I guess we now have a recession of sorts. Can’t deny it any longer. Can’t claim we are immune to the global markets once more. I still don’t understand how everything seemed so perfect 6 months ago that every one said India has been re-rated permanently and now we seem so stuck. But I never understood economics anyways. My MBA burden of reading ET every day got spent best on reading Calvin and Hobbes.
So I was wondering if there is any silver lining in all this. No, not all the stuff about becoming a wiser generation or turning a crisis into an opportunity. Nothing so deep and philisopical. I am looking for some thing that got better in my life now. Then I realised that traffic in Bangalore has come down.
I am sure there is some economics or freakenomics explanation for this. But I feel it like a lot of people do. As the stock market started crashing to new lows every day the roads of Bangalore got unclogged at every junction. It feels like Bangalore was a couple of years ago.
The wierd thing with signals now is a lot of times there isn’t enough traffic to justify the delay in the wait times !!
So we don’t need to wait for so long. It’s time to re-calibrate the signals.
Sridhar Turaga's blog 
I was thinking on the same lines and was wondering what could be the reasons. Though I dont have data to show that but I have my own set of answers for this phenomenon
1. Market is really bad. people are finding ways to reduce costs. one big component of a middle class person’s budget is petrol. I live in Banashankari. If I have to travel to ITPL which is 32 kms and I am using a car which gives me a mileage of 12 kms per ltr…what is the cost I am undergoing.
2. Thanks to BMTC and Gaurav Guptha. Volvo and Suvarna buses are on the road. Lots of buses. Why cant I travel with peace of mind with 1/4th the cost. I personally tried it and I am in love traveling in bus. My brother, brotherinlaw and a whole lot of friends do the same today
3. Cost economic weekends…again market slow down is the reason. people prefer to stay at home or hit a park closeby instead of forum or central…
These are my views..
Have a great weekend
Prashanth
Prashanth – That is an interesting point about people using public transport more. Didnt’t know that.
The reason I wrote this article was to make a point that this is a good time to make any structural changes in the city infra … every one will be willing to adjust. The signals was just a trivial line 🙂
Pushing for public transport at this time may then be much easier.
– Sridhar