26 Jan 2019
Holidays inflate the traffic on highways adjoining to Bangalore. Invariably, the diverging paths need to bear additional friction during the outset and conclusion of long weekends. The toll gates have become source of mockery by adding additional latency of nearly 10 to 15 mins. If you combine toll gates leading to Mangalore, the delay sums up to nearly 30 mins minimum. It is possible to cover 1km in 1 minute on such roads. This means 30km distance lost in transit waiting to pay toll.
Back to the topic, while we were frustrated driving in massive uncanny traffic, a series of bikers were spotted in expedition to unknown destination. Call it fad or craze, but this was disgruntling to already dreaded traffic. The problem was not breaking rules or overspeeding but the riders stacked closely for long distance. There were many adding to misery for miles. The long chain of bikes were making it difficult to cut off sluggish trucks. Moreover, the parallel running slow mongers (aka goods carriers) which are not special, added fuel to the overall mayhem. With inordinate wagons scraping the tarmac surface of NH-75, the long chain of bikers further aggravated the already disheveled highway.
I am not finding problem with these peppy riders smitten with Enfield (most of them were enfields) nor regarding their expedition with contempt. Growling bikes are new trend nowadays which would subside gradually over the time. Inadvertently the bikers resulted in harrowing journey to fellow travellers. The fact is there are other people around. You need to respect their time. Not maintaining adequate space increased our turnaround time to overtake trucks which unlawfully occupy speed lanes. Swapping lanes were darn misery due to serial presence of bikes along left lane. It was impossible to maintain 80kmph for nearly 10kms. Nearby kunigal, they lined up for long distance which hampered smooth flow of traffic. Some of them even hindered the lane with parallel rides. Only after persistent honk, the lane was cleared. There were many such instances to quote throughout the drive. At once, I thought of parking my car aside and wait for the show to fade away. But it was long journey to Udupi and with toddlers in car, there was need to reach before dusk ( I was still 350 kms behind the destination)
Overhauling the long string of bikers strewed closely along the highway was disgusting until we crossed Yediyur. The procession seemed eternal before fading away at Yediyur probably because we stopped for breakfast. The saga of bikers was over and drive was smooth thereafter. Either they overtook us or breaked for morning eats or parted ways. Since their number was huge, the hotel, even though could rake in huge revenue would be having tough time managing them (if not pre booked). Nearly an hour of journey wasted negotiating these bikers smoothly. The bikes and trucks which gripped the traffic eventually thawed after Hassan. The two lane road was far smoother than the expressway. At last, liberation from entangled journey :-)
This post is not to debase their craze but request to earnestly respect the sentiment of toll payers. Two wheelers are not tolled which is still OK. Cramping the highway is not accepted even for toll payers. Incidentally, it was republic day and many bikers had the Indian flag erected on their bullets. Freedom unfortunately is the most misused asset in our country.
Interestingly, the two lane journey from Hassan to Uppinangady was insanely comfortable than the four lane tolled highway.
Here is the picture from the crowded toll gate. Everyone was trying to quickly wriggle out of the mess which even deteriorated the situation. The dynamic gate swapping by cabbies worsened the situation. They couldn't stick to a single gate which was disgusting and escalated the snarls
The pictures cannot display the grieve, hence a short video series was captured to show the agony
Holidays inflate the traffic on highways adjoining to Bangalore. Invariably, the diverging paths need to bear additional friction during the outset and conclusion of long weekends. The toll gates have become source of mockery by adding additional latency of nearly 10 to 15 mins. If you combine toll gates leading to Mangalore, the delay sums up to nearly 30 mins minimum. It is possible to cover 1km in 1 minute on such roads. This means 30km distance lost in transit waiting to pay toll.
Back to the topic, while we were frustrated driving in massive uncanny traffic, a series of bikers were spotted in expedition to unknown destination. Call it fad or craze, but this was disgruntling to already dreaded traffic. The problem was not breaking rules or overspeeding but the riders stacked closely for long distance. There were many adding to misery for miles. The long chain of bikes were making it difficult to cut off sluggish trucks. Moreover, the parallel running slow mongers (aka goods carriers) which are not special, added fuel to the overall mayhem. With inordinate wagons scraping the tarmac surface of NH-75, the long chain of bikers further aggravated the already disheveled highway.
I am not finding problem with these peppy riders smitten with Enfield (most of them were enfields) nor regarding their expedition with contempt. Growling bikes are new trend nowadays which would subside gradually over the time. Inadvertently the bikers resulted in harrowing journey to fellow travellers. The fact is there are other people around. You need to respect their time. Not maintaining adequate space increased our turnaround time to overtake trucks which unlawfully occupy speed lanes. Swapping lanes were darn misery due to serial presence of bikes along left lane. It was impossible to maintain 80kmph for nearly 10kms. Nearby kunigal, they lined up for long distance which hampered smooth flow of traffic. Some of them even hindered the lane with parallel rides. Only after persistent honk, the lane was cleared. There were many such instances to quote throughout the drive. At once, I thought of parking my car aside and wait for the show to fade away. But it was long journey to Udupi and with toddlers in car, there was need to reach before dusk ( I was still 350 kms behind the destination)
Overhauling the long string of bikers strewed closely along the highway was disgusting until we crossed Yediyur. The procession seemed eternal before fading away at Yediyur probably because we stopped for breakfast. The saga of bikers was over and drive was smooth thereafter. Either they overtook us or breaked for morning eats or parted ways. Since their number was huge, the hotel, even though could rake in huge revenue would be having tough time managing them (if not pre booked). Nearly an hour of journey wasted negotiating these bikers smoothly. The bikes and trucks which gripped the traffic eventually thawed after Hassan. The two lane road was far smoother than the expressway. At last, liberation from entangled journey :-)
This post is not to debase their craze but request to earnestly respect the sentiment of toll payers. Two wheelers are not tolled which is still OK. Cramping the highway is not accepted even for toll payers. Incidentally, it was republic day and many bikers had the Indian flag erected on their bullets. Freedom unfortunately is the most misused asset in our country.
Interestingly, the two lane journey from Hassan to Uppinangady was insanely comfortable than the four lane tolled highway.
Here is the picture from the crowded toll gate. Everyone was trying to quickly wriggle out of the mess which even deteriorated the situation. The dynamic gate swapping by cabbies worsened the situation. They couldn't stick to a single gate which was disgusting and escalated the snarls
The pictures cannot display the grieve, hence a short video series was captured to show the agony
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