The Google group - the purpose behind it.

I have been trying to drive home a couple of points about the Traffic in Hyderabad Google group. It is meant for two kinds of people:

• Those who like to take an active part in resolving traffic issues
• And those who would like to hear traffic related developments in Hyderabad so that they can choose better routes or can pitch in by just following rules.

So even if you don't want to be active members of the volunteer group, you can still join the Google group. Send the link out to friends and colleagues and get them to join. You can choose to receive a daily digest instead of individual emails if an inbox with unread emails is a concern.

The core group of volunteers is also deliberating on whether to approach HYSEA (Hyderabad Software Exporters Association) and get its help in reaching out to the HYSEA member companies. This will enable us to reach out to more people.

The CNN IBN video that was played during the News.

Our video from CNN IBN

For those of you who missed watching the show, here's the link:

http://www.ibnlive.com/videos/53879/12_2007/cj_0812_3/five-cjs-show-how-to-make-a-difference.html

We get featured on CNN IBN tomorrow, 8th Dec 930pm!!

Our traffic initiative in Hyderabad will be featured on the 'Be The Change' episode on 8th Dec, 930pm. Through this we hope that people in Hyderabad start changing their driving habits.

Catch us on CNN IBN and let us know your views/comments/suggestions.

If it doesn't get aired, well.... tough luck... for us! :)

Next steps - Autos and how do we get people to walk a little

As part of the CNN IBN 'Be the Change' show, our next steps towards traffic improvement in CT junction include solving the problems that the auto drivers and passengers create.

Broadly, the problems are:

• Auto drivers stop their autos wherever they please, even stopping in the middle of the road.
• Passengers get off the autos right in front of Cyber Towers causing vehicles to hold up behind them.
• "Shared autos" keep hovering near the intersection in hopes of getting passengers and take up nearly 2 out of the 3 available lanes causing a bottleneck.
• Passengers oblige these waiting autos by getting in them right at the intersection
• People standing in the middle of the road to catch a bus/auto.

How we want to tackle this:

• Create auto stands 50 meters away from the junction-any parking or auto stands need to be atleast 50 mtrs away from traffic junctions. At least 1 auto stand near Wipro and the other in front of Shilparam.
• Put up boards near the traffic signal that informing people about the auto stands and that they shouldn't catch autos right at the signal.
• Get the auto drivers to start using the auto stands. Same goes for the people intending to catch autos.

It is going to be EXTREMELY difficult,if not impossible; but as Anthony Hopkins says in Mission: Impossible 2 : "Mr. Hunt, this isn't Mission Difficult, it's Mission Impossible. "Difficult" should be a walk in the park for you."

I can use all the help that I get, so please if there are folks out there who would like to be involved in this "Mission", please send me an email at sikhoya [at] gmail [dot] com

We spoke with ADCP Ashok Reddy yesterday and he mentioned that the traffic police is willing to help out. I just went across and met DCP MuniSwamy and Addl DCP Ashok Reddy and handed them the letter requesting for their help. We should get the signed copy of the letter (approval) by Nov 30.

Created a Google Group..

Hello

I had toyed around with the idea of creating a Google Group to reach out to people who are genuinely interested in helping this cause, but do not get the time to visit the blog frequently.

I finally created the group; here's the information:
* Group name: Traffic in Hyderabad
* Group home page: http://groups.google.com/group/trafficinhyderabad?hl=en
* Group email address trafficinhyderabad@googlegroups.com

This group is open to all who want to help make the traffic better in Hyderabad. I hope people join it and use it as a platform to discuss ideas, problems and solutions.

You can use the group to reach out to us.

How I would like to start the "Be the Change" episode!!

From the Matrix!

Neo: I know you're out there. I can feel you now. I know that you're afraid... you're afraid of us. You're afraid of change. I don't know the future. I didn't come here to tell you how this is going to end. I came here to tell you how it's going to begin. I'm going to hang up this phone, and then I'm going to show these people what you don't want them to see. I'm going to show them a world without you. A world <original lines edited from here > with rules and controls, with borders and boundaries. A world where anything is possible. Where we go from there is a choice I leave to you.

