Articles by Swamynathan B

For reasons beyond my conviction, I have stopped traveling by train and interstate bus. Maybe these experiences could be a few of the reasons. One morning my aunt was travelling to Chennai by the Shatabdi and the expected time of departure (ETD) of the train was 6 am from the Bangalore City station. It was drizzling a bit, so I cautioned that we leave the house at 5 am, though we were just about 8 kms from the train station. I know the roads and traffic with small rains have perfectly predictable outcomes – road blocks and traffic jams, even…

Speed bumps are the common name for a family of traffic-calming devices or designs that use vertical deflection to slow motor-vehicle traffic in order to improve safety conditions. Variations include the speed hump (or speed ramp), speed cushion, and speed table. Well - it sounds like a mission statement. But this is the purpose of the speed breakers or speed hump. These were discovered in 1906 and used in the US. Later in the late 70’s the British Transport and Research teams found that this was more suitable for private roads and not the public roads. However in Bengaluru, you…

Traffic on Mysore Road. Pic: Google Maps I am an ordinary citizen of Bengaluru who travels all the way from Rajarajeshwari Nagar to Sarjapur Outer Ring Road for work every day. I almost travel 50 kms each way. On the way, I see that more than 50% of jams are purely because of someone flouting the rules. I thought I must present my thoughts to see whether some problems can be solved. 1.       For example, the Rajarejshwari Arch bus stand on the Mysore road is at a traffic trisection, which creates so much of confusion, at all times of the…