[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

... ... ... does anyone know if that is slowing down people getting into the station?

She's on the train, so it looks like the answer was no

[locusjag]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Not quite on the road, but wife is catching 6am train from Central tomorrow morning. I heard that there is enhanced security, but does anyone know if that is slowing down people getting into the station?

I don't know if these are related - but a colleague phoned in this morning that he'd be late on account of a bomb scare at a metro station he was supposed to get into in order to get to work (phew, that sentence ended up so convoluted!)

[swissknife]

The workers on the metro are on some kind of a strike. Consequently, trains were delayed. It is possible that the delays could have been attributed to something else and spread around.

[ninjatalli]

How did Chennai get so polluted? :(


Source: Link

Mumbai (~80) and Bangalore (~120) are better off (relatively); I wonder where is the current government focusing on this matter.

On a side note, I really admire Hindu focusing on environmental issues within the country almost on a daily basis. However, I wish they focussed on the HQ city too!

[RedHerring]

Sometimes i really pity the traffic cops who are standing in the sweltering heat of chennai and managing both the traffic and pedestrians. Somehow I have seen scant regard for the cops who are manning the junctions. Bikes weave their way around the cops without giving a damn about the colour of the signal. Other times, i have seen the cop sitting at the side of the intersection watching the traffic while half the people are coolly jumping the lights even though the cop is in full view.

Below is an incident that happened last week. This is a place where the cop is standing purely for managing the pedestrian crossing. since there are no traffic lights, the cops stop the traffic for pedestrians to cross. While the traffic is moving, they typically ask the pedestrians to wait. here are two guys who were in a great hurry. the cop just couldn't control his frustration!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThiX...ature=youtu.be

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

How did Chennai get so polluted? :(


Mumbai (~80) and Bangalore (~120) are better off (relatively);

Air Quality Index (AQI) depends on a lot of factors even in the same city. For example, the American consulate located in Gopalapuram shows AQI as 51 which is acceptable. You need to factor in things like weather, location, proximity to industries, tree and vegetation nearby and the sea breeze setting. Usually south Madras has better AQI while the north Madras has comparatively poorer AQI due to the proximity of Industries.

AQI tested in the Besant Avenue in Besant Nagar a few years ago showed barely 30 ( at that time the avenue had better tree cover).

I wonder where is the current government focusing on this matter.

What government ?

[ninjatalli]

Originally Posted by Prowler

Air Quality Index (AQI) depends on a lot of factors even in the same city.

Even considering the factors, the AQI # over a longer duration gives the truth of the situation - the city air is increasingly becoming more and more polluted. I am aware of the North part of the city issue; hence the pic was of IIT area based measurement, close to some of the greenest part of the city.

And you are right, the measurements used be to be sub-50s throughout the week a few years back, much better than other metros; hence my rhetorical Q.

What government ?

Both central and local; however it's the local ward that needs to pull up its socks.

[Turrrb0]

Originally Posted by RedHerring

Sometimes i really pity the traffic cops who are standing in the sweltering heat of chennai and managing both the traffic and pedestrians. Somehow I have seen scant regard for the cops who are manning the junctions. Bikes weave their way around the cops without giving a damn about the colour of the signal. Other times, i have seen the cop sitting at the side of the intersection watching the traffic while half the people are coolly jumping the lights even though the cop is in full view.

Below is an incident that happened last week. This is a place where the cop is standing purely for managing the pedestrian crossing. since there are no traffic lights, the cops stop the traffic for pedestrians to cross. While the traffic is moving, they typically ask the pedestrians to wait. here are two guys who were in a great hurry. the cop just couldn't control his frustration!

Forget the pedestrians in a hurry, the thing which was really grinding my gears (@5 seconds) was the scooter with 2 helmetless people just cutting from the extreme left to the right with gay abandon.

[RedHerring]

Originally Posted by Turrrb0

Forget the pedestrians in a hurry, the thing which was really grinding my gears (@5 seconds) was the scooter with 2 helmetless people just cutting from the extreme left to the right with gay abandon.

