Bengaluru Commute Turns Into a Daily Battle for Employees

Bengaluru’s long-standing traffic woes have once again come under the spotlight after entrepreneur Bala Panneer Selvam shared a picture of an almost empty office at 10:15 AM. In his LinkedIn post, the founder of Applied AI Studio and Applied AI Club Community said employees cannot be blamed for arriving late when traffic congestion makes even short commutes exhausting. He noted that a four-kilometre journey can take around 20 minutes on a scooter and about 30 minutes by car, with peak-hour traffic adding further delays.

Selvam also highlighted the impact of Bengaluru’s traffic on workplace productivity and employees’ personal lives. He said travelling between Whitefield and HSR Layout, a distance of around 17 kilometres, can take nearly two hours even during relatively less-congested hours. According to him, spending hours navigating traffic leaves people drained before they even begin work and leaves little time for their personal lives after returning home. His post quickly went viral, with several netizens agreeing that traffic, potholes and long commuting hours are affecting employee morale and productivity.