NH-7 is turning out to be a complete death trap. On the way back from the airport last night, we reached Chikajala only to find traffic stopped. Heard an ambulance, etc.
Found out that we reached about 15 mins after a fatal accident - a hit and run. Apparently (and I don't know for sure) a City Cab had hit a pedestrian and sped off. The locals were furious and understandably. They had blockaded the traffic. They were taking all the Meru and City Cabs to one side and were asking the passengers to get off. They came to the window of each taxi that passed and said "Naale inda nidana (slow from tomorrow)".
I heard that Meru and City Cabs have been having a fair number of accidents.
The road looks beautiful at night. With cats eyes - red at pedestrian, etc. It is a death trap. Fast cars, no lights, no pedestrian facilities and a driver mentality of survival of the fittest. I don't blame the local residents for getting angry.
The police need to act.
a. Put speed breakers at key junctions. If it slows down traffic - well, traffic needs to slow down.
b. Enforce speed limits via radar guns and brutal fines.
NHAI needs to provide either skywalks or pedestrian underpasses. Or they need to have flyovers. Just making a wide 6 lane road is not good enough.
If the police and NHAI don't act, then the locals will deal out extra-constitutional justice. If they blockade the road every other day for an hour, people will miss flights, property will be damaged - until drivers realize it is in their best interest to drive cautiously. It won't be pleasant.
Srivathsa
Forward this Forum topic
BIAL needs to take this up with MERU and City
Devesh,
See my post a bit higher up. My taxi reached the spot about 15-30 mins after the accident. The locals were furious. I am surprised that they did not burn any car or bus. BIAL needs to take this up with MERU and CitiCab. A fine of Rs.10 lakh for each such incident might set things right. Apparently a MERU cab driver pays Rs.900per day as rent and therefore needs to do at least 200 km to make a living.
I myself have made it clear to my regular taxi driver that I EXPECT him to drive carefully when I hire him. He shall not cross 70 kmph. He shall wait at red lights even if it is 5:00 a.m. Else I will move my business elsewhere. Considering that I give him a decent amount of business each month he has been driving carefully.
Yesterday morning left home (JP Nagar 7th phase) at 4:48 on his clock. He drive sanely and we were at the drop off point at 5:45 a.m. A distance of 48 km in just under an hour without any maniacal driving. He saw the light. I told him that he will also get better fuel efficiency and less wear and tear if he drove around 70-75 kmph.
Once on the way back he drive quite badly. I told him to take it easy. I told him that he would get high blood pressure soon if he continued that way and that he would have real troubles. I have told him to visit my father to check his blood pressure every 6 months. He seems chastened and in fact mentioned that he would always drive carefully after seeing yesterday's accident. I hope that lasts.
The police patrols need to start in full swing. They need to position themselves near critical junctions so that they can give chase quickly. Once word is out that the police will give chase, people will fall in line - 90% of them.
Asking empathy from Bangaloreans (a majority of them at least) is akin to squeezing water from stone. It is not going to happen. A stick is what is needed.
Srivathsa
Drive safe. It is not just the car maker which can recall its product.
Taxi discipline
I agree with you. The Meru and City drivers are some of the worst. I recall when the airport just opened and I went on a visit. This Meru guy behind me was honking away when I was in the left lane of the airport road (i.e. after trumpet inside BIAL property). At the terminal approach fork, I must have stopped for less that 5 seconds to see which lane to take and he just piled on his horn.
I was sorely tempted to step out and give him a piece of my mind, and possibly my fist. :)
In Dallas, gravel hauling truckers had a similar system of renumeration that forced them to drive rash. One of them took out a car with mom and two kids. After that the city went after the company and sued them for implementing an incentive system which encouraged unsafe driving.
I think Meru has some connection to Hertz. Either it is owned, or has its cars from Hertz. Not sure. Can someone from Praja help clarify this. If yes, we should put pressure on Hertz as part of its CSR.
I also agree on the stick, but the problem is that stick wielders just don't wield it. So publicly we can only ask for empathy.
-----------------------
Regards
Devesh R. Agarwal
Visit my aviation blog at http://aviation.deveshagarwal.com
Regards
Devesh
Bangalore Aviation
Enjoy life, destroy FUD
Taxis with speed regulators
-- PhotoYogi
Any reply from meru?
Dear Srivathsa,
Please do share with us the reply from meru cabs when it does come. Meanwhile i hope they take some pointers from my post Taxis with speed regulators
-- Praveen Sundaram AkA PhotoYogi
-- PhotoYogi
get a train fast
Get an individual train than train individuals!
train individuals will be a much more long drawn task...
