‘She landed in Dubai, I’m still in traffic’: Pune Resident’s Viral Post Sums Up the City’s Gridlock Woes
A tongue-in-cheek traffic rant on X has gone viral, spotlighting Pune’s infamous congestion, now ranked third-worst in India.
A Pune resident’s sarcastic yet all-too-relatable post about city traffic has gone viral, once again throwing the spotlight on the dire state of urban mobility in Maharashtra’s cultural capital.
“Dropped my friend at Pune Airport as she was leaving for Dubai. She reached Dubai and I’m still stuck in Pune’s traffic,” wrote the user @beingpunekar1 on X. The post has since racked up over 204,000 views and more than 9,300 likes, resonating with thousands of commuters who battle similar delays daily.
According to the TomTom Traffic Index 2024-25, Pune ranks as the third-slowest Indian city for traffic after Kolkata and Bengaluru. The ranking was determined based on average travel times over a fixed 10 km distance.
The viral post stirred an outpouring of shared frustration in the comments section. One user called out flawed urban planning, remarking, “That Viman Nagar road from the airport towards Kalyani Nagar was built less than a decade ago. God knows what Taadi they were drinking to make that road as narrow as they did.”
Others jumped in with personal anecdotes highlighting the absurdity of Pune traffic. One commuter compared their air travel to the delays faced within city limits: “I reached Pune from Nagpur in 1 hour 10 minutes. My mom took 1 hour 40 minutes to travel 27 km to the same airport.”
A Bengalurean offered their own grim commute story, noting it took them 3.5 hours to reach home from the city airport, a journey of just 30 km.
Another X user quipped, “Try flying home next time,” as laughter filled the thread.
One of the most extreme experiences came from a user who said, “It took me 3.5 hours to cover just 15 km, Mundhwa to Vishrantwadi via Kharadi.”
The humour may have gone viral, but the frustration is real. As metro construction continues and infrastructure struggles to keep pace with urban growth, posts like these become both a punchline and a wake-up call for city planners and citizens alike.