This is essentially what we're trying to do. We're giving us a chance and where you go from here is a choice we leave to you!! And then I fly away! :)

The "Reality show on traffic" idea has been accepted by CNN IBN - woohoo!

I had a call with CNN IBN yesterday and they said that they liked the idea and are going to use it for a show called Urban Chaos starting in Jan next year. :) I hope to get involved in the planning and execution of the show.
Meanwhile, they have asked me to shoot an episode for 'Be the Change', a show about citizens who tackle problems on their own. I have requested Jayarama, Ruchira and Murali to be a part of it as they, like me, are passionate about solving the traffic problems. (If you want to join in, send me an email)
I will be given a camera and will be expected to shoot for about 3 weeks, detailing what problem we face and what we are doing to solve it.
I hope it's not a prank (would be a good one though ;) ).
Anyway, this is just the means to get more traction on our efforts to ease the flow of traffic in CT (and maybe in Hyderabad as well).

Submitted an idea for a reality show to CNN IBN

I submitted an idea to CNN-IBN about a reality show on traffic in Indian cities. Here is what I submitted:

Idea:
Why don't we have a reality show to find out which Indian city has the best traffic? This will give a chance to involve the people in the respective cities, a grassroots movement of sorts.

You can have user votes, a panel of judges, but most importantly, residents of the cities will take pride in making their city's traffic better. The end result will be that all the participating cities will have better traffic at the end of the show and everyone wins.
=======================================================

Let's see if they like the idea, because I think there will be a lot of positives coming out of such a reality show.

So what do we do next?

After the relatively successful Free The Left Lane (FTLL) initiative, we are left thinking about the obvious question: What next?
I termed FTLL as "relatively successful" because for the 6 weeks that we were actively regulating the traffic, the traffic flow around CT was actually under control, primarily because of following one simple rule - keep the left lane free.
Now this proved that if the citizens wish to improve the traffic in Hyderabad, they can.

How can we sustain the momentum built up by FTLL?
In my opinion, in addition to changing people's mindsets about traffic rules, the traffic police should become strict with traffic offenders and start fining drivers who do not follow rules.

You could get fined for rash driving, using your mobile while driving, driving under the influence of alcohol, not wearing a seatbelt/helmet. Punishments could range from monetary fines to revoking licenses or even community service (I don't know how that would work in India)

This would raise funds for the Traffic Police and these funds could be used for procurement of better equipment. Quite honestly, I would rather prefer that the fines collected be used to increase the Traffic Policemen's salaries. It is hard, strenuous work out there; try standing on the road for 2 hours in a day, you'll realise how tough it is for the Traffic Policemen.

The show goes on!

That's right. 14th September was the last day SumTotal volunteers were 'officially' regulating traffic at CT. But NO, that wasn't the last day of the initiative itself!
Inspired by the initiative taken, encouraged by the positive change seen, some of us employees of IT companies in the area have volunteered to continue this effort. And we plan to be at this for a 'few' more days at least!
So if you thought the orange 'jackealts' are gone, the left lane's going to be blocked, it's anarchy on the roads again...you're wrong! We'll still be there to free the left lane for you. To bring some sense in the madness. To help you reach work a little less frustrated!
And you can support us in this. By doing what you can - following rules.

Why?

Today was the last day for SumTotal's volunteers to regulate the traffic at the CT junction. We started this initiative about a month ago. Now, volunteers from companies like Oracle, CSC, JDA Software and SumTotal will be taking this initiative forward. We hope to come up with a solution for the problems faced by and because of the pedestrians.

I will find out if my company can lend its buses, after they're done dropping our employees to the office, to help drop the people who wait for shared autos near CT to CG, CP, Mindspace, etc.
I don't know if this is feasible, but there's no harm in trying. If this does come true, there could be a possible backlash from the auto drivers because this might hit their earnings/business.