Oh yes, i forgot to mention them in the video. But by now, i have an in-built radar that alerts me on such drivers. anything that they do doesn't surprise me. this list contains the following:
1. Any 'youngish' guys without helmet on a bike/moped/scooter. More so when there are three of them
2. All autorickshaws
3. Water tankers in chennai
4. Share autos that can stop right in the middle of the road
5. Buses that stop at bus stops occupying both lanes so that no one can get ahead.
6. White SUVs with political flags at the centre.
7. Swiggy/Zomato/Uber Eats delivery guys

[Yieldway17]

What’s with two wheeler riders being so restless that they overtake cars on both sides when the cars are negotiating a speed breaker? Most of the time, they can’t get complete their planned overtake and car drivers have to slow down further to let these morons go on or take the risk of getting a scratch in their beloved cars.

I ride a motorcycle or Scooter half the time to work but hate these fellow riders who do this near all the speed breakers. What makes them not to use their brakes and follow a car?

[locusjag]

I take some deserted back roads behind Selaiyur/Madambakkam to get to work in Perumbakkam usually. There's this agro-industrial stretch where I'm surprised to see a gradual stop in agriculture by the farmers. What I see instead is a non-stop procession of water tankers who fill up from the farms' water sources and go out on their supply runs to apartments elsewhere. I believe this is the very thing that the state government tried to stop the water suppliers from doing, in response to which they'd threatened to go on a crippling strike.

Right or wrong, my own apartment's bore is almost dry now. One of these tankers could soon very well be supplying us with water from a formerly agricultural field in this area for all I know...

[ninjatalli]

Originally Posted by Yieldway17

What’s with two wheeler riders being so restless that they overtake cars on both sides when the cars are negotiating a speed breaker?
...
What makes them not to use their brakes and follow a car?

Maybe I'm not understanding your experience correctly, but if there is road/space on both sides of your car, and a 2 wheeler can choose to take the speed breaker at a higher pace, shouldn't s/he go ahead and do it?

Do note: I'm not defending the idiots that scrape through non-existant space and still overtake (from left or right). Just a generic answer to your second Q; assuming there is space to overtake on either sides.

Originally Posted by locusjag

What I see instead is a non-stop procession of water tankers who fill up from the farms' water sources and go out on their supply runs to apartments elsewhere.

Wow - either these farm owners have complete confidence that the underground water level will go up later during the rains or they are really desperate (or pushed) to make money out of the water/tanker mafia setup.

[Yieldway17]

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

Maybe I'm not understanding your experience correctly, but if there is road/space on both sides of your car, and a 2 wheeler can choose to take the speed breaker at a higher pace, shouldn't s/he go ahead and do it?

Just a generic answer to your second Q; assuming there is space to overtake on either sides.

It’s completely fine when there is enough space so the motorcycles don’t affect both sides of traffic.

But in the scenario I mentioned, the oncoming vehicle or the vehicle being overtaken has to slow or stop on a speed breaker to allow these morons get through without hurting themselves or scraping their vehicles.

Especially hard on speed breakers before a junction as these morons sometimes overtake from right, cut across the vehicle and go to the left. Bonus points added when there is another motorcycle doing the same overtaking on a narrow space on the left and the driver has to watch out for both of them.

[locusjag]

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

Wow - either these farm owners have complete confidence that the underground water level will go up later during the rains or they are really desperate (or pushed) to make money out of the water/tanker mafia setup.

I don't know quite honestly! There is one more possibility, I see some new villas and apartments springing up (you can even see a concrete wall from one such project on the fringe of the picture I'd put up) on this stretch. Maybe the farmers have already sold these lands to the real estate mafia who're selling water at the moment to the tankers. Once these borewells run dry, they might build yet more homes and sell them off to people like us!

[Thad E Ginathom]

I'm hesitant to say this, because there is a certain extent to which it is an elitist point of view from someone who can afford a car. In defence, I finally realised it on a busy, narrow road (Triplicate: need I say more: ) where their cactus-spine parking was making my life hell as a pedestrian.

Bikes have ruined our city.