Planning a long drive late at night? Venture out only if you are ready to get stuck in bottlenecks at almost every major crossing.

With traffic cops having taken leave for the night, the city’s streets witness a free-for-all of vehicles after 10pm. Trucks, buses, taxis and cars — all jostling to surge ahead, making most of the absence of the lawkeepers.

Metro hit the streets on Friday night to take stock of the situation.

Park Street

If you’re planning a drive down Park Street, better avoid the crossing with Free School Street. Post-10pm, the intersection is the busiest on the food-and-fun street, where vehicles converge from all possible directions.

The reason for the car crawl is the presence of so many eateries and other hangout zones in the vicinity, where people throng till late at night.

“Lots of vehicles enter a lane adjacent to the crossing to reach the hangout spots. But the lane is quite narrow and the resultant congestion at the mouth creates a ripple effect along Park Street,” said a youth waiting for his turn to enter a popular eatery.

COPSPEAK: “It’s not possible to have a sergeant at every crossing at night. People should be careful and follow the traffic signals. Most in the crowd think rules are not applicable at night,” said a sergeant posted outside The Park.

Opposite Jadavpur police station

With each vehicle trying to outpace the others, traffic hardly moves at the crossing at night. The absence of a traffic cop makes the situation more dangerous.

COPSPEAK: “Traffic on the stretch has never been so chaotic, thanks to the opening of the Prince Anwar Shah Road connector a few months ago,” said an officer of Jadavpur police station. “It’s also one of the most accident-prone zones. After 10pm, drivers don’t give a damn for traffic rules.”

Ultadanga Hudco crossing

With craters rendering New Town Road unapproachable, VIP Road is the best bet to reach the airport safely and on time. But only if you can beat the bottleneck at the Ultadanga-VIP Road crossing. At any time of the night or day, the crossing represents traffic management at its worst.

On most occasions, sergeants cannot be seen. And even when there is one, the scene remains much the same — buses and other public vehicles stopping according to their convenience to pick up passengers.

“On weekends, we often go to a nearby coffee shop after dinner. While coming back, it takes us more than 20 minutes to cross the stretch, which should normally take not more than three minutes,” said Vineeta Mehta, a resident of Sribhumi.

Getting into Salt Lake or on to the EM Bypass from the Hudco crossing can be quite an ordeal.

“Autorickshaws ferry people to various parts of Salt Lake from this point. At night, the auto drivers ignore traffic rules and pick up passengers wherever they feel like,” said Dipamanyu Mukherjee, a resident of AE block.

Maniktala and Gouribari crossings

Trucks and autorickshaws, with scant regard for road rules, rule this stretch after dark. “At Maniktala, autos and buses stop in the middle of the road, bringing traffic to a halt,” said Abhishek Jhujhunwala, on way home to Lake Town.

Copspeak:

“Sergeants are not deployed after 11pm except at some major spots, like the Park Street-Russell Street crossing and the MG Road-CR Avenue crossing. It is the duty of the police stations and the cops manning the roadside kiosks to manage traffic late at night,” said Javed Shamim, deputy commissioner of police (traffic).