Bad Drivers - How do you spot 'em

[vikrantj]

Another breed of hopeless drivers are the one's who start honking when 10secs are left on the signal countdown and if they in the first line at the signal actually start rolling forward. 10sec wait seems too much for them.

[noopster]

The "flashing" disease is spreading. Last night, on the road connecting Pashan circle to University, which is a narrowish stretch, traffic was moving at around 40 kmphand this black 3 series BMW tailing me was flashing his lights every few seconds. I would have LOVED to give way but there was no room, nor was I holding up any traffic. The moment I spotted the road widen a bit, I very deliberately signalled a left, pulled over to the crub and came to a full stop so that the Bimmer and a few other impatient cars behind him could overtake. Wifey said, why not tail them and flash them instead? I said, then what's the difference between them and me?

Funny thing is I caught up with the BMW again at the University signal

[sunishsamuel]

Every day scene. All these impatient cabbies will come on the wrong side, flashing SOS indicator, honking continously and then block everyone including them. Best part is, even after so many years, they repeat this act every day !

[rajeev k]

Came across bunch of bad drivers, the first one in a Eeco with a bofors gun projecting out through the left front door.out and literally blocking the free left. He is waiting at the signal with his ride on two lanes. The M800 and the Bike are also doing exactly this.

[IronH4WK]

Originally Posted by rajeev k

Came across bunch of bad drivers, the first one in a Eeco with a bofors gun projecting out through the left front door.out and literally blocking the free left. He is waiting at the signal with his ride on two lanes. The M800 and the Bike are also doing exactly this.

I think that's the MOSSAD hit squad there to take out that couple Jokes apart, looks like a bunch of presentation material (or something flexible) rolled up. People just don't care about other people these days, if something happens to others because of their stupidity!

[AlphaKilo]

Originally Posted by IronH4WK

I think that's the MOSSAD hit squad there to take out that couple Jokes apart, looks like a bunch of presentation material (or something flexible) rolled up. People just don't care about other people these days, if something happens to others because of their stupidity!

I guess MOSSAD/RAW/CIA/ISI has better things to do than to rent a "Eeco" and drive around with a poster material. They could simply bring in a proper tracked vehicle and more important, they would be following lanes..

This is worse, but there many more much worse drivers, hanging school bags around, boot lid open - with stuff hanging out(not secured with ropes), trucks/Light trucks carrying iron rods without proper indication of the projection/overhanging rods.

[mannubhai]

Originally Posted by sunishsamuel

flashing SOS indicator, honking continously

Flashing the SOS indicator and putting your headlights on , is considered as entry permits to one ways. I was once confronted by a cabbie with headlights and indicators on, trying to squeeze into a one way. His logic was, " Cant you see, I have my lights on"

[silversteed]

Originally Posted by mannubhai

Flashing the SOS indicator and putting your headlights on , is considered as entry permits to one ways. I was once confronted by a cabbie with headlights and indicators on, trying to squeeze into a one way. His logic was, " Cant you see, I have my lights on"

You can get away with anything, including murder, if you have the headlights on. That's the unwritten law in Bang-galore

[selfdrive]

Originally Posted by carwatcher

I am totally confused but that doesn't make me not do my good bit by not following the rules. After all, if there are bad drivers then at the same time, there are good one's too, though in small number.

the only good bit that I aim to do is to bring my car and its occupants home safe. I am not responsible for other people having accidents, I am only responsible for my car and its occupants. When I say that, I also dont run people off their lanes or cut them off. I dont flash/ honk repeatedly to overtake either. I repeat all this to myself everytime I drive. And yet the temptation is there to whack the living daylights out of the next moron who bumps into my vehicle.

If someone chooses to pick a fight where I am not at fault, I am not going to wait there to be looted. I will stop and pull over if I made a mistake or if someone is seriously injured. If someone else made a mistake, I will not stop.
Example: On a really narrow market road, a man on the LHS of the road jumped onto the road from between two parked cars just as I was passing. Result was his elbow hit my left ORVM and it folded inwards. I had left enough space for a bike to pass and if that guy chose to jump so close to a passing car, I am not going to stop. I dont care if anyone tries to judge whose mistake it was.

