Pune Traffic - Explained
From my 1 hr everyday drive to and fro the office, I have got quite an experience of the pune roads. I have identified some of the "categories" of this traffic. These categories span all of the people who walk on these roads, drive their 2,3 and 4 wheelers on it.
Cat 1 : The pedestrians
The people in this category can be subdivided into
Cat 1.1 : The Old
This category of ppl, while crossing the road, will always look on the side where the traffic is moving !!! Imagine an "after 75" uncle crossing a both ways road and the traffic is moving from his right to his left. Our uncle will invariably look to his left, keep looking to his left till he comes to the centre of the road, when he starts looking to the right !!! If you anytime come across this type on the road, and honk at them, they will just ignore you probably coz 70% of them just couldnt hear u and for the rest 30% you would be visible only after you are some 10 mtrs away !!!
Cat 1.2 : The Over-Hyper-Enthusiastic Ones
Well, This category is hardly seen. Whenever they come to cross the road, they just run off the road in a sec !!! By the time you have seen them and thought of applying brakes on your bike, they are not there at all !!! These people carry a lot of luck with them coz ... ask me my personal experience, I hardly remember running over this type, whereas infact this type comprises of arnd 70% of the road-crossing pedestrians.
Cat 1.3 : The Dont Mess With Me Type
As the name suggests, these people just wont budge while they are on the road, crossing unless they feel like moving !!! They have "DONT FUCK WITH ME" written on their foreheads, in capitals. No, Seriously. And they can be identified by a very unique gesture that they make on the road. Imagine some DWMT type crossing the road and u are at 40 km/s just 20 mtrs away frm them, they will just raise their hand, 90 degrees to themselves, all five fingers sticking out, not even looking at you !!! You "have to" stop !!!
Cat 1.4 : The Children
These are the most unpredictable ones. Just when you are thinking they wouldnt cross the road, they will do it. Imagine a family waiting to cross the road. The child, he becomes restless and starts running to the other side of the road. After a child has crossed 3/4th of the damn road, a train follows, his elder sister, his mother, his father, all of them pull him back to the safe side, 2 slaps, a cry, then again the wait for the traffic to clear !!!
Cat 2 : The Two Wheelers
This type is the most common. They can be subdivided into the cycle and luna drivers (where it becomes tough to decide whoz riding who :) and the people on bikes. The former ones are not more than a drop in an ocean - the pune traffic !!! The bikers, they eat up the largest share of the traffic. There are all sorts of them, some safe riders who ride as if they are the "iklauta" in their homes, some rash riders who ride with their lifes as their pillon riders. The latter kind is always in a hurry, failing to recognize that the thin line between reaching on time and an accident. Sadly, I belong to this category !!!
Cat 3 : The Three Wheelers
Most of this type is a combination of the "Dont mess with me" and the "children" types, and a deadly combination indeed. But in these 4 years of riding a bike thru' the pune roads, I have mastered the art of exactly predicting where an autorikshawwalla would turn, a difficult feat indeed. This type is notorious for taking the most sharp turns on roads. Imagine a situation on a chowk where there are no signals and the traffic is rapidly approaching the "deadlock" case. There is only 1 small passage through which the traffic is flowing avoiding itself from getting stuck for over an hr !!! Everybody in the traffic except Anees Bhai, the rikshawwalla would understand this situation. Just when you have started to praise everybody's understanding of the situation, the three wheeler would patch that last hole for deadlock. "Bhaiyyaji, aap thoda peeche chale jaaiye, traffic ko jaane dijiye". Dude!!! you are too late for that !!! There are 3 more 3 wheelers behind Anees Bhai !!!
Cat : 4 The 4 wheelers
This kind can be further divided into 2 categories - those who have 3-4 of 4 wheelers, and those who own a single one which they are tremendously proud of. The latter kind is the most safe on the road, they drive in the most responsible and disciplined manner on road. Not because they might run someone over, but because they might scratch their prized posession !!! For the former kind, the car is a means to protect themselves from an accident. Just that.
Cat 5 : The PMT
Who will disagree with the rashness that this type shows on the road while driving. After all, they are the most safe beings on the road, inside the PMTs. Who will disagree with the fact that this type is the most negligent on the road, especially after having read 2-3 incidents of them running down small school-kids. Who will disagree with PMT being a menace on the roads !!! I do. I disagree with all this. Look at the other side of the coin, look at the difficulty and frustration of taking a bus equivalent to 4 4 wheelers/ 16 2 wheelers from Katraj to Sangvi gaon, to and fro, 2-3 times a day !!! Quite a feat indeed !!! But, all we remember is that some 4 months before, a bus had run over a small kid. I am not saying that the driver there wasnt at fault, but this shouldnt be generalised !!!
On a comic note, you should always watch your back while you are trying to overtake this red-monster-on-road from the left, for u never know when a stop will come and it turns left, u might be squeezed to an accident !!!
Lemme end this with the most common note you might have read till now -
"Drive safe, drive responsibly".
But this slogan has something really unusual about it !!! The number of e's in it is not 4 as it appears on reading it the first time !!! It is 5 !!!