People's attitude towards this:

First of all (and this is important) -

I'm not blaming you;I know you have it in you to make that change!! :)


Though the response has been good, it hasn't been great. So many people have seen us helping with the traffic, but we still find it difficult to find enough volunteers. Does it mean that the rest of you, people who work in Hyderabad and are reading this blog, people who go past CT and see us regulating the traffic, don't care about Hyderabad? Have you forwarded this link to everyone you know in Hyderabad? Have you spoken about this when you meet your friends?
You can see that the state of affairs in Hyderabad is slowly worsening and you know that after a few months, the roads here will mirror Bangalore's congested roads, yet you still break those rules and you still behave as if you're not at fault. Why?

You act as if you don't have time; those projects have deadlines, the bugs need to be fixed, the patch needs to be tested, etc. Tell me, are you going to wait until the project called Hyderabad becomes critical and only then take remedial measures? Does everything have to be learnt only from the post mortem meeting? :)

If I ask you to list the problems with Hyderabad, you'd have enough data to start another blog, but if I ask you to do something, anything, about it..... would you?

When I see folks shouting at us when we're only trying to help the city (and them), I feel I should give up. Who knows, maybe I will give up someday and if later at a party in Mumbai or any other city, somebody passes a comment about Hyderabad and it's bad traffic (and the Hyderabadis' attitude), I'll just keep quiet and move on... knowing that I tried giving the citizens of Hyderabad a chance, but they didn't take it.

We're back on track!

Some of you may have noticed that we have started regulating the traffic again at CT junction. We have received the DCP's approval, which means that the Traffic Police will be (and is ) helping us out actively.

From the second week of September, I will get together with some people from other companies who have expressed an interest in doing something for the society and we may end up working on initiatives that are slightly bigger than this one. As always, if you're interested, please send me an email at sikhoya [ at] gmail [.] com .

The Police has expressed an interest in involving the IT companies in more campaigns and initiatives. We hope that we are able to help the Police (not just Traffic Police) in any which way that we can.

Initiative is on hold for a couple of weeks- here's why...

The DCP, Cyberabad (Traffic) Munni Swamy and Additional DCP Cyberabad (Traffic) Ashok Kumar met with us on Friday to discuss about this initiative. They said that it was a good initiative and that they would work with us to make it a success. Until they come up with a plan that encompasses what we have set out to achieve, we will keep this project on hold. With the unfortunate turn of events on Saturday night, we do not want to burden the Police with our initiative's needs for now.

The initiative has achieved some of its goals:

• People have started talking about traffic rules.
• The winds of change are slowly but surely gathering pace - folks from Microsoft, Oracle, etc want to collaborate with us and take this forward. A MAJOR ACHIEVEMENT!!
• If given a chance, the person driving on the road can follow rules.

We will follow up with the police after a week and update this blog. If you have any ideas/suggestions or if you'd like to join in this initiative to make Hyderabad better, please email me at sikhoya [at] gmail [dot] com

I apologize if I am unable to respond immediately to your emails. I will have sporadic access to the internet so may not be able to update the blog regularly.

Peace!!

Raining heavily- please be careful!

Hello folks

It is raining heavily. The road in front of Ginger Court is flooded for about half a kilometer. The road opposite Cyber Gateway is flooded so badly that there is water flowing OVER the road divider. It isn't possible to go towards CT junction from Cyber Gateway.

We have informed the police about this.

Here are some snaps from in front of Cyber Gateway-

If you're turning left from Cyber Towers towards Kondapur....

There is another road that takes you to Kondapur without you having to go via CT. If you take the road opposite TCS and adjacent to the petrol pump, you will be able to bypass the jam at Cyber Towers. This road finally comes out near the Godrej CII building, just before the Satyam building near Jaybheri.

and.... they're off!!!