Originally Posted by silversteed

You can get away with anything, including murder, if you have the headlights on. That's the unwritten law in Bang-galore

@silversteed, flashing to high beam or putting on the hazard lights has the magical effect of making the oncoming vehicles disappear. Or at least empower oncoming vehicles with auto braking capacity. this is what most of us seem to think.

[msdivy]

Our country might be diverse. But there is unity when it comes driving habits. Driving must added as a factor contributing to national integration

[AlphaKilo]

Originally Posted by silversteed

You can get away with anything, including murder, if you have the headlights on. That's the unwritten law in Bang-galore

Originally Posted by selfdrive

flashing to high beam or putting on the hazard lights has the magical effect of making the oncoming vehicles disappear. Or at least empower oncoming vehicles with auto braking capacity. this is what most of us seem to think.

Originally Posted by msdivy

Our country might be diverse. But there is unity when it comes driving habits. Driving must added as a factor contributing to national integration

You guys are seeing the funny side of the problem! Made my day's quota of laughter.

Now to the serious bit: The very concept of Pass flash was conceived for a very different purpose and is being used in India (I believe only in India) for saying that the one who flashes first gets the right of way! Well every country has its own set of driving codes and its better if we could find one such code in our law for the use of high beam/flashing/use of hazard lamps.

[carwatcher]

Originally Posted by AlphaKilo

Now to the serious bit: The very concept of Pass flash was conceived for a very different purpose and is being used in India (I believe only in India) for saying that the one who flashes first gets the right of way! Well every country has its own set of driving codes and its better if we could find one such code in our law for the use of high beam/flashing/use of hazard lamps.

I heard from a known person who has spent most of his life in UK that the Pass flash in UK means the person who is flashing the car's lights indicates to the driver coming from opposite direction to drive continuously and pass him while in India its exact opposite. The logic he gave for that is you can only control what you are doing and not what the another person may or may not do. I think this is correct. Reason being we can't be 100% sure (how can we) as to the person whom we are flashing may stop but as seen in high number of cases, speeds up and tries to pass or even better starts flashing too. So IMHO one should flash and indicate the opposite driver that I am slowing down or stopping and allowing you to pass rather than "open your eyes/can't you see" here.

[noopster]

^^ A sense of humour is needed to deal with these problems on a day to day basis. Otherwise you are in danger of losing your sanity

Check this blog post from the R2I forums. Navin shared it somewhere else, am posting it for everyone's reading pleasure. (Source)

Wicked guide to driving in Mumbai


It’s been more than a month I got myself behind the wheels in Mumbai and I learned several new traffic rules that they don’t teach you in training school and you don’t need to know to get a license but these are the rules and tips you must know if you want to move around the city.

Left lane is the fastest lane to make a right turn. – This is really bizarre. Right turn is the most time consuming especially when you are crossing over to a smaller road. Vehicle line up to make a long queue but the traffic light allows just a few vehicles to pass so impatient drivers move over to the left lanes trying to beat the signal and sometimes it works and other times they just end up blocking the through traffic. Many traffic lights have changed to evacuate through and turning traffic together specifically to avoid this situation and that is helping.

Bus drivers drive a bus as if it’s a tank. – Bus drivers are the most senseless drivers on the street and since they are driving a large vehicle they are dangerous too. In most cases, a bus driver’s life is not at risk, he doesn’t own the vehicle, and even his job is not at risk. Even when a bus driver is at fault in an accident, the most that happens is he gets suspended for few months. With nothing at stake, bus drivers are the most reckless drivers on the street. They will drive wherever they find an empty space on the street. You never know when a bus driver will cut in front of you or knock off your side mirror. They know that people care about scratches on their cars and will give them the right of way. Since I can’t fight them, I join them. For short rides through congested roads, a bus is actually faster than a car and I actually ride a bus more often than I drive my car.

