Bengaluru's notorious traffic has once again taken center stage in a viral online discussion, after an Instagram post vividly highlighted the city's gridlock with a relatable and exasperating anecdote: a person landing in Dubai while their friend was still caught in the city's perpetual snarl.
The video, shared by food and travel vloggers Priyanka and Indrayani, quickly resonated with countless residents. The accompanying text insert on the video read, "Dropped my friend at Bangalore Airport as she was leaving for Dubai. She reached Dubai, and I'm still stuck in Bangalore's traffic." The caption, urging users to "Tag Bangalore people" based on "true incidents," struck a chord, and triggered a flood of sympathetic and equally frustrated reactions.
'It happened to me too,' say social media users
Online commentators found the reel relatable and shared their own harrowing experiences. "THIS ACTUALLY HAPPENED TO ME. My parents dropped me at the airport and they reached home at the same time as I landed in Delhi," shared Instagram user, @purvi_spammmm. Bengaluru resident @kjjdilip, recounted, "Bro, I’m not even kidding, this actually happened to me. My sister was leaving for Mangalore, she boarded last minute, and she had already reached Mangalore, and I was still on the way home (not even exaggerating)."
The sheer absurdity of the situation fueled a mix of laughter and exasperation. "I took a 2-hour flight literally traveled from another state, and guess what? It took me 5 hours just to get home from the Bangalore airport. FIVE HOURS. How is that even real? I’m spending more time stuck in traffic than in the air. It’s not travel anymore, it’s trauma," exclaimed @kriti_deo_el. The sentiment was echoed by others: "@mounika_rajuladevi" quipped, "At this point I would rather walk," while "@jostandias.28_" humorously calculated, "In Bangalore 1km by car = 3 hours and 1km by walk = 10 minutes." Instagram user @whos.pranee summed up the collective sigh of resignation by simply stating, "Just Bengaluru things."
Bengaluru traffic police on the persistent congestion
The infamous traffic woes are a frequent topic of conversation, even among billionaire entrepreneurs in the city. In May, Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath brought together Bengaluru’s top police officers, Police Commissioner B Dayananda and Traffic Police Commissioner MN Anucheth, to discuss the persistent problem on his podcast WTF is.
Anucheth acknowledged that Bengaluru's traffic challenges stem from an "explosive growth" between 2013 and 2023, which the city's infrastructure simply could not keep pace with. He also highlighted the historical lack of robust public transport facilities like metros, trams, and local trains, which further exacerbated congestion as the population swelled.
While admitting the problem, Anucheth argued that the criticism is disproportionate. "I think every major metropolitan city across the world faces the issue of traffic," he stated, attributing it to cities being "magnets or attractive places for employment." He, however, admitted, "The thing with Bangalore has been that post-2000, after the IT boom, there has been a significant explosive growth. And the infrastructure has not commensurately grown with the growth of vehicles or the human population. Now, Bangalore has the highest number of vehicles per 1,000. It's 872 per 1,000 population."
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