The newly opened Mysore Expressway, connecting the heritage city to the Bangalore metropolis was a tantalizing drive for me in mid-April, 2023. It has been a topic of conversation for a couple of reasons – good and bad. One, was a viral video showing the aerial view of the expressway and how scenic it was. Family members wanted to simply go on the expressway to see the views and smooth-like-butter road. Second, was the increasing number of accidents that are taking place on this highway unfortunately. In fact, an Isha volunteer from Mysore recently passed away in such a terrible accident. As a solo driver, I embarked on this journey with mixed emotions, balancing excitement with a heightened sense of caution due to the infamous news surrounding the expressway.

I chose this route on my way back from Chikkaballapur to Coimbatore. I took a halt at Bangalore IKEA which requires only a short detour to reach on this route. Had breakfast there and did a bit of shopping as well. Got a lot more delayed exploring the store than anticipated. So, I had to skip lunch later on at my homestay near Mysore because I arrived really late. Made do with a few snacks until dinner.

A Few Thoughts Around Making this Expressway Safer

Should bikes be allowed?

A ban on bikes and auto-rickshaws on this expressway is being mulled upon by the authorities. My issue with bikes was when one of them was going in the opposite direction. I thought that was too much. When we are going on high-speed then it is a little freaky to see such driver behaviour. It makes us feel like we are on some city road and should slow down.

The Speed Limit at 100km/hr for most sections

The speed limit on this highway is 100 km for most stretches which is a decent speed on such high quality roads. The speed-limit is less for a few specific sections, though more markers indicating this change earlier on are needed. Moreover, a lot of the cars are over-speeding.

I remember a few months back when I took a private taxi from Mysore to Bengaluru the driver was boasting that he can get to Bengaluru within 1 hour. I dismissed him, but I think some people are driving that way. It is inappropriate and some of the accidents have been caused by very high levels of recklessness from speeding drivers.

Markers are fewer than I have seen on other Expressways

With the quality of these highways and expressways being significantly better, vehicles driving at high speed is natural and the desired consequence also. In fact, I remember on the Ahmedabad – Vadodara expressway, 80 km/hr is the minimum speed limit. However, most of these expressways do have much higher frequency and volume of bright sign boards and markers placed along the entire stretch. I found these to be significantly lesser on this Mysore expressway. Now that a lot of accidents have happened, I think high-time they notched up the markers significantly.

Google maps exit points are different from actual exit points

I actually missed my exit point and had to drive 5 kms further to the next exit point simply because Google maps showed me an exit point further than it was. And being at 100km/hr speeds, I didn’t want to slow down suddenly when the exit came much earlier, even though the road was reasonably empty. I was nervous having heard of all the accidents etc… So, I drove further. The marker on the expressway suggested that the next exit is 10kms away. But thankfully, there was an exit 5 kms further on. So, the markers are also not up to date.

All in all, these are some problems that NHAI can sort out. But people’s attitude towards responsible and sensible driving is also needed. Hopefully, authorities will learn from the initial spate of accidents and this expressway won’t become an infamous one.

This region is a very exciting one. With many possibilities of exploration and travel. It is on my radar for future trips. Though, I should mention that I did NOT find this highway to be significantly more scenic than many others I have driven on. Aerial views of a highway would always be more attractive isn’t it. But we definitely don’t get that view from the car. And maybe because I was driving and a little nervous, I paid even less attention to the views.

Next day I left my homestay and took the Sathyamangalam – Dimbum road to Coimbatore. Read about that here: https://maproute.in/solo-driving-sathyamangalam-forest-reserve-dimbhum-ghat-mysore-to-coimbatore-route/

Have you driven down this road or are planning a trip? Let me know in comments.