One-way street is a street where only one vehicle can pass. - One-way street has a new meaning here. Normally a one-way street would mean vehicles could go only in one direction. Here in Mumbai many streets are narrow and one-way and people park cars and two wheelers on either side and leave only one small lane for through traffic. On short roads, people try to drive the wrong way hoping that no one would enter from the other side and they can save going around the block. Invariably such people make a big traffic mess.

A two-wheeler license is a license to break all traffic rules. – Two wheelers are like cockroaches on the street. They are everywhere, they never go away and they break all the rules. When cars and busses stop at traffic light, two wheelers filter through to reach front of the queue. I even saw an ad for a two-wheeler where the company was highlighting this as an advantage of riding a two-wheeler. These two wheelers who literally bubble up to the front of the queue often end up spilling over into the traffic box and get in the way of pedestrians crossing the street or even the cross traffic and invariably create a traffic bottleneck. They will honk at you if you don’t leave enough space between your car and car on the side because they can’t pass through it. These are the ones that are most likely to scratch your car. When cross traffic stops, they are the first one to take off jumping the still red light, honking at and playing chicken with pedestrians who are rightfully crossing the intersection. Some of the two wheelers are fitted with very loud horns that sound like a bus horn and it can be very startling when you are a pedestrian. Two wheelers almost always go the wrong way in a one-way street. We live in an area surrounded by one-way streets and two wheelers are a traffic hazard. This practice is so common that many a times they don’t even realize that even two wheelers have to obey traffic rules.

Auto rickshaw drivers drive the auto as if it is a two-wheeler. – As if two wheelers are enough nuisances, auto drivers drive their vehicles as if it is as small as a two-wheeler. They will literally encroach into even the smallest gap between cars and busses and break the rhythm and flow of an otherwise orderly traffic. These vehicles also have poor pick up and slow speeds and these slow moving vehicles generally determine the overall speed of the traffic. One reason we bought a flat in South Mumbai is that autos are not allowed there but every time I drive to suburbs, I get disoriented.

If your car is moving don’t complain about the speed. – We all complain about traffic all the time but you should be lucky if your vehicle is even crawling on the street and not stranded. With the way traffic moves, I can only imagine if a large-scale traffic gridlock even happens here.

Unless you hit someone, you don’t have to worry about traffic police. – There are traffic police everywhere and I don’t know what they get paid for as people break even the most basic traffic rules all the time while the traffic police is chatting with some other traffic police just a few steps away. The only time I have seen traffic police getting involved in traffic is when someone is injured. I recently apprehended a trucker when he jumped a zebra crossing while people were still crossing the road. Few other people joined me but the guy didn’t even realize his mistake. A traffic police slowly walked over and reminded the driver that he has to stop before the white lines and let him go. What does this mean? It means you can break rules, some people will cry and police will ignore.

It’s OK to break traffic rules as long as you don’t cause an accident. – Apparently people think traffic rules are only for preventing accidents and not for smooth flow of traffic. The street where we live is has a no-right-turn sign at one end and I didn’t even notice it for last six moths as I regularly see cars turning right at that intersection. Traffic signs look like they are for sticking posters and you rarely notice a proper traffic sign.

Traffic rules are enforced only on major roads. – Selective enforcement of rules (not just traffic rules) is everywhere in India. On Marine Drive you can get booked for driving straight in a left-only lane and just a few blocks away, you can jump traffic light and no one would care.

Pedestrians never have a right of way at any intersection. – Many intersections have zebra crossings, stop/walk signs, well-coordinated traffic lights that allow vehicles and pedestrians to take turns while crossing the intersection. Apparently that works only in theory. Every time I see a green Walk sign, either the vehicles are still clearing the road or next batch of vehicles are already approaching the crossing. Many drivers honk as if roads are only for vehicles and pedestrians are something that they need to shoo away to clear the road.

Sidewalks are for parking two wheelers. – With the growing number of cars on the roads, parking is becoming a nightmare and many people are switching to two wheelers, as these are easy to park, even when all the available parking space is occupied. I.e. you can always park on the sidewalk. I regularly see two wheelers parked on the sidewalk and no one objects to that. I frequently object to the drivers parking on the sidewalk and generally they move their vehicles.

