Monday, January 31, 2005
Road problems ... cont'd
I need to get this out of my system. So the show continues ...
The next set of problems is with the utter lack of lane discipline. Watch the Marathahalli bridge at peak hours (8:30 AM - 11 AM OR 7 PM - 8:30 PM). The bridge is so narrow that when vehicles have to get onto it they do so from the left. Capisce ??
Ok ... for those who did'nt ... picture a stream of water flowing at a pretty regular pace coming down a hill. Now imagine it has to navigate into a man made pipe which is 2 ft diameter as opposed to the stream that was say 6 ft wide ....
The best part of the whole thing is there are NO cops that are controlling these commercial vehicles (yes, all the buses/trucks/Qualis/Sumos are CVs). And all of them get onto the "left most" of the bridge to get ahead. The most ironical thing is even if they do, you'll find them not very much ahead once you cross the bridge. Why all the hurry to get ahead then ??
Onto the next big thing - the cops (or lack of them) ... There's one lame-duck cop on the top of the bridge where there's a junction. That reminds me, this junction was almost a much-overlooked one till a lot of flats suddenly mushroomed around the bottom of the bridge, on either side of the railway tracks (That's right I forgot to mention - the Marathahalli bridge goes over a railway track). A good 3 years ago, it used to take me 2 min. to cross the Marathalli Ring Road junction and the bridge all at one go. Today it takes me 25 min. from Marathahalli Market (usually from the gate of the Air Force Officer's colony) till I'm over the bridge on the other side.
And all this is due to the one cop that I talked about - so let's get back to him ... All he does is stop traffic for an odd scooterist or an auto or a slow-moving truck that wants to join mainstream traffic. In the 2 seconds that he stops traffic for, there gets created such a logjam that the "go-to-the-left-most-part-of-the-bridge-to-get-ahead" routine starts !!
First things first, they should start asking the cop to synchronize his stopping so that the logjam is cleared first instead of sympathizing with the auto or scooter which wants to join the mainstream traffic. So there should be 2 cops - 1 on the beginning of the bridge and another where he stands today. (Someday I'll even get his name methinks - the traffic moves so slowly there that you can read his "nameplate" on his shirt !!)
The other big thing that is needed is a rotary (for those who've been to the US will know what I'm talking about) at the Marathahalli ring road junction. I'm really awestruck at the cops who control traffic from 8 directions at peak time at this junction. Just imagine if there was a rotary here with signals and people yielding. This is the NEED of the hour at this place. Spare the poor cops for pete's sakes !!
That's all for now ... more later.
The next set of problems is with the utter lack of lane discipline. Watch the Marathahalli bridge at peak hours (8:30 AM - 11 AM OR 7 PM - 8:30 PM). The bridge is so narrow that when vehicles have to get onto it they do so from the left. Capisce ??
Ok ... for those who did'nt ... picture a stream of water flowing at a pretty regular pace coming down a hill. Now imagine it has to navigate into a man made pipe which is 2 ft diameter as opposed to the stream that was say 6 ft wide ....
The best part of the whole thing is there are NO cops that are controlling these commercial vehicles (yes, all the buses/trucks/Qualis/Sumos are CVs). And all of them get onto the "left most" of the bridge to get ahead. The most ironical thing is even if they do, you'll find them not very much ahead once you cross the bridge. Why all the hurry to get ahead then ??
Onto the next big thing - the cops (or lack of them) ... There's one lame-duck cop on the top of the bridge where there's a junction. That reminds me, this junction was almost a much-overlooked one till a lot of flats suddenly mushroomed around the bottom of the bridge, on either side of the railway tracks (That's right I forgot to mention - the Marathahalli bridge goes over a railway track). A good 3 years ago, it used to take me 2 min. to cross the Marathalli Ring Road junction and the bridge all at one go. Today it takes me 25 min. from Marathahalli Market (usually from the gate of the Air Force Officer's colony) till I'm over the bridge on the other side.
And all this is due to the one cop that I talked about - so let's get back to him ... All he does is stop traffic for an odd scooterist or an auto or a slow-moving truck that wants to join mainstream traffic. In the 2 seconds that he stops traffic for, there gets created such a logjam that the "go-to-the-left-most-part-of-the-bridge-to-get-ahead" routine starts !!
First things first, they should start asking the cop to synchronize his stopping so that the logjam is cleared first instead of sympathizing with the auto or scooter which wants to join the mainstream traffic. So there should be 2 cops - 1 on the beginning of the bridge and another where he stands today. (Someday I'll even get his name methinks - the traffic moves so slowly there that you can read his "nameplate" on his shirt !!)
