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Old 13th February 2008, 13:30   #61
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Originally Posted by rks View Post
When you approach an overtake at much higher speeds than the overtaken vehicle, you have committed yourself to the overtake a lot earlier than necessary, especially given our erratic traffic. Then you should have enough margins to swerve and a maneuverable vehicle that can swerve at those speeds. In the absence of either, you are taking a big risk.
Just out of curiosity, how do you determine the speed of the vehicle you are overtaking so as to get that perfect 20 kmph difference?

Do you have some kind of software which does this for you every time you approach a vehicle on the expressway?

Also, why propogate the theory when you do not follow it yourself?
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Old 13th February 2008, 13:46   #62
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Its good that nothing major had happened, But what made you to overtake from the left. This is simply a voilation of the basic driving norms. Just you cud have had little more patient and possibloy in a min the trucks must have been given you way thanks to your honking.

Never ever overtake form left Sir. If the truck would have not been moved backed right in its lane, the story could have been much difirent to share.

Drive Safe buddy, whaever car you are driving.
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Old 13th February 2008, 14:05   #63
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No I don't. My blaring twin Stebels & the blazing roof quadruplet lights make sure the errant truck, bus & hapless Sedans stay put on the extreme left side of the road..period.

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Originally Posted by Steeroid View Post
Out of interest, Guruji - do you compute the speed of the vehicle you are about to overtake before you overtake him in your mad Scorpio?
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Old 13th February 2008, 14:10   #64
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Originally Posted by gd1418 View Post
No I don't. My blaring twin Stebels & the blazing roof quadruplet lights make sure the errant truck, bus & hapless Sedans stay put on the extreme left side of the road..period.
Does that mean off the road? And you own a Scorpio, rite?
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Old 13th February 2008, 14:19   #65
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Quote:
Originally Posted by vipul_bscity View Post
Its good that nothing major had happened, But what made you to overtake from the left. This is simply a voilation of the basic driving norms. Just you cud have had little more patient and possibloy in a min the trucks must have been given you way thanks to your honking.

Never ever overtake form left Sir. If the truck would have not been moved backed right in its lane, the story could have been much difirent to share.

Drive Safe buddy, whaever car you are driving.
Many Buses and trucks drive in fast lane at 40kmph and on being honked wave you on from left.
If you plan on overtaking from right only be prepared to drive at 40kmph all the way, and if you encounter a tractor, at 15kmph all the say
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Old 13th February 2008, 14:21   #66
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Thank God Dadu , that your presence of mind prevailed and you avoided a major mishap and i recall a friend of mine (with family) in a santro had an accident involving a motorist who just merged onto the road without yielding and to avoid hitting him (with family) he swerved to the right and lost control of the vehicle and was off the road into the gravel track with the car taking a major beating in the process. Nothing major happened but i think this road is quite prone to such mishaps.
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Old 13th February 2008, 14:35   #67
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I am aware of that and when I used to drive on the northern highways I would always overtake from the right only unless forced to from the left, in which case it wont go without a shouting at the driver.

But here in the south, things are different, you travel on any multilane highway (mysore rd, GQ) and you will find heavy vehicles taking the right lane and always keep on the right with smaller ones overtaking from the left and moving on. Unless they are already keeping a left lane they just dont move lanes for you.

I would say speed is a major factor in these kind of incidents, with lesser speed you have better control.

Quote:
Originally Posted by vipul_bscity View Post
Its good that nothing major had happened, But what made you to overtake from the left. This is simply a voilation of the basic driving norms. Just you cud have had little more patient and possibloy in a min the trucks must have been given you way thanks to your honking.

Never ever overtake form left Sir. If the truck would have not been moved backed right in its lane, the story could have been much difirent to share.

Drive Safe buddy, whaever car you are driving.

