Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Your way, My way OR The Right of Way!!!!

Once again I am lashing out on Bangalore traffic … nothing new as far as the traffic and road conditions are concerned, but some more observations I found interesting enough to grab some space on my blog.

I just returned home from office on my ducky Yamaha RX-135.
This is one bike I always recommend to any aspiring buyer. If you are not campaigning for mileage and want to have an adrenaline rush with a powerful drive in a limited budget, this is The Bike. I am the proud owner of this bike for last 5 years and it needs the least of maintenance and an almost constant mileage 60+/-10 Km for every Rs.100/- I spend on refueling.

Okay, coming back to Bangalore’s bumpy traffic story now.

Simply put day by day its becoming a nightmare to drive in Bangalore!!!!

My office is 15 kms away from my home, and by the time I reach office I am all sucked up, my hair disheveled and clothes covered with a thin layer of soot.

*Whew!*

I reach office zigzagging between traffic of all variety from simple bicycles to LMV to HMV you name it and that vehicle is in your way! Variety has always been the spice of Indian lifestyle!

A very common occurrence, any body could guess, is a traffic JAM!
With the traffic increasing by leaps and bound every day the JAM has become a routine phenomenon!

A few observations about the fellow commuters:

1) Nobody wants to wait. They need to understand that whatever you do however fast you drive you can never over come the average speed of the traffic. I have noticed this more than often that driving really rash and fast hardly pulls out a meager 4-5 minutes from the normal cool hassle-free driving.


2) Especially the two wheelers seem to be on a rampage and they will do any thing to move ahead disregarding lanes/ dividers and discomfort of other fellow commuters, to an extent that sometimes they even jump on to the pedestrian path!

3) Making the situation worse are the vehicles, LMVs of Call centers and private car rental agencies and to a certain extent general car owners, who love to go out of there lane in an effort to move ahead. They will first slowly peek on the right side of the road and then jump on to every opportunity that would push them by a car ahead of them, contributing to the opposite lane getting narrower and eventually leading to a JAM. Pathetic!

4) In the whole messy Jamming situation there are some smart 4 wheeled @$$€$ who decide to take a U-Turn and follow an alternative route to there destination, making the Jamming situation worse!

5) And last but not the least there are pedestrians who love to jump over the road dividers/ iron railings and cross over the road!


A very nice concept that I really wish people understand and start practicing in India is the “Right of Way”.

I am compelled to refer the readers of this article to this link from Transport department Govt. of NCT of Delhi:

Right of Way - India

And this link from California DMV website:

Right of Way - CA, US

I am confident that if commuters start being a little patient and follow these guidelines driving is bound to become a pleasure.

I make an appeal to all readers of this blog to use the information in the above links and also to share this information with there friends!

The key to safe and comfortable driving is being patient!

Drive safely! Follow the road rules! & Respect the “Right of Way”!

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