Times of India's Unlock Bangalore campaign!

This is a fantastic initiative and is long overdue in this city. Came across this site called Smiling Drivers as part of a write-up in this campaign. Check out smilingdrivers.org

Seems like a take off on Caveat no. 8 of Courting Courtesy's 9 point charter - but without getting into who thought of it first (does it really matter?), its an excellent thought and so damn easy to follow! Great job, Ravi.

Considering I've not made time for myself to update this blog more frequently, the TOI campaign has given me enough impetus to dig time amidst my rather limited 24 hours.

Right of way, for heaven's sake!

I witnessed a near-accident at my fave traffic junction - the Koramangala 1st block junction adjacent to Raheja Residency/ Sonakshi Sharma's. It was about 5 pm and as usual there was a gridlock. Cars on all 4 sides were honking as if that incessant honking will magically ease the gridlock. Suddenly the jam seemed to clear gradually on its own and vehicles on all 4 directions geared up to move ahead of the other.

A biker with a lady in the pillion on Sonakshi Sharma's side jumped the gun first and turned right into the Raheja Residency road. At the same damn time, a red Maruti Zen decided it was time to move straight - he was moving from Wipro side towards the Sonakshi Sharmas'.

Off they met at a common point causing another gridlock. Thankfully, the impact was not severe and the biker and his lady companion fell off with a mild thud. The bike dented the front number plate of the Zen and the driver was wondering how he should ideally react.

As expected a couple of auto drivers came and helped the biker and his lady friend. Surprisingly, the biker actually got wild and started shouting at the Zen driver! The Zen driver who had been patient till then got pissed and came out of his car to inspect his side of the damages and when he saw the dented number plate got wild too.

Even more surprisingly, the auto drivers actually forced the biker to get off the place, assuming they understood he was turning right when it was not his turn and that the Zen traveling straight had the right of way. Its a pity that biker did not understand something as obvious as the 'right of way'.

I still remember the way I was taught to drive at Mani Auto driving school in Jayanagar, over a 30 day session. Right through the course, the words/ phrase 'Right of way' was not mentioned even once. There were certain questions during the actual license test but they only implied the concept and did not mention it specifically.

Are things like overtaking on the right, waiting for vehicles moving straight and turning left to move first before you turn right etc not as obvious as it seems, to our folks? Even if you thought you were a responsible driver/ biker, do spend some time in this Wikipedia entry about Right of way!

One terribly annoying habit of select Bangaloreans is to use the speed lane for driving at ridiculously low speeds, most of the times on a mobile phone too. But about that, on another post!

Wasting valuable space on Bangalore roads!

Is it true that we Bangaloreans don't want to waste anything, leave alone empty spaces on the road? Today being World Environment Day, that does sound very appropriate, but what I mean is our amazing interest in filling up all the empty spaces while trying to get ahead in the road!

Allow me to explain. I was crossing the Agara Tank Road junction just outside that godawful eating joint, Lemon Grass and there was a huge pile-up on the other side of the road...know why? Two reasons - the Jakkasandra bottleneck is a bottleneck of the truest sense, the wide road that can have 3 lanes on one side suddenly becomes ridiculously small for just one vehicle with a BMTC bus squeezing on the side! The second, more critical reason is the MASSIVE speed-breaker just before the Jakkasandra bottleneck that seems to be a knee-jerk reaction after an accident here some months back.

Now, the issue is that due to the recent rains, the road immediately after the speed-breaker - towards the left - has caved in and its almost akin to getting up on the massive speed-breaker (car-breaker?) and going down into a nice, stony pothole almost instantly. Not a nice thing to happen, I know. So, to avoid this piece of annoyance, people eventually make their way to the right of the speed-breaker much to the collective annoyance of everybody else behind them, who have been lawfully speeding on the extreme right. The fact that they do this with no indications whatsoever and only on the belief that the vehicle behind his values his material possession (in this case, car/ bike), more than the overtaker!

Back to our space saving....I was waiting here and find that vehicles of every shape and size just whiz in all directions and fill every single empty space all around me, creating the perfect vehicular sandwich possible by mankind. And, this collective being/ creature comprising of 2 bikes, 2 cars and a BMTC bus, with a auto in tow, starts moving in some column when some space clears in front.

Nice theory. Nice idea too. But the problem is towards Jakkasandra, as I had mentioned before, the road narrows to amazing widths that most of the brotherhood in this column have to let others go or make their way in the hope that others will let them go. So, my question....why fill such empty spaces in the first place? Is it because,
-a- you feel inadequate when you see such a space staring at you?
-b- you don't like to waste anything and are doing your bit to the wasted space on roads?
-c- you are not aware of the speeding right lane and its inhabitants' rights and decide that overtaking from the left is the best way to go about it.

There are some practical issues with any of these options. You are in the left and there's someone on your right, who has the right of way to move ahead. If you do not care about right of way, I'm sorry....just not worth wasting any more of your time. But if you do, the best way is to let the right-side guy pass in case the road narrows ahead. But, if you still wish to overtake the same way, please do so with some kind of indication.

