Traffic | The Alien World

Aug 28

Bad roads and bad traffic is killing our economy

Posted in: Random Thoughts, Society, Traffic

I have been a strong advocate of following traffic rules. Indians have the best of brains in the world and I recently got a mail which tried to prove so by giving the statistics of number of Indian doctors in US, number of scientist of Indian Origin, or number of people who get H1B visa from India. And I don’t deny the fact that we Indians are sharp and are good learners.

That was the rosy side, but let’s faces this – other side of the story is not as beautiful. Rather I will say that it is too ugly to be shown to anyone. And we all should be ashamed of that.

Now, since I have given some vent to my anger and frustration, let’s talk about the actual subject. Over the last couple of months I have been observing a sharp increase in the traffic situation in Hyderabad. The city is close on its heels to becoming another disaster like Bangalore – Bad to worst roads and never improving traffic sense of hyderabadi drivers. The result is long traffic jams, rise in number of impatient people and above all loss of money.

Below are some key observations:
-   2 months back it took me 20-25 minutes to drive from my home to office, around 14 kms.
o   Today, the time has increased to 45 minutes
o   Even if I start as early as 8:30 AM, it takes 30 minutes
-   2 months back my car gave an average of 17 kmpl
o   Today it gives around 12 kmpl

Based on this if I calculate the loss of time than that comes to 40 to 60 minutes a day, which amount to roughly 20 hours a month.

Let’s see about the fuel – I am spending roughly around .5 liters extra everyday, which results in consuming an extra 10 liters a month. This doesn’t end here. Consuming more fuel also means that our contribution to global warming has also increased. This is the story of just me, imagine now for all the vehicles on the road.

So who is the culprit right now? Bad city planning, bad roads and worst drivers. Combine all three and you will find our new Hyderabad. All drains have been closed in the name of road expansion. Uneven roads with no proper slopes and water exits lead to water clogging. Potholes at some places are 1ft deep. After every rain, you may find a new pothole on the road.

And what are out local civic bodies doing? I guess enjoying mansoon and having samosa, mirchi bhaaji & tea.

According to one story, the world has roughly only enough fossil fuel to sustain for next 40 years. That study was done 5 years back. So what are we doing now? We are increasing the rate of consumption, why wait for another 40 years, lets finish it fast is the new mantra!!! Imagine a world without OIL in your lifetime. Life will be so calm, no traffic, no pollution. Back to stone age!

Apr 03

Living on the edge!

Posted in: Random Thoughts, Society, Traffic

The other day few friends have come over and we were just skipping through some channels when we saw some dangerous adventure sport, with monster trucks. That also reminded me of a program on National Geography where some one was trying to catch the largest alligator in the world. These kind of risk people were taking with their life was breathless. We were discussing how someone can be so foolish or motivated to play with their own life and try to put their head in alligator’s mouth. We finally concluded that over all people in US & Europe have a very dull life and probably the adventure sports and these kind of activities adds some excitement and spark to there dull life. That discussion ended there.

While returning back from office today I was thinking about the adventure in our life, and what kind of adventures do we indulge ourselves in. And I thinks non or rare will be the right word. While I was all in my thought a car (Honda Civic) zipped passed me very dangerously. That very moment was the moment of enlightenment for me. It was something like what Buddha must have experienced when he got enlightenment while sitting under the banyan tree. My Banyan tree was my small little car today.

Anyway, I was talking about my enlightenment today. As soon as that car passed by me, skirting through the thick traffic, I thought that we Indians don’t need any adventure sport to spice up our life, nor we need to catch any alligators for fun. We already have too much of adventure in our life. As soon as we step out from our homes in morning, we are on the roads where everyone has a monster truck, small or big, but size doesn’t matter. Each monster tries to outsmart the other monster. We play the game of testing the nerves & patience. The game is also full of surprises. The game tests your reflexes for applying breaks.

So with all this adventure part of our daily life, who really need to catch an alligator or build a monster truck! Driving or walking on our roads can be as much fun as putting your head in a crocodile’s mouth or catching a lion by its tail.

