Have to agree, this is one tough cookie! Before we left from US, thought how bad this could be, didn't believe that a 5-6 kms commute can take up to 45 mins but that is true, unfortunately. There are places where construction is in progress and you can easily just stand-still for 10 mins or so. Add few more points on the way to work and it easily adds up. The signals especially are the killers - in many signals, you can't get thru' the signal in one green and have to wait at least 1-2 rounds before you get to the green.
This is how much the signals can make a difference - my commute of 12kms to work in the morning takes anywhere from 35-45 minutes whereas the same commute back home takes 15-25mins max since I am able to by-pass all of the signals in the evening with inner roads.
The key thing here is again timing - morning commute start getting bad after 9am whereas evening commute starts kicking in after 5pm. If you are able to leave to work before 9am and head back before 5pm, you can save a lot of commute time. Most of the companies are flexible with the timings here since you can't avoid logging back in the evening again anyway. If you are using the company transport, you don't have much flexibility but can avoid the driving hassles at the cost of waiting for others to join the car pools.
Another option is taking the bus to work, which can work very well if you are staying in certain specific places, from where you can walk down and take the bus. The BMTC Vajra buses are very good, with a/c and smooth drives but do get crowded after 8:30am or so. You see lots of techie crowd in these buses and that makes the commute bit smoother.This is how much the signals can make a difference - my commute of 12kms to work in the morning takes anywhere from 35-45 minutes whereas the same commute back home takes 15-25mins max since I am able to by-pass all of the signals in the evening with inner roads.
The key thing here is again timing - morning commute start getting bad after 9am whereas evening commute starts kicking in after 5pm. If you are able to leave to work before 9am and head back before 5pm, you can save a lot of commute time. Most of the companies are flexible with the timings here since you can't avoid logging back in the evening again anyway. If you are using the company transport, you don't have much flexibility but can avoid the driving hassles at the cost of waiting for others to join the car pools.
Overall, the whole commute situation in Bangalore is not fun and this is something that will take long time to get used to (or you may never get used to at all, after seeing the commutes in US).
Appreciate your feedback and comments, please leave a comment if you found this post useful (or not!) ...
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