Radio taxies - and what happens as they grow older
The air-conditioned radio taxies at Delhi Airport were brilliant when they started. Brand new Tata Indigo Marinas and Maruti Esteems, neat and clean well behaved owner-drivers and excellent customer service. In due course of tmime the taxies deteriorated because they need to be operated 24x7 just to meet payments, the owners started using sub-contracted drivers and customer service went out the window.
Right now, the Meru/EasyCab cars in Bangalore look great because they are brand new. I would like to see how they do, going forward. It is my perception that we are just waiting for an incident - nobody misses the hundreds of private taxies waiting in the fields as you drive out of BIAL. The common denominator will eventually fall to that level.
Because.Problem is, the business model for the radio taxies is flawed, since it works on the basis of round-the-clock 24x7 work, otherwise the operators will default on the daily earnings to be paid back to the fleet consolidators.
There will have to be some sort of compulsory rest days for the taxies and their drivers, otherwise man and machine will eventually succumb, and the pax will be the loser.
Chastened Meru drivers?
I took a cab home from the airport late evening on the 25th and had a satisfying experience. The driver drove at a fairly steady 80-90 kmph on the stretch upto Yelahanka north exit and then slowed down a bit. He mentioned to me about the incidents of the previous day (stoning of cabs etc.) and while we waited at a traffic signal exchanged notes with a couple of fellow drivers on the phone about the traffic situation. Also, I did not see any maniacal Meru or Easycab cab drivers (I did see several other private cars and vehicles with yellow plates that were weaving in and out of lanes dangerously) on the highway. I think they may been chastened by the stoning incident. We will have to wait and see.
I had an enlightening conversation with the driver, a rather courteous man. Although he drove steadily at a safe speed, he had a tendency to not to stick to a lane. I tried to evangelize a little bit and told him how this is a good time for the 1000 or so airport cabbies to set an example by following lane discipline. He agreed that this a good idea and that he would himself try to comply but his customers feel that staying in lane slows the taxi down!
I took an Avis car and driver to go from Mumbai to Pune on the expressway a couple of months ago and it was white knuckle time all the way. The driver was doing 130-140 kmph and he had no idea how to properly pass cars on the slower lanes. When I pointed this out, he glanced back with disdain and asked me , "do you have a license and do you know how to drive?"! That ended that effort at evangelization.
Reg driver Discipline
-- PhotoYogi
Traffic Rules & enforcement
-- PhotoYogi
Easycabs - Hertz
google pointed me to this link : http://www.indiaprwire.co...
"Carzonrent India Private Limited, the sole licensee for Hertz International in India, today announced the launch of its radio taxi services for the Capital City, Delhi. “EasyCabs” is the largest city taxi service with 250 radio cabs fully equipped with the state of art technology to give international experience to the Delhiites."
-- Praveen Sundaram AkA PhotoYogi
-- PhotoYogi
I agree
amusement on the roads
-- PhotoYogi
Two-wheeler Fighter Pilot
Since we are OT anyway, I will take us even further off course.
I am in the process of writing the script for a movie with the subject title (there are two others in the making as well -- "White Indica with Yellow License Plate -- it is a State of Mind" and "AutoRickshaWalla - You ask where he wants to go instead of the other way around" as well).
This thought occurred to me -- the IAF is bemoaning the shortage of good officers, particularly pilots when the answer to this problem is right under the noses of the commanders at the training command HQ near Hebbal. Some of the moves put on by our heroes on two wheelers will put the Surya Kiran aces to shame. Will certainly scare the bejesus out of our enemy pilots. I particularly admire the move they make where they appear out of your blind spot to your rear left, pass you with just a mm of clearance (they must have built in verniers in their brains), then cut across the nose of your car traveling perpendicular to the "normal" flow of traffic and then make a real sharp left turn to be with the normal traffic flow all the while talking on a cellphone. We could have fighter pilots who could also double up as CNN-IBN battle scene reporters. This would make both our Air Chief Marshal Major and Rajdeep Sardesai happy.
Speed Governers
User Interaction Designer
Bangalore
Highway best practices
Speed breakers on highway - Not a good idea. Proven fact that breaking to stop and time taken to get back to regular speed can cause cascading effect of slow downs in crowded traffic causing backups. Smooth moving traffic in lanes can reduce time to destination
Speed governers on vehicles - Not a good idea . Technology reliance, prone to tinkering, difficult to track compliance
Enforcement by police - Very good idea. Best practice across the world can use technology like cameras if required.
