'Bengaluru traffic is insane': Sabeer Bhatia's post triggers online debate

Hotmail co-founder Sabeer Bhatia has sparked a fresh debate on social media on Bengaluru’s notorious traffic by comparing it with the commute time taken San Francisco’s Bay Area in the US.

On his X (formerly Twitter) account, Bhatia termed Bengaluru’s traffic as “insane” and added that his comment may be called “negative” by the locals.

Also read: 'Even God can't fix Bengaluru traffic': DK Shivakumar's remark triggers row

“I know Bengaluru folks may call this negative… but the traffic here is INSANE. I ride the same distance on my bicycle in 1/3 the time in the Bay Area. How do people tolerate this every day?” Bhatia wrote on Tuesday (July 1).

Reactions to Bhatia's post

This post triggered a debate on X with many positive and negative comments. Some even questioned Bhatia as to how he could compare cities in two different countries.

Also read: Bengaluru Traffic Police reject report ranking city as third slowest in world

Entrepreneur Akshay Shah said people should start boycotting Bengaluru. “We have to start boycotting Bengaluru, only way to bring them to their senses, techies can easily relocate their jobs and startups their base to teach the state a lesson in infra,” he wrote on X.

To this, a X user (@VijayPa53435511) asked, “Boycott & go where? Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, HYD, Pune? Only to realise they ended up in similar or worst traffic conditions Moreover losing out talent pool, established tech ecosystem of Bengaluru.... (sic).”

Shah responded, “There is nothing like an established talent pool, all the other cities have talent and talent also migrates so no qualms. I run an IT setup from 2005 and have decent talent in pune and mumbai, bangalore is hyped due to the ecosystem but time to break the shackles. Also mumbai is much better than Bangalore in traffic, we reach airport in 30 to 45 mins here which is unheard of in Bangalore so time to explore! (sic).”

Another user questioned corporate responsibility. “Corporate responsibility is non-existent in Bengaluru. Fixing the roads in front of their own premises will massively help, but companies don't do it. My employer for example has more than 50k employees driving to work everyday because they don't provide cab pickups,” @balajiworld wrote.