We started the initiative today. Most people appreciated it. Even the auto drivers understood that we're doing this to make driving in CT/Hyd better. Some folks did block the left lane, but we told them not to do it from tomorrow - let's hope they don't.

I hope all of you understand that we're doing this, not just for us, but for everyone. We want the traffic flow around CT to be streamlined and we want the office going crowd to realize that they are accountable for their driving.

We saw cars driven by executives from top companies breaking the law - cars stopped in the middle of the road so that the occupants could get off ... in the MIDDLE of the ROAD!! Would you forgive an educated person if he did this?

Cabs stopped in the middle of the road, autos stopped in front of Cyber Towers and caused traffic to choke. We hope that the people working in Cyber Towers, don't get off autos in front of their gate. They can get off the autos near Wipro or even after the autos have turned left at CT junction.

Of course some people did voice their disapproval of the initiative. They said that we were actually causing the traffic to pile up. I really don't see how that could be possible - after we left CT today, the traffic flow became slower and the left lane was NOT moving at all unless there was a green signal.

We're going to be there again in the evening and then again tomorrow morning. Volunteers are still needed- this initiative is not limited to SumTotal- they are just sponsoring it and most of the volunteers are from SumTotal. Folks from other companies can volunteer. So if you'd like to volunteer, please send me an email at sikhoya [at] gmail [dot] com

Wanted - volunteers.

Ola! (and that's all the Spanish I know. No hablo espanol!)

Yes, we have the Traffic Police's approval.
No, we don't have enough volunteers.... yet!

We need a minimum of 50 volunteers per week - 10 per day (morning and evening).
As of now we have 17 volunteers. The slated launch date is 21st Aug - Tuesday. I'm really hoping that we get more volunteers. You do want the traffic to get better, right?

Why don't you join in? Please send me an email on sikhoya [at] gmail [dot] com if you'd like to volunteer.

Well....

.... the tshirts have been printed, but we're yet to talk to the Traffic Police! :(
Hopefully, we should get the approval from the Police by tomorrow. If that happens, then by sometime next week, we can roll this initiative out.

Will keep you updated.

Update

Feedback:
Our senior management was very receptive to the idea of using the left lane only if the intention is to turn left.

Here's what Sanjoy Sanyal, VP Professional Services and Training, SumTotal, had to say about the initiative : "Fantastic initiative! I had changed my work timings just to avoid the traffic at Cyber Towers junction. With this, the experience at Cyber Towers should get better."

Sudheer Koneru, Managing Director - India, SumTotal, said that he has instructed his driver NOT to use the left lane unless the car is taking a left turn at the junction.

Lekha Sishta, VP - HR & Talent Management, SumTotal, has given strict instructions to the company buses and cabs to not use the left lane to get close to the intersection at traffic junctions. Bus coordinators have been instructed to make sure that the drivers do not block the left lane at junctions.

Progress:
We have also ordered for t-shirts to be printed. (actually it's a contraption that looks like a sandwich placard so that it can be worn on top of a tshirt).

We're still deciding on the design of the banners. I need to come up with content for the posters.
Talks with the police have started and they liked the idea. There is supposed to be a meeting today which I may need to attend.

The Logo!!

This is the Logo for our initiative. We will print this on T shirts, posters and banners.
We're meeting the Police today. I will post the summary of the meeting tomorrow.

I've been very busy with work, that is why I've been unable to update the blog as frequently as I'd like to. No worries! We're going to make this work! The "we" includes you!

We hit the 250 mark today!

This blog was started on July 9th and it's already got 250 UNIQUE visitors!!

Please spread the word around! :)

Pics of yesterday's traffic jam

Yesterday morning, the traffic jam was beyond the Birlasoft building as can be seen in the snap here. Hopefully, if our project is successful, then people turning left at CT, will not be bothered by this.






The Change Lanes Here board should be hung on the arch that is seen in this snap.






The left lane was blocked at CT. People wanting to turn left here had to wait until some moron ,who was in the wrong lane, was able to proceed straight on the green signal.