Skywalks across highway - Very good idea. Best practice across the world. Can be overhead doubling up as gantries or underground
I have been always telling Skywalks can be lifesaver
All the roads of Bangalore needs skywalks as near as every 100 metres and people should be enforced to cross the roads using skywalks. This doesn't come to the minds of our planners.
Today too I had a hit on my backbag laptop by a Honda CRV's mirror while crossing the Bannerghatta Road. I was standing on the median seeing on the other side waiting for the traffic to clear to cross the road. People just think entire road is at their whims if they are driving.
MNC Corporates like my company can invest in skywalks. They just think of running their business and shout that there is poor infrastructure in Bangalore without taking any public initiative.
Concrete islands as lane separators every 500m?
I had thrown up this idea a long time ago and Tarle was not too fond of it. But here goes again
What if we put up concrete (or other material) islands about 6 ft long, 2 feet wide and 6-8 inches high - say every 500 m along each lane marker.
This would help the pedestrian negotiate the 6 lanes in 6 jumps (much like the video games involving frogs and a river :). This would also force vehicles to drive in lanes. Each end of this island would have cats eyes and all that sort of stuff.
Skywalks could then come up every 1-2 km and at critical junctions - Kogilu, Sahakarnagar, etc etc. The problem right now is that the alignment of all these elevated roads and trains is not done and skywalks cannot be put up till then - that is the official line anyway.
But I agree with Vasanth - skywalks are needed desperately. If people still choose to run across, then that is a different point.
Srivathsa
Drive safe. It is not just the car maker which can recall its product.
Skywalks - inexpensive
User Interaction Designer
Bangalore
Locals block road to airport after mishap
I know I am sort of digressing off topic, but the cover page story in Deccan Herald today caught my eye.But this thread is indirectly devoted to getting to the airport.
In my April article "Beware .... Pedestrians" I had highlighted the need for pedestrian safety and over-bridges. The closing line in that article was "The last thing we all want to see, is a repeat of the recent Mysore Road incident, and a major dharna blocking traffic for hours on end, on the only decent access road to the airport."
Locals block road to airport after mishap
Bangalore, DHNS:
Trouble erupted on the road to the Bengaluru International Airport on Tuesday night after an airpot taxi ran over a pedestrian, Dodda Thimmaiah (55), near Betta Halasur in Chikkajala police limits...
After finding Thimmaiah dead around 8 pm, irate locals stoned several airport taxis and blocked the road for over an hour. All traffic to and from the airport ground to a halt. Police had a harrowing time in reaching the spot as the nearest point — the City — from where they could make it was 9 km away. Once the cops arrived, normalcy returned and traffic resumed.
On Sunday last, another airport taxi was involved in a fatal hit-and-run case. The police have decided to strengthen patrolling on the road.
Almost immediately after BIAL opened, accidents have become a daily norm on NH-7. Despite advice to the contrary, the agency in charge, NHAI, chose to ignore this issue, and Bangaloreans are paying for it, and forcing an already over-stretched police force to manage the hopeless situation.
The BMLTA will address this lack of proper coordination, and it will behoove the Chief Minister of Karnataka to strength the agency.
In the meantime, I can only request my fellow Bangaloreans, to please drive with more care and empathy. Saving 5 minutes is not worth risking anyone's life.
-----------------------
Regards
Devesh R. Agarwal
Visit my aviation blog at http://aviation.deveshagarwal.com
Regards
Devesh
Bangalore Aviation
Enjoy life, destroy FUD
My letter to Meru (water on a duck's back?)
I wrote a letter to Meru. Probably like pouring water on a duck's back. Here is the text of the message
http://www.merucabs.com/
They have a section on "Benefits to Society" in About us. I wish they practised what they preached.
Srivathsa
Drive safe. It is not just the car maker which can recall its product.
I doubt any reply will come
Praveen,
First off - brilliantly put - social problems cannot be solved completely using technical solutions. I add a corollary - behavioural problems on the road cannot be solved with infrastructure.
I doubt any reply will come from MERU. Putting anything in writing acknowledging that there is a problem will land them in a soup (potentially). I sent a similar letter to BIAL as well. It is in BIAL's interests as well that their taxi operators don't ruin BIAL's reputation.
Maybe if more people wrote to MERU on similar lines we could put some pressure.
Devesh - given that you have good clout within BIAL could you put some pressure on them. The taxi service is a critical link in the BIAL set-up. Such incidents just destroy what could be a good service. Taxi drivers also need business skills (customer service, relationship building, etc) - nothing hi-tech but basics.