Else, like this morning, both of you will be shoulder-to-shoulder for a considerable period of time. Then you extending the charade by making some extra space by retracting your rear view mirrors. And at the point when one of you has to let go, the person who cares least about his vehicle wins! The competitive ones usually go through till the last part of this charade...but others like myself, who value their peace of mind more than such trivial pursuits, will rather let the other person move ahead much before it all starts - just not worth any of this nonsense!

The noob traffic cop intern at Koramangala 1st block!

The first time I saw him, he seemed pretty scared with the traffic in that junction! He's kinda gotten over it nowadays - or so it seems.

I'm talking about the newbie traffic cop intern at Koramangala 1st block - at the junction close to the Little Home/ Sharma's dhaba. People take him for granted most of the time while he frantically waves at them and tries to make sense of the manic movement all around him. Auto drivers invariably don't even acknowledge his existence.

His latest prop seems to be some kind of neon baton with which he exudes some extra authority but to no effect.

I'm just wondering....is there any one who's checking this fella's progress? He doesn't look very cop'ish, so what kind of intern is he?

In any case, he does not seem to enforce the kind of authority he's supposed to - usually lets people treat him like a doormat, as they pass by him ignoring all his signs. Agreed, its the responsibility of drivers/ riders to obey what he's saying, but very few people seem to be doing that. To his credit he does have a good knack of how to manage traffic - lets a longer queue move first and plans things well. Just that, he's a bit too scared to stop/ reprimand people who don't obey him...again, I wonder if he has such powers. Without those, he's as good as non-existent in that junction, anyway!

The missing divider on Agara Tank Road!

Wonder what happened to this one! It was laid just about a month or two back and despite causing some initial problems - in terms of stagnating rain water, slightly slow moving traffic and so on - I found it quite useful in organizing the traffic in that road.

Now, its gone. And the traffic whizzes past at manic speed, usually on the wrong lane, since there are no lane dividers! The lorries have started using this road - again - as permanent parking spots, essentially reducing one lane.

The good cop!

Being good on road has its rewards. Trust me. It happened to me today morning!

Just as I was hurrying to cross the Agara junction to get to the road on the right of Agara lake (the one that starts with the Aiyappa Temple), I saw this poor chap in his cycle with a huge load of grass (real, Indian green grass, not the naughty, American one!) trying to cross that road. The cop on the other side was frantically waving motorists to get ahead since the crowd behind him had already piled up into a huge gathering. And then, I decided to use my friendly wave to let this guy pass, despite people honking behind me as if it was the last day on planet Earth.

I let this guy go in the sure hope that I need to wait for a few more minutes on this side of the road till the oncoming traffic moves off. Basically to wait for my turn. But guess what? The cop saw me waving to this grass fella and actually held the traffic behind him for those 5 extra seconds so that I can pass too! He was actually smiling and asking me to move fast!

Good gesture. Great cop! And did I forget my other pet theory - to wish/ wave cops on road? No way!

Yes, I lost my cool

It was almost 7:30 PM last night while I was driving my way home via Koramangala 1st block. For some strange reason, all side roads leading to the Nous Infosystems mini-junction at Jakkasandra were blocked and there was a massive pile-up of vehicles who were just unable to reverse/ u-turn anywhere - and were stuck big time. Fortunately I happened to see the crowd from a distance, took a U and headed back towards the 1st block main road - just opposite CG Corel.

Just before this point, behind a hotel which advertises itself in a board outside as a 'multi cushion' restaurant and bar (I believe their Thai cushions are amazing!) - or behind a small'ish garment shop called Kanyaka, is an ATM - I don't even recall which bank, maybe SBI/ SBM types.

Now, that road is very narrow - 2 vehicles can pass side by side and it being a 2 way, there are usually two vehicles going on the opposite direction. I stop outside the ATM unable to move further thanks to an Alto stopped in front of me. I honk once, twice, use my headlight to communicate etc. An arm juts out of the Alto window and waves me to go past him. But, as even he can see, there were vehicles from the other side so the only thing worth doing is for him to move. Traffic was piling behind me too, and they were honking far more vigorously than me.

Finally, after a minute or two, I get a gap in the opposite side traffic and overtake this intrusive guy - stop adjacent to him and told him this, with a polite smile, "Please, could you please not stop here". Guess what I got in return!

Yes, a very nasty, "What? I waved you to go past, why didn't you?" as if the road adjacent to his car was an 8 lane highway. I repeated what I said again, with a even more polite smile. And, he lost it and shouted at me with a "I asked you to move no?". At this point, partly because of the fact that I was blocking traffic in all directions I lost my cool and showered some choice abuses at that gentleman (50+ elder - stupid me!) and moved in a huff and in a terrible mood.

Thinking about it later in the night, I wondered how he'd have reacted if I had chosen to be rough and harsh when I spoke first. He may have possibly relented meekly with a sorry. Or it could have ended up in a hand tussle. Whichever way it is, I'll take this as a lesson not to lose my cool the next time and focus on how to get that guy to follow rules - and the only way I can do that is by not portraying myself as a weakling in front of him.

And, the only way to pull that is by not losing my cool. Losing my cool gets me jittery and shouting. I end up feeling idiotic and wondering how we both aren't any different. Basically, it shows that I'm no more in control of the situation and that I've given in to a momentary sense of hasty idiocy.

Big lesson, that.