Our roads. Our people.

[v12]

even i've seen this tourist cars driving like maniacs. forget that. worse than that are the 2 wheeler boyfriends ferrying their girlfriends. Zip Zapping in traffic wearing a helmet for their protection while the poor girl sits behind in awe.

Nitrous, pls dont get offended by Rudra's remarks. He isnt generalising. Its his observations on Sumo drivers in Bangalore.

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] ]See how behaviour changes when somebody sitting inside a car/cab/bus/auto and when
he’s on the road as a pedestrian.

Very true Rudra.

[need4speed]

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] (Rehaan @ June 02 2004,10:02)]

They may be a 100 sumos to every honda accord on the road today. I had a neighbor (with only a wife and a daughter) who only got the sumo coz it was cheap to own. He needed all the space in our narrow compound to bring in and take out that load of scrap. So every now and then we had to move our cars to make way for his mini truck.
The only other reason i c ppl opt for bigger vehicles is becoz of the lower tax they have to pay when they buy it new. Some of our laws which give tax relief to vehicles which can carry 10 ppl at a time, safety and all other aspects be damned. So at times you have the full family and the pets crammed into a 10 seater with ppl spilling out of every window, or u have only one solo chap driving himself and a whole lot of vacant real estate.
You can say, well he is transporting goods. But carrying goods, other than personal stuff, in a pvt vehicle is banned by the law.
The option of going for a big diesel engined vehicle wouldnt be so rosy if there was not such a big disparity between petrol and diesel prices.
I think bigger the vehicle, more the pollution it causes.
Okies. Sumo offers you a sense of security. Duh! to that. Its built on a truck chassis, with all the agility of a pregnant hippo. the high roof on its flimsy pillars in the first thing to crush you in the event of a roll over.
What we need is sensible laws to improve safety, reduce congestion and pollution on our roads. Something like what they have done in Japan with their K-class cars.
Give tax benefits to smaller and more efficient vehicles. (Reva, if it was taxed right, would have been very popular with ppl who make only short journeys to work and back. Atleast i would gladly leap into one.)Tax the cars higher as the size and weight increases.
Not even 2% of our total population has a vehicle. You see so many ppl hanging out of trains and buses on their way to work. So does it still justify carrying empty space with u everywhere?

[shravan316]

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] (S350L-E240 @ June 02 2004,01:08)]Well if there's hell on roads,
it's ahmedabad, And its like a known fact,

Also a city where the traffic cop does not guide the traffic,
He rather moves himself for the traffic and how it wants to flow,

Well, i think its the same case through India.

Speaking of traffic cops, today i saw one, who was enjoying a jam at a junction. U should have seen him waiting for the drivers to sort out the jam by themselves which were stuck. I just wish i had a camera. It was shocking to see him just lingering around doing nothing while more and more cars were getting involved.

[Rehaan]

Hey N4S,

Well the question was whether the sumo is justifiable to have in the city, not whether it is a good car or not.
With regard to my earlier post, the only point you made was bringing up the size issue again- "does it still justify carrying empty space with u everywhere?"
So to that i have to say that the footprint of the sumo is actually smaller than other cars like for example the octavia. (which is 2inches longer and 1inch narrower). So the empty space being taken around in the sumo is all height wise, and i dont think the birds really mind.

cya
R

ps - plus i can pretty much guarantee you that if you take the average of the number of people in all the accords and sonatas in a city, as well as the average of the number of people in all the sumos in the same city, there will be a lot more people in the sumos!

[need4speed]

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] (Rehaan @ June 02 2004,20:52)]So the empty space being taken around in the sumo is all height wise, and i dont think the birds really mind.

Lol Rehaan. That had me in splits. its another matter that there are not so many birds anymore like there used to b before. Blame it on the pollution, buildings, lack of trees, etc.

The thing abt the road complaining. Lol. that was another witty remark. maybe it wont complain immediately. But it does in the long run. if u are walking on a empty, you surely can feel the vibrations of a vehicle passing by on it. Vibrations = stress on the pillars and columns. So heavier the vehicle, more the stresses.