If you have snaps or videos of the traffic in CT, please send me an email at sikhoya [at] gmail [dot] com

Meeting Summary: Plan of action

Click on this image to get a brief understanding of what we're planning to do:

In addition to folks from our office, SumTotal Systems, we also had Major Shiva Kiran, from Sukuki Gensys, join in.

Plan of action:
1. Get help of the Police to move autos from the corner in front of Shilparam to a little further ahead.
2. Create an Auto Stand in front of Wipro that will be used for a drop-pick up point for people from CT. No autos to be allowed to stop in front of CT.
3. Paint zebra crossings and lanes on all 4 roads. The colour should be something other than white, preferably fluorescent orange- so that there is immediate impact for people who see it (something different always gets noticed).
4. Get a sign board on the arch next to Wipro which will say something like " Change lanes here to turn left at CT junction".
5. Get CT to allow us to put up banners along their wall.
6. Proposed names for this initiative(pick from these or ask folks to come up with more names):

• Left Lane Free!
• Free the Left Lane!
• Right is Right!
• And I just came up with this(in keeping with techiegiri): Left Outer Join!

7. Logo still to be decided. Once points 5 and 6 are decided, T shirts to be printed.
8. Rope in a radio station in this initiative and if possible, get an article into the papers.
9. Once, we're set with this, volunteers to stand at CT on weekdays from 930 to 1030am and 6pm to 7pm, extending back up to 50-100 metres.


Action item owners: 1,2,3,4 and 5 Primary Owner: Balaji. Folks to assist Balaji: Gautam, Uttam, Nikhil and Raghav.
6 and 7: Primary Owner: Shivaram. Folks to assist Shivaram: Sameer, Sujit and Vikas
8 : Primary Owner: Lekha. Folks to assist Lekha: Sameer, Sandeep

Timelines:
Click on the image to view the tentative project plan.

Planning starts tomorrow!

So we're gonna brainstorm tomorrow and come up with a Plan of Action.

Agenda:

• Paint the lanes on the roads at CT junction, hopefully with a different colour(not white).
• Come up with a logo for this initiative.
• Design posters, banners, etc.
• Set a team in place that will implement different aspects of the plan.
  
• Talk to the Police and explain our plan and get their approval.

To quote a dialog from the Hyderabadi movie, The Angrez, "Aise kaise jaate, Ismail bhai? Puuri pilanning ke saath jaana padta"!! ...... (Pachees saal se Cyber towers main baitha huan hoon, meri koi izzat hai yaaron! )

The meeting is at 230pm at our office, SumTotal Systems. If you'd like to attend the meeting, please leave a comment with your email address or get my gmail (gtalk) details from my profile and send me an email. If you'd like to post a dialog from The Angrez, that's fine too.... I guess! :)

Address:
SumTotal Systems
7th Floor, Maximus Towers
Building 2B, Mindspace
Raheja IT Park, Madhapur
Hyderabad - 500 081

People who have signed up for the initiative

I'm going to maintain a list of folks who are interested in this initiative and, by virtue of showing interest in this, agree to leave the left lane free. ;)
1. Sameer Mehta, SumTotal Systems
2. Chintan Desai, Cognizant
3. Sujit Reddy, SumTotal Systems
4. Shivaram Kotari, SumTotal Systems
5. Radhakrishna Chaganti, SumTotal Systems
6. Vikas Kumar Sharma, SumTotal Systems
7. Santosh Damaraju, SumTotal Systems
8. Ramakrishna Raju, SumTotal Systems
9. Raghavendra Kiran, SumTotal Systems
10. Nikhil Bhargava, SumTotal Systems
11. Raghunath Ajjugattu, SumTotal Systems
12. Sandeep Patnaikuni, SumTotal Systems
13. Gautam Narayan, SumTotal Systems
14. Soumitra Pradhan, SumTotal Systems
[Edit - 4:55 pm 11th July]
15. Satish K. , Infosys
16. Priya Ramachandran, Google
17. Neha Upreti, Microsoft
18. Lekha Sishta, SumTotal Systems
19. Gayatri Devi, SumTotal Systems
[Edit - 7:oo pm 11th July]
20. Sandeep Reddy, SumTotal Systems
21. Uttam M, SumTotal Systems
22. Raghav Gangaraju, SumTotal Systems
23. Arun Kumar, SumTotal Systems
[Edit - 3:oo pm 17th July]
24. Somendra Chauhan, SumTotal Systems
25. Shaik Imam Hussain, SumTotal Systems
26. Maj Shiva Kiran, Sukuki Gensys
27. Suman Motaparthy, KPIT Cummins
28. Ajay Kumar Singh, Medrc Edutech
29. Srikrishna P, SumTotal Systems


