I now understand the 80-20 rule perfectly, thanks to the Hyderabad roads. My 20% of commute time covers the 80% of the route, and the rest 20% of distance takes 80% of the time. I would be driving along at 50 kmph, and suddenly a stretch would come that would force me to single digits. And I repeat this cycle till I reach my destination.
These days Hyderabad is under a deluge of incessant rainfalls. The Rain Gods seem to be benevolent, but the same cannot be said for the Gods of Hyderabad Roads and Infrastructure. Bangalore was under water for few days, the drainage system being the culprit. In Hyderabad the drainage is actually quite good, you would not find any waterlogging on most of the major streets few minutes after the rains abate. But the culprit is digging of the roads. Almost all major Hyderabad roads have a part that is either dug up, or some manhole is malfunctioning (and so water-logging), or being repaired. Generally the two lanes of any road are as same (or different?) as the faces of Aishwarya Rai and Om Puri - one lane is smooth, the other full of potholes.
Be it Madhapur, or Masab Tank, or Banjara Hills, or Lakdikapul - no road had been spared the wrath of Gods of Hyderabad Roads and Infrastructure. The worst road that I have encountered is the Durgam Cheruvu road. Yesterday evening I was stuck in the traffic jam there (thankfully the road has been made a one-way these days, and hence the traffic jams are not as massive as they used to be) and saw that a one-meter part of the road was under water, and surprisingly no motorists had ventured there. Now a part of road that is not filled by vehicles would ring danger bells in any sane mind especially in Hyderabad, but I can be exempted from the sane-mind assumption as I was returning after a day that resembled banging your head on one wall to break open the wall on the other side of the room. As I was going towards that one-meter opening in the road, I saw something black floating in water. I stopped, and seconds later a fully-grown buffalo emerged from the water - and no I am not kidding. People who have driven around Madhapur would know that buffaloes and cows are rulers of the roads here. After all in all office addresses “Madhapur village” is written as the area name.
The Durgam Cheruvu road is under construction, so a meter deep and a meter wide trench has been dug up through the length of the road, the rains have filled the trench and the trench has been overflowing, and yet there are no signs placed anywhere near showing the danger. There used to be logic of laying the railway tracks in summer (heat expands…), the telephone and electric wires in winter (same logic); is there any logic to repairing and constructing roads during rains? I am unable to find any reason…
Technorati: Hyderabad, Hyderabad Roads, Hyderabad Infrastructure
yea..these roads ruin all the fun of biking in the rains
lol @ aishwarya om puri reference …
buffalo from a pot hole … quite a bewildering experience .. it must hav been
I thought Hyd would be much better .. apparently not
You should all shift to Bangy .. enjoy the rains the way they are meant to be enjoyed
“As I was going towards that one-meter opening in the road, I saw something black floating in water. I stopped, and seconds later a fully-grown buffalo emerged from the water”
ROFL
Sreejith, since I had a accident two years back while biking in the rain, the fun has gone out of it for me…
Rama, it surely was one-off experience.. and dude good to have you back
Utkarsh, Hyderabad “is” better… you just need to know the spots to avoid… and by “enjoy the rains the way they are meant to be enjoyed” do you mean swimming in the rain with a bike?
Rakesh, I surely was not rofl at that time, but later that was the reaction I had
Almost 10% of the global road traffic accidents occur in India. Much of the world wide web is full of sarcasm & mocking of the indisciplined driving on Indian roads. Unfortunately in since 60 years since independence the authorities have failed to publish a National Highway code. Licences are given to anyone who can demonstrate an ability to use the clutch-accelerator, consequently the motoer driving schools teach just that and no more. Concepts such as - blindspots, principle of MSM, the tyre & tarmac rule, 2 second gap and most improtantly giving way are not known to the average Indian driver.
This site http://driving-india.blogspot.com/ has been created with the purpose of providing driver education and training to all Indian road users. It is by far the most comprehensive website providing training in defensive driving. Learning simple road habits can make our roads safe and also free up congestion caused by traffic chaos.
At present 17 driver education videos aimed at changing the driving culture on Indian roads are available. The video are unique in that the footage is real life action from streets of London. We have copied the Western habits: Replaced the dhoti with denim, high rise buildings for Indian cottages, burgers and coke instead of Indian breads and perhaps sugarcane juice. Surely we can copy the Western ways of travelling too.
To watch the videos, interested readers may visit: http://driving-india.blogspot.com/
The videos cover the following topics:
Video 1: Covers the concept of Blind spots
Video 2: Introduces the principle of Mirrors, Signal and Manoeuvre
Video 3: At red lights, stop behind the stop line
Video 4: At red lights there are no free left turns
Video 5: The Zebra belongs to pedestrians
Video 6: Tyres and Tarmac (rather than bumper to bumper)
Video 7: Merging with the Main road
Video 8: Leaving The Main Road
Video 9: Never Cut Corners
Video 10: Show Courtesy on roads
Video 11: 5 Rules that help deal with Roundabouts
Video 12: Speed limits, stopping distances, tailgating & 2 seconds rule
Video 13: Lane discipline and overtaking
Video 14: Low beam or high beam?
Video 15: Parallel (reverse parking) made easy
Video 16: Give the cyclist the respect of a car
Video 17: Dealing with in-car condensation
Many thanks