Namma Metro

Finally, "Namma Metro" is functional, however small the stretch is, it is still symbolic achievement and has the potential to catapult Bangalore into more development and an easier commute for lakhs of Bangaloreans.

Of all the news articles, the link below probably summed it up really well (http://business-standard.com/india/news/for-that-smooth-ride-home/453294/)

The skeptic across the city warns that "Namma Metro" will not really help that much, but it is really great to see a world class urban transport system come to Bangalore. We just had to keep it clean and shiny for years to come. Once the entire stretch across the city becomes operational, it has great potential to reduce the commute time.

The biggest boon as I see it is that this will allow the city to stretch beyond the existing borders and gradually move into the US style urban development, where a big city has a downtown (commercial zone) and then a more residential suburban layout.  The problem as I see in the past few years where Bangalore has seen rapid development has been that as city got richer, the people wanted to move to the interiors which doesn't really scale well. The concept of satellite township bordering a big urban area has a been pushed for a long time, but the two critical components for this to be successful are just falling in place now. The first is the world-class urban transport which would ferry people into the city. The second is a world class road network which would take people to their homes in the satellite townships.

Hopefully, "Namma Metro" will decongest Bangalore and make it a better place to stay !

Crowd-sourcing at its best.

With all the construction going on in Bangalore, all the main arterial roads in the city tend to be dug up for some reason or the other (road widening, metro construction etc). So, one fine day, your typical daily route might land up with a slow-down due to construction (though typically you would get some advance notice). How would you handle this ?

The best way, as I have been finding out, is to just let the crowd around you handle this. You would pick some other commuter in your same direction and then just follow-them. Chances are that the other folks have done some research and would have found adjoining 'side' roads which would lead to the same destination.

So, over a period of time, all the traffic would start converging on the most optimal route :-). It is amazing to see how traffic dynamics change in a few days...