When I came back from Riyadh, Mehdipatnam to my office in Ameerpet was about
25 minutes. Now in the morning rush it's an hour. On a good day.
If it rains, forget it. 2 hours a day in traffic. 10 hours a week.
That's more than I spend with my kids on weekdays. I worked that out stuck near Masab
Tank one evening and was in a bad mood the whole night. Some signals on my route
feel like nobody has touched their timing in years. Green for 10 seconds, red for 3 minutes.
At 2 junctions the traffic police are basically the only reason anything moves. Waving by hand,
in all that smoke. Lane discipline is just gone. Bikes, autos, cars, all trying to fit
into the same gap. Twice last month I was late picking up my son from school.
My wife missed a doctor's appointment completely. I tried the metro for a month. Station to station
it's great, no complaints there. Getting to the station and back was the problem. Auto there cost
almost as much as my petrol. Buses on my route don't come often enough to plan around.
So back to the car, like everyone else. In Riyadh I complained about traffic
too. But there at least I knew how long a drive would take. More
flyovers won't fix it if every one just moves the jam to the next junction.
Thinking of asking to start at 7am just to avoid it. My manager said he'll think
about it, which means no. Which junction on your route is the worst? For me it's
near NMDC, every single morning. Anyone shifted their office timings for this and got their evenings back?