I will keep editing this or will add new posts as and when more people join in. :)

Witnessed an accident near IIPM, Hyderabad

A man riding a new red Pulsar bike had an accident right in front of my car this morning at around 945 AM, near the IIPM building in Erramanzil, Banjara Hills. The man is safe.

A white Maruti 800 came in from the wrong side of the road and was attempting to cross over to the left hand side. The bike hit the car head on. He was helped by the folks standing around there. I helped pick up his bike which was BADLY damaged. The petrol tank was dented - the dent was a good 10 inches long and 2 inches deep. Can you imagine what would have happened had the tank not taken the brunt of the collision. The rider was wearing a helmet, that is why he is still walking. Trust me, I saw the accident and there is no way the rider could have escaped if he were not wearing a helmet.

The rider works in Ernst and Young. So if you know anyone working in E&Y, please let pass this information on to them. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get his name or phone number. A gentleman in a white Maruti Zen volunteered to take the rider to Care Hospital. Many thanks to the Good Samaritan (car's number ended in 5010, I think). Funnily, some folks thought that it was his car that banged into the bike. :)

If any of you were present at the accident site and managed to get the number of the car that caused the accident, please post a comment here. The car was a white Maruti 800, slightly old, will have dents in the front right hand side and its right indicator/headlight might have been broken.

I forgot to get my camera along today, otherwise I would have taken a snap of the car.

We get our first sponsor.

Guess what? I pitched this idea to my company, SumTotal Systems, and they're ready to sponsor T shirts, banners, stickers for cars, etc. :)
Folks from my company are interested. It remains to be seen whether techies from other companies join in in this initiative.
Please spread the word and do leave your comments.

(I think this could work)

Number of hits increasing on the blog...

Good to see that the number of hits is increasing on the blog.
If you feel that you want to participate in this, please, please do leave your comments so that I know I'm not the only one interested in hassle free driving! :)
Come on, you really can make a difference! Remember, just one small change at a time.
In a few day, I do hope to actually stand at the Cyber Towers crossing and make sure that the left lane is free, but if you folks can start practicing this from today, that's even better.

Well, well. Another person trying to make the traffic better in Hyderabad?

Yes! I know. You're like "Haven't we seen all this before? A techie suddenly decides to make things better in the world by using blogs and "web 2.0".

Actually, I'm not out to make traffic better in Hyderabad. No sir, we need Mahatma Gandhi for that. Right now, I just want to make the traffic better in Madhapur, more specifically, at the Cyber Towers junction. Reason: most of the folks who drive around this place are educated and are working in IT companies. They have the same feelings that I have every morning- angry, helpless, wondering why they didn't start 30 mins earlier to beat the traffic. So there is a good chance that these same people would want to try to make the traffic better. My fellow techies would also be in a position to force their company's cab drivers to drive responsibly.

We can start with one small change at a time. The first change really has to be to keep the left lane free for people wanting to turn left. It's simple, but can it be done?
Just follow lane driving rules around the Cyber towers area. Let me see if I can take few photos tomorrow that will help us all understand why I ask that you keep the left lane free.

Looking forward to all the help I can get from fellow techies. Hyderabad traffic is not something that only one person can influence.