Cross at your own risk

After crossing a road for over a year, for the first time, I saw the pedestrian light turn green.
Finally, light was fixed :)

Well, not quite. It turned red in 1 or 2 seconds and traffic started flowing.

Chandigarh is a rich city. We don't want people crossing the main roads on foot and slowing down the Punjabis!

A Pedestrian on a Zebra Crossing!

A few days ago, I crossed a busy road on a Zebra crossing. I found a railing blocking the crossing on the other side!

Should we jump over the railing or walk on the road 20 meters till the railing ends?

Silent Spectator

The taxi took a quick turn and nearly hit the scooterist coming straight.

The scooterist was understandably upset and the taxi driver incorrectly furious. A policeman joined the commotion. He told the scooterist that be thankful that he was still alive. If he made any more fuss, the policeman would charge him with rash driving.

The scooterist meekly drove away.

I was wondering that even police seem to be unaware of the traffic rules. The driver was cheerful and told me that this was their domain and they took good care of the folks in this area.

I remained silent.

Punjab introduces police stations for NRI's

Yesterday, the newspaper reported that Punjab has opened the first Police Station for NRI's to resolve their problems quickly. I keep wondering why.

Is it that 'Time is Money' in the West and 'Time is Eternal' for us?
Is it that NRI's are accustomed to politeness and need specially trained police?
Or is it just 'activity' masquerading as 'action'?

Would I Have Been Guilty of Man-slaughter?

I stopped at a zebra crossing to let an old man pass. He was surprised but happy.

A car behind me overtook me from the wrong side and nearly hit the old man.

I keep wondering if I would have been guilty of manslaughter because I had clearly violated the socially accepted behaviour by stopping at a zebra crossing.

It wasn't a Sack of Potatoes

I had got a permanent job - in a research organisation. I had found a place to stay in Colaba in Mumbai(Bombay at that time). I was happy, lost in thought, and walking home after eating.

My foot hit (actually, more like, touched) a sack protruding from a bus stop. I could hear abuses hurled at me. I walked fast, dared not look back. What could I have done? I knew that people slept on the roads but this experience still troubles me. 'Resident Indian' guilt?

Western Railway and Optimising Capacity

It is convenient to have a train stop at a station nearest your home. Since trains are crowded, it is even better if the train starts at a station near the home.

All this results in trains having to change tracks. We need synchronization of threads. Every time the train stood waiting for the signal, I kept wondering if there was a better way.

Sometimes a little more discomfort may be the better option.

Suppose, we get rid of some more stops. E.g. after Bombay Central, straight to Churchgate. The fast train from Churchgate to Borivali used to take about an hour to cover. The slow train took around an hour and fifteen minutes. The Virar train which did not stop on stations between Andheri and Borivali took 45 minutes.

So, if we got rid of slow trains and we reduced the number of stops, we could cover the distance from Borivali to Churchgate in about 35 minutes. Since there were very few Virar trains, we would virtually be halving the travel time - or, more importantly, doubling the capacity.

Since the signaling system determines the gap between the trains, faster travel would imply that the time gap between the trains reduces by half. That is two tracks could cover the load.

We could use an additional track to run from Borivali to Churchgate stopping only at Andheri in the morning and in the reverse direction in the evening. This could help in increased peak time capacity.

The 4th track could run a shuttle service stopping at each station between neighboring stops of fast trains.

A little refactoring and a little redesign can go a long way in improving performance and capacity of an application.