The other big thing that is needed is a rotary (for those who've been to the US will know what I'm talking about) at the Marathahalli ring road junction. I'm really awestruck at the cops who control traffic from 8 directions at peak time at this junction. Just imagine if there was a rotary here with signals and people yielding. This is the NEED of the hour at this place. Spare the poor cops for pete's sakes !!
That's all for now ... more later.
Saturday, January 29, 2005
Bangalore Roads - the problems galore !!
As mentioned in my first post I want this blog to reflect my frustrations at everything that's in Bangalore that's well, frustrating. It might be any of the following :
- Roads
- Cops
- Road Digging
- Traffic Signals
- Flyovers and their construction timelines (and anything else)
We'll add to the above as time flies but this post is going to be about some of the above.
Let's first take an objective look at some of the big problems I want to highlight :
- Road conditions - these are one of the worst I've come across anywhere in the world. From the POV of being in a metropolitan city (they say BLR is cosmopolitan) this city has one of the worst road systems I've ever seen. I've been in several cities across the world (Boston, NY, SF, Bangkok, Singapore, Miami and closer home in Chennai, Delhi) but this takes the absolute c-a-k-e. Some reasons :
- Potholes spring up as soon as it rains even for an hour.
- Potholes don't get filled up within reasonable amount of time by the organizations concerned (BCC,BDA, BWWSWWB - are there anymore I wonder)
- Some of these potholes develop into craters as days go by (sometimes within hours). Some frustrated citizens then cover up these craters with mud and stones and eventually they take the shape of mounds. Watch for these in Marathalli market. Some day I'll take a snap and post them here.
- Metalling of the roads leaves much to be desired. Cracks and fissures appear within no time
- Road planning - by this I mean the amount of time spent for an average commute from point X to point Y. This is never constant. Courtesy the traffic load at any given point of time. Also courtesy the number of people who do not want to maintain lane discipline.
I'll post more on this later.
- Roads
- Cops
- Road Digging
- Traffic Signals
- Flyovers and their construction timelines (and anything else)
We'll add to the above as time flies but this post is going to be about some of the above.
Let's first take an objective look at some of the big problems I want to highlight :
- Road conditions - these are one of the worst I've come across anywhere in the world. From the POV of being in a metropolitan city (they say BLR is cosmopolitan) this city has one of the worst road systems I've ever seen. I've been in several cities across the world (Boston, NY, SF, Bangkok, Singapore, Miami and closer home in Chennai, Delhi) but this takes the absolute c-a-k-e. Some reasons :
- Potholes spring up as soon as it rains even for an hour.
- Potholes don't get filled up within reasonable amount of time by the organizations concerned (BCC,BDA, BWWSWWB - are there anymore I wonder)
- Some of these potholes develop into craters as days go by (sometimes within hours). Some frustrated citizens then cover up these craters with mud and stones and eventually they take the shape of mounds. Watch for these in Marathalli market. Some day I'll take a snap and post them here.
- Metalling of the roads leaves much to be desired. Cracks and fissures appear within no time
- Road planning - by this I mean the amount of time spent for an average commute from point X to point Y. This is never constant. Courtesy the traffic load at any given point of time. Also courtesy the number of people who do not want to maintain lane discipline.
I'll post more on this later.
Wednesday, January 26, 2005
First Post
(Blog Owners note : Significance of the title of this post - Opposite of "Last Post" !! :-))
I wanted to desperately find a way out of the usual forums to vent my frustrations at being in Bangalore. I want to use this blog to explicitly point out the things I observe and see in Bangalore on my way to work, on my way to drop my son at playschool and so on, which I think should be taken care of by the powers-that-be. I could've sent "Letters to the Editor" to the Times of India or other respected powers of the Fourth Estate but they conveniently edit anything they don't like (what else can we expect).
Hopefully other well minded and well-meaning bloggers from BLR (as Bangalore is affectionately called in all my emails I send at work) will see these blogs and we can do something about these things ....
I wanted to desperately find a way out of the usual forums to vent my frustrations at being in Bangalore. I want to use this blog to explicitly point out the things I observe and see in Bangalore on my way to work, on my way to drop my son at playschool and so on, which I think should be taken care of by the powers-that-be. I could've sent "Letters to the Editor" to the Times of India or other respected powers of the Fourth Estate but they conveniently edit anything they don't like (what else can we expect).
Hopefully other well minded and well-meaning bloggers from BLR (as Bangalore is affectionately called in all my emails I send at work) will see these blogs and we can do something about these things ....
