[smashnerd]

I like to be eco-friendly. Whenever I drive, I accelerate smoothly, upshift early and plan ahead for braking and turns. Hence it's only logical that I advocate for and use public transportation if I can. But experiences have made this practice hard to keep up.


Some Experiences :-

1. Travelled on Everest Motors bus between Pala and Kottayam. Driver is an official nutcase driving like the police was chasing him. That too on an older bus with massive body roll. His driving got to me and I got down at town midway and hopped on another private. Initial driving of this driver was awesome. He was shifting from 1st to 3rd and keeping to 45-50 kph. But sadly, private buses will be private buses and as soon as the driver saw another in his rear view he resorted to fast, rash and dangerous driving to keep himself ahead of the other bus. A big FAIL for public transportation.

2. Came from Wallardie (near vandiperiyar) to Mundakayam on Sanmariya (Kumily-Changanacherry route) and got the pleasure of experiencing the worst driving ever. Dude was flying down the ghat section, braking in the turn and not before, overtaking dangerously and even doing this when the fog came in at Kuttikanam. My mom even threw up into plastic bags provided by private buses for doing the same (I always wondered why KSRTC's never provided them. It's because you don't throw up on transport buses from the bad driving). Luckily managed to get on a brand new KSRTC Tata 1510 RNC94 (Yes, Tata do run on the hills pretty nice) to Kottayam. Driver was awesome (although a bit agressive on th turns). He was uber-cautious at overtaking. Waited behind trucks for straight piece of road and even kept an eye on the side view mirror before joining back in his lane. He even gave space to slower motorcyclists and kept gaps while overtaking. So this time, as expected, KSRTC saved the reputation of buses.


So, you see, bus drivers tend to be a major hazard on the roads. They drive without a care for anyone else on the road and race each other for miniscule monetary gains (they even do it when they've got different destinations). They even speed through crowded roads passing through the town centre (Everest Motors guy was keen on this). They shout at you to get off fast at your stop and also ring the bell before you've got down and moved away from the bus. The ride on buses is bone-jarring and tiring. Add to that the lack of A/C and you've got a preview of hell. When I see one in my rear-view mirror, my heart starts jumping. All these experiences have close to destroyed reputation of buses in peoples minds.Now I'd like to clarify something. Rash driving is mostly the forte of privates buses. The state-run buses are much better and also have better customer service vis-a-vis not shouting at passengers (atleast thats how it is in Kerala). There are exceptions to this fact on both sides of the argument but not too many.

A reason for such antics on the part of private bus drivers is that their income is related to the collections on that day (they believe spending less time on the route will increase incomes). Also testosterone fueled aggression on the part of the young drivers who haven't been trained properly is also to blame. Third is the culture, where we as commuters want to get to our destination fast (this is why people keep using private buses).

The last couple of days on buses have led me to swear not to use the private buses. And what with the cost of tickets increasing, three or more people travelling together are better off going in their car . They'll have a more comfortable, smooth and relaxed journey. And if their car is a diesel then it'll cost about the same.

I hope the central government bans private buses and rolls out proper buses designed for Indian conditions with high quality standards before people lose faith.

[prmd_cochin]

Originally Posted by Mpower

Firstly I am not convinced that the drivers are stressed out because they are not able to do a great job. More like frustrated with their lives. Do you think auto guys drive like maniacs to make the customer happy?

Autos . I didnt justify them, i just was pissed seeing buses being singled out for rash driving.

Originally Posted by Mpower

Secondly, are you justifying rash driving? Can a pilot start taking short cuts because the plane is late?

Pilots are protected by strict safe guard and guidelines that let them relax and work only as per strict time sheets.

Originally Posted by Mpower

So what happens if bus reach late..they lose their job or what?

Well im sure you were sarcastic there, but seriosuly they will end being in the bad books and being shifted around. In our route we do make sure we keep the 'best' drivers for routes that has strict time sheets.

Originally Posted by Mpower

Every car,bus and train is late in our country. This is not Japan that everybody tries to be on the dot. If they can't make it in time then the operators need to just extend the arrival time.

I know that. But the fact is everybody is rash. A rash biker who enters the highway is as culpable as a CV driver who cuts line.

In ernakulam people blame red city buses, but not a word about the idiotic two wheelers who will have their 2 kids and wife hanging on to the bike but still do the rope trick of nudging between vehicles, overtaking from the left side which is often the blind side.

[smashnerd]

Originally Posted by prmd_cochin

I know that. But the fact is everybody is rash. A rash biker who enters the highway is as culpable as a CV driver who cuts line.

In ernakulam people blame red city buses, but not a word about the idiotic two wheelers who will have their 2 kids and wife hanging on to the bike but still do the rope trick of nudging between vehicles, overtaking from the left side which is often the blind side.

+ 1 to that. Though I've never seen a family on a two-wheeler doing that. It's almost always stupid moronic youth on bikes without helmets or something like that.

Something else I've been noticing is that if a bus wants to overtake a bike/scooter and some vehicle comes from the opposite side, the bus driver is going to overtake the two-wheeler none the less. Most of the time the two-wheeler rider is forced off-road to save themselves. It's the same case if a bus is overtaking a car/truck/bus and a bike/scooter approaches from the opposite side. I've seen many near misses in this fashion (both off and on thee bus).

