Moving All Posts to udayms.wordpress.com

This blog would be deleted soon. I am moving all posts to udayms.wordpress.com

Reason: I am finding it difficult to maintain multiple blogs.

Town ditches traffic lights to cut accidents

Ok. Now, this different…. hmmm…. While, here we are talking about how we can impose traffic lights into the driving traffic, these folks are thinking about removing them… Really interesting…

By Catherine Bosley

BERLIN (Reuters) – A town council in Germany has decided the best way of improving road safety is to remove all traffic lights and stop signs downtown.

From September 12, all traffic controls will disappear from the center of the western town of Bohmte to try to reduce accidents and make life easier for pedestrians. In an area used by 13,500 cars every day, drivers and pedestrians will enjoy equal right of way, Klaus Goedejohann, the town’s mayor, told Reuters. “Traffic will no longer be dominant,” he said.

The idea of removing signs to improve road safety, called “Shared Space,” was developed by Dutch traffic specialist Hans Monderman, and is supported by the European Union. The EU will cover half of the 1.2 million euros ($1.66 million) it will cost Bohmte to ditch its traffic lights.

Monderman’s ideas have already been implemented in the town of Drachten in the north of the Netherlands, where all stop lights, traffic signs, pavements, and street markings have gone. “It’s been very successful there,” Goedejohann said, adding that accidents in Drachten had been reduced significantly.

Officials in Fuerstenberg/Havel, a small town north of Berlin, are also considering adopting the “Shared Space” scheme. But not everyone is confident it will work. “Just because it worked in the Netherlands doesn’t mean it will work here,” said Werner Koeppe, a road specialist at Berlin’s Technical Traffic Institute.

[Source : Reuters]

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Repeating Accidents in Ashok Nagar 11th Ave.

If accidents repeats in the same area, we term it as an accident prone area. It is time the traffic authorities declare the turning from Ashok Pillar to 11th Ave. as an accident prone area.

You might have read our previous post on a scuffle between the MTC bus drivers at 11th Ave. See these pictures. The same scene was repeated on Saturday (01st September 2007), but this time it was a car vs. MTC bus.

 

We reached the spot minutes after the accident took place, so we are not in a position to explain on how it happened. We just want to highlight some basic issues here.  The bus was stopped almost at the center of the road as evident in the next two photographs. The same was the case in the previous incident.

 

This bus stop is just after a turn and a signal. Authorities should think of moving it further down the road or take steps to make the vehicles stop properly.

July 30, Monday Morning Traffic

Read this news from THE HINDU:

CHENNAI: Traffic came to a standstill on several roads in the city on Monday morning.

Motorists complained that they were stranded for over an hour from 8.30 a.m. at Kathipara junction. Vehicles moving in both directions at Guindy, Saidapet and Little Mount remained immobile. Apart from office goers, passengers who had to reach the airport too were caught in the traffic jam.

Read the complete story on THE HINDU: http://www.hindu.com/2007/07/31/stories/2007073160290500.htm

I was affected by the traffic block. If you belong to the crowd that got affected by the bad traffic… leave a comment on your experience.

Keep Distance !

Yet another day… Yet another time… Yet another photograph…

But the scene is not much different…

The photograph in this post was taken at the traffic block at Guindy near Olympia IT park.

It took almost 25 minutes to cover a distance of almost one kilometer from the HCL Technologies office to the next signal at Guindy.

That is fine if everything goes well…

But we all compete to flout some basic rules of traffic here… KEEP DISTANCE!

See how close the vehicles are stopped…

Now the question is whether distance should be maintained only with vehicle in front and back ? Most of the drivers do not find it necessary to leave space at front and back of the vehicle. Forget about the sides…

Ashok Nagar 11th Avenue – The story continues…

The traffic chaos at Ashok Nagar 11th Avenue remains the same.

In one of the previous posts you might have seen the photographs of traffic block at night. Now see some photographs of the same location from a different angle. This time, the camera is focused from the 11th Ave. on the signal towards RTO office.

The traffic signal is green for vehicles from RTO office side towards 11th Avenue.

On the left end see the two wheeler on the wrong side. The bus drivers need to attend a few lessons on how to take a turn. The Car and Van is in a hurry to reach the 100 ft. road. See the cyclist… he is definitely in danger. But he braves his way through the traffic.

The traffic signal is not visible to those waiting on the 11th Ave. to proceed towards RTO office/100 ft. road.

There is a right turn for those driving from the 100 ft. road. But the green bus, the van, and the cars could cause a traffic block that could last for an hour.

Which lane should I drive?

While driving, we try to follow some basic rules. If we need to turn left, we move to the left lane or try to occupy the left most area on the road at least 50 meters before the turn. See the graphical representation of a road with lanes.

Even if lanes are not drawn on the road, it is easy to follow an imaginary lane.

Now see the photograph. All the lanes are occupied by MTC and private buses.
There is a left turn and right turn. The buses that occupy the left and right lanes are long distance MTC buses that need not take any turn. Imagine how it would be to drive a motorcycle or a car in this traffic.

 Photograph taken in 100 ft. road near Olympia Tech Park (seen in the background)

Riding on a Median – The MTC way

This incident took place few months ago. 
Venue: Near Vadapalani Bus Depot and Doshi Garden shopping Mall.

Time: Around 05 PM
Atmosphere: Traffic flow was normal. Slight drizzle and wind.  

Now to the story… 

Vadapalani-Kodambakkam road is considered to be a heavy traffic route. Traffic Police has put in a lot of effort to decongest the roads at Vadapalani. Especially near the Bus Depot. But we have some expert drivers who can create traffic blocks even in a smooth flowing traffic.

Even though there is a Bus Depot, all bus drivers (and most of the commuters) like to alight in front of Doshi Gardens. Usually the traffic flow is not interrupted by this practice. But on this day, a biker lost his control on the bike and fell down on the right side of the bus causing the traffic towards Porur to stop for a few seconds.

Then came our Hero – the driver of another MTC bus. He decided to overtake the vehicles and forgot that there is a median on the road.

This simple mistake from the driver caused a traffic jam which took almost 20 minutes (during the peak hour) for the police men to clear.

Ashok Nagar – 11th Avenue Block

Now, picture this… Buses on Jawaharlal Nehru Road reaches 11th Ave. and takes a right turn. Most of the time the vehicles from JN road does not follow the traffic signals. Result the traffic in otherwise wide road is blocked completely.

The buses takes a right turn and stops immediately, even if it is at the center of the road. Resulting in the brawls as you see in these pictures. the last pictures shows that the signal is on for those who need to continue on 11th avenue and for those who wants to join the Nagathamman Koil road. But, all those vehicles are stuck there because of the traffic block.
The vehicles plying in the JN road near BSNL in KK nagar also conveniently forget to follow the traffic rules.

The green bus is parked almost in the center of the road.

See another bus (white) squeeze into the space on the left side of the bus.

The red bus tries to squeeze through, but bumps onto the green bus. The red bus driver alights and walks to the green bus. The green bus driver is trying to estimate the damage done.

Both start argueing on who is right. While, a few other buses try to move in with their routine by squeezing through the left side of the green bus. The curious passengars of the green bus are popping out their heads to see what has happened. And there is this smart guy on a bike with his girlfriend or whoever squeezing through the gap available on the right side of the red bus.

While the arguement continues, more people join the fight and the traffic goes green. And there you have all vehicles trying to squeeze through whatever space is available between these jammed vehicles. The traffic is stalled. And the cops are no where to be seen till now. Chaos Rulez!