it and nothing's changed since I was a child.

4. Traffic coming into South Boag Road hasn't reduced one single bit even after Mount Road between Teynampet to Nandanam is now its original self.

I live here (use it 6+ times a day) and I stand to gain by its back to the original traffic arrangement. But considering the current density + traffic indiscipline + roads with no scope of expansion. I only foresee chaos.

Hearing increased travel times all over Chennai.
How much time should I give myself for travel between Airport and Greams road, say around Apollo Hospital and between Pallikaranai area to Greams Road?

When? Is the key question. A particular time of a particular day? Or an office-hour commute?

Oh, and how? Driving?

Early to Late Morning in June, not daily. Maybe Tue-Thur. Want to plan some work around this. An estimate will be greatly appreciated.

OK, not my driving time, so I can't help, but clarified the question for others.

While you wait for someone to give you a real answer... Google maps journey times are a reasonable indication.

Should take around 40 min. I do Hasthinapuram to Spencer Plaza in about 40 to 45 min starting at 7:30 AM.

It appears that the roads around Nandanam and Teynampet junctions would see chaos for longer. Though this article is of July '18 and no work is in sight for these two flyovers, one never knows. A flyover in these two places would sure help ease the situation. I feel that Eldams road is too narrow for a flyover and service lanes.



https://www.dtnext.in/News/City/2018...junctions-.vpf


:OTWhoever wrote this news item does not seem to be familiar with Teynampet / Alwarpet and Nandanam. The article has them interchanged.
:Frustrati

30-40 mins. If you can do it off-peak, like before 8 or early afternoon. It should be even better. Besides, the DMS-Central Metro should be open by summer. So you could take Airport-Thousand Lights by metro.

The only place there is space enough to construct flyovers is Chamiers Road-Venkatanarayana Road-Mount Road intersection.

Eldams Road itself is in the size of a service lane, where is the scope of flyover there.

Till the sidewalk construction is completed on Alayamman Koil-Panagal Park stretch, no other construction will likely begin.

Talking of sidewalk; has anyone understood why the whole of Theyagraya road needs that wide sidewalk, and on both sides? This would effectively leave only 1+1: lanes. This road has buses plying and there are bus stops as well. I can only forsee crawling traffic. Btw, where would the parking that was available till recently go to? Is it in that parking building that's being built at the corner of Thanikaclalam road? i see another traffic mess waiting to happen.
:Frustrati

When one compares the threads on traffic on Bangalore roads vs Chennai roads, the former outscores the latter. Does it imply that traffic in Chennai is by and large manageable when compared to Bangalore.
Need a neutral opinion on this.

A few points on this. My perception:

- Madras and now Chennai and greater Chennai were part of a bigger city unlike Bangalore which was more of cantonment; purpose

- the streets of Madras were/are not as narrow as Bangalore; more bandwidth

- Madras isn't as tall as Bangalore is, now; lower density

- Madras has a lot of alternate routes as against Banalore that has many a blind street/cu de sac; convergence of traffic

- The new work areas are away from the main city in Madras with fairly decent road widths. Whitefield, Manyata have severe bottlenecks.

Consequently, the traffic in Madras is a lot more manageable than Bangalore.

Like swissknife says, Madras has a lot of redundancies built in. There's almost always multiple routes to get to a destination.

There are even multiple public transport options - the old suburban electric trains, the elevated MRTS, the newer Metro (with new routes still on the way), the bus service etc.

But coming back to multiple routes - I have always felt good about whoever plans things ahead for Chennai. That's how it seems to me, that things get planned and done ahead of time for Chennai. Here are a couple of examples -

* East Coast Road was first broadened by mid 2000s. So when the IT highway was then being broadened, the parallel East Coast Road shouldered the traffic burden because people hated the congestion on the under-construction IT highway
* To get to Guindy from Adyar, there was only the Sardar Patel road for the most part. But they also laid the 200 feet pallavaram-Thoraipakkam road proactively by 2010 and also laid a link road connecting Velachery to GST road around the same time. It's a happy mesh of options to get from here to there now!

The only point for concern is that even if a proactive steps gets taken, the population influx quickly outstrips the capacity that gets added. I guess one just has to be happy, considering things would have been far worse, Bangalore-styled worse, if such steps hadn't been taken!