Well, atleast made you read the slogan again ! :)
Join the www.savepunetraffic.com movement !!!
Cat 1 : The pedestrians
The people in this category can be subdivided into
Cat 1.1 : The Old
This category of ppl, while crossing the road, will always look on the side where the traffic is moving !!! Imagine an "after 75" uncle crossing a both ways road and the traffic is moving from his right to his left. Our uncle will invariably look to his left, keep looking to his left till he comes to the centre of the road, when he starts looking to the right !!! If you anytime come across this type on the road, and honk at them, they will just ignore you probably coz 70% of them just couldnt hear u and for the rest 30% you would be visible only after you are some 10 mtrs away !!!
Cat 1.2 : The Over-Hyper-Enthusiastic Ones
Well, This category is hardly seen. Whenever they come to cross the road, they just run off the road in a sec !!! By the time you have seen them and thought of applying brakes on your bike, they are not there at all !!! These people carry a lot of luck with them coz ... ask me my personal experience, I hardly remember running over this type, whereas infact this type comprises of arnd 70% of the road-crossing pedestrians.
Cat 1.3 : The Dont Mess With Me Type
As the name suggests, these people just wont budge while they are on the road, crossing unless they feel like moving !!! They have "DONT FUCK WITH ME" written on their foreheads, in capitals. No, Seriously. And they can be identified by a very unique gesture that they make on the road. Imagine some DWMT type crossing the road and u are at 40 km/s just 20 mtrs away frm them, they will just raise their hand, 90 degrees to themselves, all five fingers sticking out, not even looking at you !!! You "have to" stop !!!
Cat 1.4 : The Children
These are the most unpredictable ones. Just when you are thinking they wouldnt cross the road, they will do it. Imagine a family waiting to cross the road. The child, he becomes restless and starts running to the other side of the road. After a child has crossed 3/4th of the damn road, a train follows, his elder sister, his mother, his father, all of them pull him back to the safe side, 2 slaps, a cry, then again the wait for the traffic to clear !!!
Cat 2 : The Two Wheelers
This type is the most common. They can be subdivided into the cycle and luna drivers (where it becomes tough to decide whoz riding who :) and the people on bikes. The former ones are not more than a drop in an ocean - the pune traffic !!! The bikers, they eat up the largest share of the traffic. There are all sorts of them, some safe riders who ride as if they are the "iklauta" in their homes, some rash riders who ride with their lifes as their pillon riders. The latter kind is always in a hurry, failing to recognize that the thin line between reaching on time and an accident. Sadly, I belong to this category !!!
Cat 3 : The Three Wheelers
Most of this type is a combination of the "Dont mess with me" and the "children" types, and a deadly combination indeed. But in these 4 years of riding a bike thru' the pune roads, I have mastered the art of exactly predicting where an autorikshawwalla would turn, a difficult feat indeed. This type is notorious for taking the most sharp turns on roads. Imagine a situation on a chowk where there are no signals and the traffic is rapidly approaching the "deadlock" case. There is only 1 small passage through which the traffic is flowing avoiding itself from getting stuck for over an hr !!! Everybody in the traffic except Anees Bhai, the rikshawwalla would understand this situation. Just when you have started to praise everybody's understanding of the situation, the three wheeler would patch that last hole for deadlock. "Bhaiyyaji, aap thoda peeche chale jaaiye, traffic ko jaane dijiye". Dude!!! you are too late for that !!! There are 3 more 3 wheelers behind Anees Bhai !!!
Cat : 4 The 4 wheelers
This kind can be further divided into 2 categories - those who have 3-4 of 4 wheelers, and those who own a single one which they are tremendously proud of. The latter kind is the most safe on the road, they drive in the most responsible and disciplined manner on road. Not because they might run someone over, but because they might scratch their prized posession !!! For the former kind, the car is a means to protect themselves from an accident. Just that.
Cat 5 : The PMT
Who will disagree with the rashness that this type shows on the road while driving. After all, they are the most safe beings on the road, inside the PMTs. Who will disagree with the fact that this type is the most negligent on the road, especially after having read 2-3 incidents of them running down small school-kids. Who will disagree with PMT being a menace on the roads !!! I do. I disagree with all this. Look at the other side of the coin, look at the difficulty and frustration of taking a bus equivalent to 4 4 wheelers/ 16 2 wheelers from Katraj to Sangvi gaon, to and fro, 2-3 times a day !!! Quite a feat indeed !!! But, all we remember is that some 4 months before, a bus had run over a small kid. I am not saying that the driver there wasnt at fault, but this shouldnt be generalised !!!
On a comic note, you should always watch your back while you are trying to overtake this red-monster-on-road from the left, for u never know when a stop will come and it turns left, u might be squeezed to an accident !!!
Lemme end this with the most common note you might have read till now -
"Drive safe, drive responsibly".
But this slogan has something really unusual about it !!! The number of e's in it is not 4 as it appears on reading it the first time !!! It is 5 !!!
Well, atleast made you read the slogan again ! :)
Join the www.savepunetraffic.com movement !!!
posted by Makarand @ 11/14/2005 02:20:00 AM
3 Comments