Mar 13

Cavemen in Hyderabad

Posted in: Traffic

Every time I get on Hyderabad roads, I see cavemen all around… Now you must be wondering why do I hallucinate, and let me tell you I am not on drugs either. But before I tell you more about cavemen, let me first tell you about the movie ‘Idiocracy’ I saw yesterday. It was the dumbest movie ever seen. The story goes like this… a man and women as a part of an experiment are put to sleep in 2005 to woke up a year later, but instead they woke up 500 years later in 2505, just to find that the humans have become dumbass, with no IQ… so the movie was about the rise and fall of human intelligence

Ok now let’s come back to our very own Hyderabad. Just imagine about a person who slept 30000 years ago and woke up one fine day and finds himself in 21st century’s Hyderabad, where everyone follows traffic rules, drive in lane, do not break traffic lights, and do not honk. I know it is hard to imagine, but for fun sake just imagine. What will happen if you give a crash course in driving to this caveman? When he will come on the road, he will be so confused, will not have an idea what to do, where to go, he will come into wrong direction (poor guy, he does not know traffic rules), he will blow horn – again and again because he is enjoying the sound, he will break the light, imagine what all he will do.

Now imagine everyone on the road like him! This is what the real situation is on Hyderabad’s roads. Everyone behaves like this caveman, without any civic sense of driving… and what are our good traffic policecops doing…?Nothing! They are too polite and humble to do anything.

Humans have evolved from apes and even after thousands of years of evolution there is still an ape in everyone. Most of the time that ape lyes dormant but thats not true in Hyderabad, and this is not just limited to a rickshaw or auto wala, or a taxi driver. This also included the likes of highly educated engineers, managers driving big cars and bikes, working in big MNCs. I have observed people who are well behaved in office (most of the time), as soon as they step out in open the ape inside them takes over. They looses all their civic sense and gets in to road rage…

Human Evolution

To a great extent our very own police is responsible for this. Law runs on fear – no fear, no law. Traffic police here is too lazy and soft to infuse any kind of fear in the people. Everyday, I see people breaking the law in front of a police guy, because that person knows that first the policewala will not see him, even if he see him he will not catch him.

I wonder how long I will crib about this… I can go on and on and on… and I dont see any reprise from this, at least in near future…. We have become so insensitive, overtaking someone seems more important than driving in lane or follow traffic rules.

Feb 18

How expensive will it be to maintain a car in future?

Posted in: Random Thoughts, Traffic

Today I spent my complete day with a friend of mine. We are neighbors. So after our lunch we were watching an old movie ‘chupke chupke’, where in once scene the driver repairs the car, and the owner of the car says to his wife that if the car had been taken to workshop then then minimum Rs100 bill would have come. This was some 30 years ago. I am not an economist, but will do some simple math without bringing any inflation or current salary trends in.

Today if you take your car to workshop then you will spend minimum Rs.1000, and I m only talking about a samll car. So it is almost 10 times more than that as it used to be in 70’s. If we continue to go at this pace, then in next 20 to 25 years taking a car to workshop may be as expensive as spending 2 nights in a 5 star hotel today.

Now look at the petrol price today, it is above Rs.52 per liter, which 30 years ago was just Rs.10. I still remember taking my father’s scooter out and then 2-3 rupees from friends and filling petrol for Rs.10. The oil prices today we get are highly subsidized by government but which still means the price of petrol has gone up by 5 times. In next 25-30 years this price of petrol may be equivalent to taking a family of 4 for a movie today.

It will be so good if there is some machine which does not require any maintenance and fuel.

Feb 14

God! help hyderabadi drivers

Posted in: Random Thoughts, Traffic

The title of this blog entry is out of sheer frustration. Yesterday was a long day in office for me. Have to wake up early to attend a meeting with my stakeholders in US and then had again meeting in evening with my other stake holders in US. By the time all things finished, it was close to 10:30 PM. My home is very closed by to my office. The reason I took my home close to office was that I did not want to spend more time on roads.

Yesterday when I started from office, I was very tired and hungry after spending 15 hours in office, with marathon meetings. To sum up I was completely drained. It is really frustrating to see traffic jams at odd hours. Even more frustrating is when people keep on honking and doesn’t follow any traffic rules.

Please God, give some civic & traffic sense to the drivers on road… specifically to cab/taxi drivers!!

(Picture from my Nokia N70)

My dear countrymen! Please follow traffic rules, have some traffic & civic sense, then only we can really become a developed country.

Jan 22

Amazing India

Posted in: Traffic

I usually drive office late to avoid traffic chaos & congestions. This morning while going to office I have to pick up a teammate on the way. These pic was taken from my Nokia N70 while driving, from within the car. I wonder how this guy is driving the bike with such a huge stock on the back… Truly my countrymen never fail to amaze me of their capabilities!