I think business will pick up as awareness around MERU/City increases. Expecting roaring business from day 1 is unrealistic. MERU could have had a sliding scale - Rs.500/day in month 1 going up t Rs. 900/day in month 4. This would have put less pressure on drivers to drive recklessly. At 900/day they make up their taxi costs in 2 years. Moving that to 2.5 years will no kill them.
Srivathsa
Drive safe. It is not just the car maker which can recall its product.
Where are the enablers?
What training will need to be given to the drivers? How do we teach them to yeild when there are no signs to tell them when to yield? How do we teach them to stop at intersections when there are no stop signs at the end of the streets? How do we teach them to follow speed limit when there are no signs to tell them what speed to follow on a road? How do we teach them to follow lanes when the lanes are not marked or are unevenly and unscientifically marked? How do we teach them which lane to be in while turning and not block straight thru traffic when there are no signs ahead of time telling them whats coming up ahead or when the boards are there its too late to change lanes? How do we teach them to stop at pedestrian crossings and wait for pedestrians to cross when there is no law to penalize them for not doing so? How do we teach them to not block intersection when the law doesnt penalize others or themselves from doing so? How do we teach them to follow all rules when the rules are either selectively applied on some premium roads and are not consistently followed all over the city? How do we teach them that the yellow X marks at the intersections means do not block intersection when the rookie traffic cop and the driving instructor I asked thought it was rangoli?
We are brushing an entire traffic engineering immaturity under the carpet and glossing over superficials.
So much for discipline
Friday June 27 2008 09:57 IST
Express News Service
BANGALORE: BIA has been in the news for all the wrong reasons for quite some time now. The distance and safety on the roads leading to the airport at Devanahalli have been a cause for worry among travellers.
Whether you are a lay man or a police man, even a request to drive slow may get you bashed up.
One such incident occurred on Wednesday morning, when a customs officer was allegedly assaulted by a taxi driver in Yelahanka police station limits.
Complainant Fazal Ahmed (53), Superintendent of Police, Customs Department, BIA, was on his way to the airport at 7.10 am, when a taxi driver attempted to overtake his vehicle at Kogilu cross in Yelahanka.
The taxi driver was in a hurry and over-speeding. Fazal requested the taxi driver to drive slowly.
The enraged driver stopped his vehicle at the junction and pulled the officer out of his car and allegedly assaulted him. The driver also threatened Fazal not to ever come face to face with him.
The officer who was assaulted could not report to his office.
Driver Discipline
User Interaction Designer
Bangalore
well put
two wheelers and
User Interaction Designer
Bangalore
fix the system then the symptoms
All the suggestions above are great but the problem is there is no way to track the driving records of any driver be it commercial or private & there is no system in place to make the drivers accountable for their actions.
My trip from HAL airport to our home in May was nothing short of hell. With heavily loaded luggage our Maruti Omni taxi in the night was doing 65 to 70 kms on the roads (including curves); went through 3 traffic lights that were clearly red narrowly missing pedestrians who were crossing. We though we were going to topple given the speeds at which the driver was negotiating curves. Request for slowing down were greeted with laughter from the driver. The basic point here is that the driver cared less and knew he could get away with it. We tried calling the airport after reaching home to register a complaint but to no avail.
Let's say a taxi driver/truck driver or anybody is caught for overspeeding or any other traffic offence, right now there is no system in place to record the offence against his license so that the next time the driver is involved in an offence the authorities know about his previous offence. This way a driver's offences can be tracked and let's say after 3 offences the driver's license is suspended and he is dismissed from service. This way the drivers will automatically fall in line. Then, the rest of the suggestions can be implemented.
Any commercial vehicle operator should be required to verify the driving records of a driver like drunk driving. past driving offences etc. If any operator is found violating these procedures then the operator's license must be suspended immediately. In developed countries commercial vehicle drivers take extra care to drive responsibly simply because of the enforcement machinery and systems in place. They could very well lose their livelihood if they act irresponsibly.
To make the company more responsible and accountable every traffic offence from one of their drivers should cause a proportional increase in the insurance premium. During the companie
's operating license renewal,if the company has had more than a given set of traffic offences then the license should be revoked/suspended pending investigation.
Having said all this, like many others have pointed out we have a monumental ask ahead of us in changing the cultural mindset of indiscipline and chaos. I could not believe my eyes when transferring from the Mumbai domestic to Mumbai international terminal via the transfer bus within the airfield on the tarmac. There was a confusion as vehicles were competing for space and our bus driver was honking at another huge oil tanker, there was virtually a traffic jam with chaos on the tarmac where we cannot afford an accident like a bus hitting an oil tanker.
revenue the outlook; not safety
Perhaps we need to force them.
Muralidhar Rao