Two wheelers take more parking space than many cars. – This sounds odd, isn’t it? While cars are parked parallel to the road, most two wheelers are parked perpendicular to the road. Since length of a two-wheeler can be more than width of many cars, two wheelers take up more of the width of the road than a car. It could be just the mud flap or the rear grille of a bike but this small part is strong enough to dent or scratch your car and you may not notice it.

When amber light turns red, only 3 more cars can pass. - Normally when green light turns amber, drivers are expected to slow down to prepare for a stop, instead they speed up to beat the signal. They know that cross traffic will get a green light after a delay and that the cross traffic won’t take off like a bullet from a gun, they march ahead hoping to clear the road just in time. There is implicit assumption that at least 3 cars can cross the box while amber light turns red.

If there is no cross traffic, you can jump red light. – People keep an eye on the cross traffic more than the signals for their side of the road. Many a times, signals will stay green even when there are no vehicles approaching the intersection while the cross traffic waits for its turn. This causes them to jump the red light. In fact, if you happen to be the front of the queue and you decide to wait for the signal to turn green, expect lot of honking from drivers behind you. Much of the honking is from taxies and busses. Cars generally do not honk in this case. If vehicles around you take off, you better move as well for the fear of getting hit by vehicles trying to go around you.

Early morning or late night can be a dangerous time to drive. – If you decide to go driving early morning or late night to because traffic is less, be careful as taxies and busses are more likely to jump the red light and crash with you. People assume there will be no cross traffic and cross an intersection at full speed on a red light. If you decide to stop at a red light, watch out of drivers behind you who may expect you to keep moving. This is also a time when DUI is more likely especially with cab drivers.

Pedestrians don’t know how to walk on the street. This sounds like an exaggeration but over the last six months I have observed many senseless adults on streets that make me wonder if my five year old has a better street sense. First of all, people don’t realize streets are for vehicles and sidewalks are for pedestrians. Granted that many sidewalks are encroached by retailers and hawkers but there are many that are not. Even when there is a big enough sidewalk that is clean enough to walk, people walk on the street right in the trajectory of moving vehicles. They step right in front of a moving vehicle as if the vehicle is invisible. People don’t realize that at traffic intersections, pedestrians and vehicles take turns for the right of way. Instead of waiting for a walk sign, they play chicken with large vehicles. I regularly see people risking their lives and struggling to cross the street instead of waiting for just a few seconds for their turn to cross the street comfortably. Pedestrians crossing the street show no sense of urgency to clear the road when the signal turns green and an army of vehicles is fast approaching them. Many people even walk on the street as if they are walking in the park. Vehicles leaving an intersection invariably have to clear a bottleneck created by pedestrians who cannot wait for their turn to cross the street. Such bottlenecks aggravate problems created by lack of roads.

Traffic problems in India are as much due to lack of roads, as they are due to lack of discipline and sense. Apparently these two are linked. In business districts of South Mumbai where there is relatively better infrastructure, I can sense a better discipline. Hopefully as the infrastructure improves albeit at a snails place, we may see improving traffic conditions. "

[altoman]

I came across a perfect example of bad driver for two days. I hired a Xylo for a family event in Akalkot (325 kms from Pune) from a client who is in business of tours & travels. We left at around 4.00 in morning and reached 9.15 in Akalkot. The way he drove the vehicle would scare anybody in his path.
On return journey yesterday in spite of being repeatedly requested, he wouldn't slow down. Every overtake would be like a high speed chase scene from movie. The vehicle coming from opposite direction would honk, flash lights, give hand gestures but he wouldn't give two hoots. I felt sorry for these people especially those on two wheelers.
With work in progress at many places on the highway, the roads are broken, have humps, speed breakers, undulations, etc. But this guy would ignore all of it and drive at breakneck speed. Having graduated from driving an Piaggio Ape for two years he drove the Xylo is a similar fashion with all the ethics, sense, rules thrown out of the window.

[Thad E Ginathom]

I hired a Xylo for a family event in Akalkot (325 kms from Pune) from a client who is in business of tours & travels.

I hope you gave a full report to his employers? And no tip to him.