[Nitin]

Try the Thrissur-Guruvayoor-EKM route. What's best is this: Some of the buses would have a picture of the Guruvayoor deities right above the driver's head. Everytime the bus competes with another one to get to the bext bus stop, you go through the accelerate-decelerate-swerve-accelerate sequence, quite possibly experiencing a few G's while at it. So everytime you see this happen, you can actually see the deities come alive right in front of your eyes, or in other words, you get to see glimpses of the Almighty right there!
I've been fortunate enough not to travel in those buses for over a decade now. Wouldn't think of getting onto one, for some value of my own life.
I've heard just 1 instance where the driver of a bus hit a car, and was on the run. The locals stopped him 2kms away, pulled him out and completely changed the geography of his face.

[teamveevee]

Originally Posted by smashnerd

Something else I've been noticing is that if a bus wants to overtake a bike/scooter and some vehicle comes from the opposite side, the bus driver is going to overtake the two-wheeler none the less. Most of the time the two-wheeler rider is forced off-road to save themselves. It's the same case if a bus is overtaking a car/truck/bus and a bike/scooter approaches from the opposite side. I've seen many near misses in this fashion (both off and on thee bus).

+1, Now it becomes the rule of the road. So as the bike rider, i expect this behaviour from the bus overtaking me and will be prepared. That is why accidents of this type are rare.

[Iluvcars]

Originally Posted by Nitin

So everytime you see this happen, you can actually see the deities come alive right in front of your eyes, or in other words, you get to see glimpses of the Almighty right there!

What an observation!
Such darshans are closer and frequent than those you would get right inside the temple!

Originally Posted by Nitin

The locals stopped him 2kms away, pulled him out and completely changed the geography of his face.

... thus making his pre-accident face a history!
On a serious note, I don't justify mob-justice while honestly I can't deny the fact that without the fear of which life would have been even worse!

[Nitin]

Originally Posted by Iluvcars

What an observation!
Such darshans are closer and frequent than those you would get right inside the temple!

... thus making his pre-accident face a history!
On a serious note, I don't justify mob-justice while honestly I can't deny the fact that without the fear of which life would have been even worse!

Absolutely, Sir. You'd have to travel in these buses to get the feel. I would always wonder why we'd have to go the temple to pray, when you not only get to pray every second while you are in the bus, but you also get great visuals of the One above. How about that?

Mob fury is a given, when more than a handful of individuals are involved in an incident, or they've been a witness to the doings of a crazy bus driver.IMO,serves any driver (be it an auto/car/truck/bus driver) right if he were to leave his brains at home and then act as if the road was his to own. beat the living daylights out of him, I'd say.Only way to teach such people a lesson for them to remember.

[Mpower]

Originally Posted by prmd_cochin

Autos . I didnt justify them, i just was pissed seeing buses being singled out for rash driving.

I know that. But the fact is everybody is rash. A rash biker who enters the highway is as culpable as a CV driver who cuts line.

Absolutely not !!! Rash bus driver can kill 200 people whereas a rash bike driver will kill himself at most.

If you want to understand the relationship between safety and (size+speed) take a look at this

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/shifti...ml#post1902502

[Iluvcars]

Reasons apart an accident involving a bus definitely aids more injuries / fatalities vis-a-vis one involving a 2 wheeler / auto rickshaw instead. The accident involving KPN bus and a van near Valliyoor on May 23rd night took 10 lives away. (BTW, I didn't mean that either one of the drivers is rash.) But assume a 2 wheeler instead of the bus, the fatality could likely be the number of riders in the 2 wheeler, utmost. That's the whole point!

[smashnerd]

Originally Posted by Mpower

Absolutely not !!! Rash bus driver can kill 200 people whereas a rash bike driver will kill himself at most.

Originally Posted by Iluvcars

Reasons apart an accident involving a bus definitely aids more injuries / fatalities vis-a-vis one involving a 2 wheeler / auto rickshaw instead. The accident involving KPN bus and a van near Valliyoor on May 23rd night took 10 lives away. (BTW, I didn't mean that either one of the drivers is rash.) But assume a 2 wheeler instead of the bus, the fatality could likely be the number of riders in the 2 wheeler, utmost. That's the whole point!

Hey, a life lost is a life lost. It doesn't matter how many died, just if they died or not.

[SinghBHP]

"Bus Drivers are singled out" , Please come to Delhi, you will seriuosly enjoy the Killer Blue line Bus Drivers. These Blue lines kill 1000s each year and the numbers are increasing each year.

[rjstyles69]

Well here's what I encountered on Saturday and this was between Chidambaram and Cuddalore. I was doing close to 90 kmph and this bus (checkout the sticker)overtakes me.



Maintain a safe distance,keep tailing him and the roads are pretty good. Was in for a complete surprise when the bus driver signaled me asking to overtake him.I just take a quick look at my speedo and it reads 100kmph. Very rare that you find bus drivers at these speeds asking you to over take him. I never did and followed him till Cuddalore. He made sure every single vehicle got out of our way till Cuddalore.

[A350XWB]

^^ 50KM, 50Minits??? Average speed of 60kmph; no wonder why he was flying.

[download2live]

Try driving on Hosur road from Silkboard till the electronics city. You will be amazed at the kind of driving on display. Everyone has a merry time there. From Cabs to Indicas, BMTC and Private buses with an occasional rouge lorry. I today came on bike to office because of harrowing time I had yesterday. Atleast its easier to stick to left side and drive sedately while these morons at wheels foaming at corners of their mouths slug it out.

[A350XWB]

^^ Actually, I've stopped driving through Hosur road for some time now. And I won't dare to drive through that stretch on a bike. I used to go to office on my bike earlier and found that it's far too risky because of the buses out there. They drive all over the place, stop in the middle of the road etc etc. Once I and my friend had a close call with a private bus, which almost had us. After that, decided not to try our luck, again.