Bangalore Traffic
It has been 6 years since I left Bangalore. During my recent visit I was amazed to see the growth & appalled to see the traffic on Bangalore roads. This is not the Bangalore I grew up in. It really was a Garden City then & also a true Pensioner's paradise. While I appreciate the growth & money the various industries have brought to Bangalore, I seriously think, something ought to be done to better ease the traffic flow. I hear stories of Metro Rail system coming up & I hope it is really happening. In the meantime, we have to think about what we can do to help the situation. One think I can think of is Car pooling or sharing a ride with our colleagues. This would reduce the number of vehicles on the road. Second thing I can think of is Working from home (especially for the IT Folks). The Karnataka Government should encourage Businesses to allow Working from home.Where I am based currently (Atlanta, Georgia), the traffic situation is equally bad & the Georgia State Government is doing a lot in this direction.I appreciate all your views & suggestions on this bad traffic situation in Bangalore. I may be based in Atlanta but my heart is in Bangalore & I would like to see it become a great City.
Rajeev Maddur
Rajeev Maddur
posted by Rajeev at 8:38 PM
5 Comments:
True Car pooling would be great idea. In fact one bangalorean has started a Yahoo group for Car Pooling and it is catching up well particularly among women
carpool-bangalore@yahoogroups.com
The six-year-old group site, being moderated by Navratan Kataria, an engineer with a software company, has 300 members and 120 pool cars.
He has adopted two steps for verification — one at the office of the car-pooler and another with the verification of home address through landline telephone for enhanced safety. If anyone intends to play mischief (like dating), he is dissuaded.
It is nice to know about car pooling. Yes. Definitely a feasible solution for the mindless traffic situation in Bangalore. Something no amount of flyovers can fix I am afraid.
Traffic can be a major concern.... yes and the government is at fault. The flyovers are not built... where the requirements. Eg: A flyover exists some 10 minutes away from home.... and it's hardly used. Realising that... it was worthless.... they changed routes on the flyover.... and voila traffic signals are also present. Doe's anybody acre about the substandard roads??
Car-pooling sounds good..... on the other hand... people are also to be blamed.... i've seen people zooming..... while heavy traffic is present. Using footpaths as roads..... overtaking people... without as much as a shrug..... talk about civic sense...
Mouna, I agree with you. Unless the police take stern action against those indisciplined drivers, the traffic and the pollution will never improve. The Government should think of heavy punishments for not observing the Rules of the Road such as awarding demerit points, suspending the license, hefty fines etc., The most important thing is cooperation from drivers. If only this can be achieved, then Bangalore will be truly a place to settle down.
Almost 10% of the global road traffic accidents occur in India. Much of the world wide web is full of sarcasm & mocking of the indisciplined driving on Indian roads. Unfortunately in since 60 years since independence the authorities have failed to publish a National Highway code. Licences are given to anyone who can demonstrate an ability to use the clutch-accelerator, consequently the motoer driving schools teach just that and no more. Concepts such as - blindspots, principle of MSM, the tyre & tarmac rule, 2 second gap and most improtantly giving way are not known to the average Indian driver.
This site http://driving-india.blogspot.com/ has been created with the purpose of providing driver education and training to all Indian road users. It is by far the most comprehensive website providing training in defensive driving. Learning simple road habits can make our roads safe and also free up congestion caused by traffic chaos.
At present 17 driver education videos aimed at changing the driving culture on Indian roads are available. The video are unique in that the footage is real life action from streets of London. We have copied the Western habits: Replaced the dhoti with denim, high rise buildings for Indian cottages, burgers and coke instead of Indian breads and perhaps sugarcane juice. Surely we can copy the Western ways of travelling too.
To watch the videos, interested readers may visit: http://driving-india.blogspot.com/
The videos cover the following topics:
Video 1: Covers the concept of Blind spots
Video 2: Introduces the principle of Mirrors, Signal and Manoeuvre
Video 3: At red lights, stop behind the stop line
Video 4: At red lights there are no free left turns
Video 5: The Zebra belongs to pedestrians
Video 6: Tyres and Tarmac (rather than bumper to bumper)
Video 7: Merging with the Main road
Video 8: Leaving The Main Road
Video 9: Never Cut Corners
Video 10: Show Courtesy on roads
Video 11: 5 Rules that help deal with Roundabouts
Video 12: Speed limits, stopping distances, tailgating & 2 seconds rule
Video 13: Lane discipline and overtaking
Video 14: Low beam or high beam?
Video 15: Parallel (reverse parking) made easy
Video 16: Give the cyclist the respect of a car
Video 17: Dealing with in-car condensation
Many thanks
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