Ooty Isn't Drivable
I considered moving to Ooty, and drivability is an important consideration. So I drove to Ooty, and I’m sad to report that Ooty isn’t drivable, whether inside Ooty, to nearby towns on the hill like Coonoor, or down the hill to Mysore.
It fares worse than Mysore, Bhubaneswar, Nagpur, Raipur, Vizag, Hyderabad, Puttaparthi and Vizianagaram.
The roads are narrow, sometimes so narrow that if I encounter an oncoming car, I have to reverse.
Nowhere in the entire ascent or in Ooty was there free flow of traffic. There were always vehicles ahead of me and in the other lane. Traffic comes to a standstill:
Even after you reach your destination, there’s gridlock inside the premises:
I couldn’t drive with my windows down, as I wanted to in the cool weather, because of the continual honking, dust and smoke.
Google Maps is less reliable than in the plains, showing wrong directions. The unintuitive thing is that if you end up one road off, it might be at a different elevation, with no direct connection, so you have to drive quite a bit. You may have to take a U-turn, which requires you to drive further to find a safe point to do so. So if you want to go to this cafe, Google Maps takes you the wrong way, so you have to instead ask for directions to this school.
I tried driving to Coonoor, but the road was as bad as the ones inside Ooty, so I turned back.
Parking
A supermarket had a narrow driveway without sufficient room for cars in both directions to pass. It didn’t help that a customer parked his car in the driveway. It wasn’t clearly marked as no parking, and there was no place anywhere else for him to park.
In another supermarket, I grabbed the last available parking space on two occasions. Because a water tanker was parked in front, I had to reverse back and forth 5 times to squeeze it in.
I drove to a bank and two other supermarkets, but I had to skip them because I couldn’t park. What’s the point of having these places if you can’t park?
My Airbnb was no better:
Because of lack of parking, cars were parked one behind another, which inconveniences both people (they have to wait for someone to remove their vehicle, or they may be disturbed and asked to move their vehicle).
This is especially inconvenient if you own a long car like the Verna at 4.6 meters.
Safety
The visibility is terrible, with blind corners everywhere. At night, as I was approaching a blind intersection, I honked and nobody honked back, so I proceeded carefully, but a two-wheeler zipped in front of me fast, without being aware of me.
Wrong-side driving fast around blind corners, tailgating and other kinds of aggressive driving are common. This is unsafe. If you choose to live here, it feels like it’s only a matter of time before you meet with an accident.
People temporarily stop their vehicles in the middle of the road to talk to someone, or stand there talking.
Taking U-turns is unsafe at most places because of the blind corners and rash driving: there’s a risk someone will come at speed while you’re reversing.
Drivability to Mysore is also poor
People living in a hill station need to keep driving to a city in the plains frequently, for work, to meet friends and relatives, for shopping1, or to take a flight. So let’s talk about the drive to Mysore:2
It’s unsafe, as ghat roads often are: occasional rash drivers tailgating, honking, and driving fast around blind corners.
Google Maps took me down a road that led to a checkpoint where they turned me back, because that road is open to Tamil Nadu vehicles, but this delayed me by an hour or more3.
The route goes through two tiger reserves, parts of which are deserted, with poor mobile service. I ended up there for more than 2 hours, where stopping to have a snack is risky, since elephants might attack your vehicle. And getting out to relieve yourself is risky, too, since it’s a tiger reserve. Not to mention that either can get you fined4.
Summary
Ooty isn’t drivable, not inside the town5, not to nearby towns on the hill like Coonoor, and not down the hill to Mysore.
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Ooty lacks urban infrastructure: There’s no mall, Apple store, Kotak branch. There isn’t a professional masseuse to relieve body pains (the unqualified ones might make it worse). There are no brand stores for Home Centre, Marks & Spencer, Skechers or Cottonworld. There are no service centers for Apple, Dell, Sony or Bose. Given this, you’ll have to visit Mysore or Coimbatore sooner or later.
Coimbatore is another option, which I didn’t visit.
When driving to Ooty:
Eat at Gundlupete, because there are no good restaurants after, till Ooty, which can take 4 hours. (Gudalur is a town en route but the road is narrow with heavy traffic and no place to stop).
Relieve yourself here and eat fruits if you’re hungry (carry some with you!).
The ascent starts after Gudalur (elevation: 1 km). By the time you reach Needle Viewpoint, you’re at 1.4 km. You can stop here for sightseeing. By the time you reach this point, you’re at 1.5 km. By the time you reach this point, you’re at 2 km. By the time you reach Pykara Bridge, the steep ascent is over. The entire ascent took me 45 min.
After that, it took me 1 hour 15 min to reach Ooty. The municipality starts here.
Plan to reach before sunset both for safety (from animals and errant motorists) and because some of the roads are closed at night.
When driving from Ooty:
Eat in Ooty before starting, since it can be 4 hours to Gundlupete.
Relieve yourself here and eat fruits if you’re hungry.
Plan to reach here well before sunset.
Many of these factors that make it not drivable make it not walkable, too: many roads are too narrow with shops on one side, parked vehicles on the other and traffic in the middle. Vehicles zip around blind corners. There are no sidewalks, and even some places that have them are blocked by people or animals, or broken, so you have to walk on the road. There’s honking, smoke and dust from vehicles. The ups and downs of hills are tiring to walk.