March 2004 issue of BSM has this very interesting debate between SUVs and cars. Try to grab a copy of it if u can. And maybe we can argue like them someday we happent to meet.

And i still think Sumo is worst thing u can have to drive around in a city like Bombay, compareable footprint and all. Its difficult to park it in tight spaces, its difficult to manouvere in narrow roads, atleast where i stay. You need to drive on the subarban roads at rush hour to know what i mean, with bikes, ricks, buses, tempos and what have you all struggling to get that same empty space on the road you have been eyeing for.

[Rehaan]

Lol N4S,

i just came down from having dinner with some guests and one of the topics of conversation was the fact that there are not so many birds anymore!

Sure the road does feel the stress in the longterm, but anyway we wont go on about this.

We have a sumo for office use, and personally it is my favourite car to drive in bumper to bumper traff, with bikes ricks busses etc..... ofcourse i guess it depends on my personal preference and driving style... but like GTO always says that people move out of the way when ur in a jeep the same applies for a sumo... especially when u revv the deisel with all the NVH scaring people away from you! Plus the fact that the car is basically a box with no curves makes it super easy to park and manouver IMO since u know exactly where the end of the car is!

I guess it comes down to personal opinion...as everything does.
cya
R

[SLK]

Com'on man Sumo is not so bad (though it sucks).
In general its the drivers that spoil the image of a car, If they drive that beast like a bicycle - I can understand your concern...lol

Like I don't like this car santro, not as much because of the car inself but because of the Drivers in there (exceptions allways there). Santros are driven like autos (u can say faster autos).

I have a checklist of cars which I avoid as the drivers in here are ###-##### here's the list...... in order
Santro
Qualis
Indica

Those are the main 3 rest is a seasonal kind-of list..lol

[satish_appasani]

Guys, I thought driving in Hyderabad is a nigntmare. Now i feel it's the same in every other part of the country. I heard people in Mumbai have a good sense of lane system.

In Hyd, the signals are just ornamental. Nobody cares for what color it is showing. And i sometimes doubt whether people know what red light means. I get angry when I see a person driving an Honda city or a Lancer or any other expensive car and not sticking to rules. I feel they think themselves as lords because they are driving expensive cars. Another funny situation is when you see an old person driving his aged fiat at his/it's top speed of 20 - 30 in the fast lane.

[chaxy]

Not sure if this pics were posted before but still checkout this horrible accident of a Ford Ikon. these pics were floating around in mails last yr. Happened in Mumbai i guess..
Not sure if this was a true accident coz i cant believe the way this ford was ripped off..
-Chaxy

[Dippy]

Hey chaxy

This accident did take place in Mumbai where a gang of 4 16 year olds got out for a joy ride and lost control killing the kid who was driving and injuring the other three . The split was hard to believe but yes its true. Driving an Ikon at 120 kph in the rain that too near the sea what can we expect?

Dippy

[byramshroff]

hey chaxy,
this accident did really happen at worli seaface last year.It happened when the car lost control on the right gradient at seaface n went into a lamp-post.This car was put on a flat bed trailer n driven around all the south Mumbai colleges as an example for the kids that study there.

[RJK]

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] (byramshroff @ July 17 2004,00:52)]This car was put on a flat bed trailer n driven around all the south Mumbai colleges as an example for the kids that study there.

Wasn't aware of this. Wonder if it made any amount of difference.

[satish_appasani]

I think there is a problem with the car design and it's structure. I wonder whether it passed through the crash test. At 120 KMPH the car is not supposed to be split like this.

Ford is fortunate India doesn't have rules like else where. Otherwise they would have coughed out hell amount of money.

[chaxy]

Hey, those pics made a big dent in the minds of many prospective buyers of ford ikon. But i guess most indian cars are dangerous at speeds above even 80 kmph!!!
-Chaxy

[A S H V I N]

things have changed a lot in the past 4 years and more. Traffic has increased a lot leading to a lot more congestion and with increasing development of cities infrastructure wise there is considerable growth in construction related traffic as well.

but by reading Rudra Sir's view on how to perceive the pedestrian who randomly crosses the road is a real eye opener. It has never occured to me to think of it in this way. Thank you Sir.