Last edited by dadu : 13th February 2008 at 14:36.
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Old 13th February 2008, 15:10   #68
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I suppose slow moving heavy vehicles stick to the right-most lane as it is more level than the left lane, and this makes a lot of difference to the stability of the truck when they are carrying heavy loads.
Waiting for such vehicles to move left is hopeless, as they would do that as the last resort, keeping their stability in mind. We are left with no option than to overtake from the left, but after honking all through the overtaking manoeuvre.
You are lucky Dadu, for getting away with minor damage.
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Old 13th February 2008, 15:17   #69
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Quote:
Originally Posted by suman View Post
Just out of curiosity, how do you determine the speed of the vehicle you are overtaking so as to get that perfect 20 kmph difference?

Do you have some kind of software which does this for you every time you approach a vehicle on the expressway?

Also, why propogate the theory when you do not follow it yourself?
You should know the appropriate speed at which to perform an overtake through your experience. If you need to calculate the same then you are better off not driving at high speed.

I have lost count of the number of times I have swerved to avert accidents while overtaking on our highways, in both the M800 and especially in my Santro. On the Expressway there are wide margins and I have swerved quite a few times in the last 3 years to avoid lane-cutting and slow-moving vehicles. I am very scared of the slow-moving lane-cutters, much more so than those who cut lanes at 120+ kmph, for obvious reasons. In the absence of such swerving space, you should slow down, again for obvious reasons.

If I were driving an SUV anywhere other than on Expressways I wouldn't even be close to the sustained speed levels I am doing presently in my Santro. SUVs are less maneuverable and need a lot of road space for speeding and that doesn't exist on most of our highways.
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Old 13th February 2008, 15:20   #70
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Originally Posted by vnabhi View Post
We are left with no option than to overtake from the left, but after honking all through the overtaking manoeuvre.
Now this is debatable, I am of the view that when we overtake from left, better not to honk and scare the driver to turn left or right, just pass through him.

Yes, when overtaking from right, we need to honk/dip at night just to alert him that we are overtaking.
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Old 13th February 2008, 15:21   #71
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Originally Posted by rks View Post
You should know the appropriate speed at which to perform an overtake through your experience. If you need to calculate the same then you are better off not driving at high speed.
That doesn't answer my question at all. Experience, judgement etc are extremely subjective terms.

My experience tells me what fellow member Surprise had mentioned

Quote:
While traveling at 120 kmph, one will try to maintain that speed until he/she is forced to slow down either by the road or by a vehicle traveling in their lane. So I guess its very difficult to follow this book rule (if its there)
It just reiterates my initial impression that you are touting an impractical & impossible business model which would hold good only in the utopian world. You are not even following it yourself else how do you justify "average" speeds of 100 kmph going up to top speeds in excess of 140 kmph?

Last edited by suman : 13th February 2008 at 15:24.
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Old 13th February 2008, 15:29   #72
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Originally Posted by finneyp View Post
Now this is debatable, I am of the view that when we overtake from left, better not to honk and scare the driver to turn left or right, just pass through him.

Yes, when overtaking from right, we need to honk/dip at night just to alert him that we are overtaking.
I agree it is debatable, but the thick-skinned drivers are not gonna be scared to sverve to the left. For all that I know, they would not even budge even if a battle tank was behind them. They expect you to overtake them from the left, and that is it.
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Old 13th February 2008, 16:14   #73
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Quote:
Originally Posted by suman View Post
My experience tells me what fellow member Surprise had mentioned
Quote:
While traveling at 120 kmph, one will try to maintain that speed until he/she is forced to slow down either by the road or by a vehicle traveling in their lane. So I guess its very difficult to follow this book rule (if its there)
It just reiterates my initial impression that you are touting an impractical & impossible business model which would hold good only in the utopian world. You are not even following it yourself else how do you justify "average" speeds of 100 kmph going up to top speeds in excess of 140 kmph?
I simply do not agree with what Surprise mentioned above. If you do not have adequate margins for swerving and/or if your vehicle cannot swerve at high speeds, there is no way you should be doing sustained 120 kmph speeds. That is asking for trouble on our roads. I can understand that approach in foreign countries with a high level of lane discipline on their roads.

On the Mumbai Pune Expressway I do sustained high speeds, including high-speed overtakes, only because I have a relatively small maneuverable vehicle that can swerve at 140+ speeds and there is enough swerving space. Even then I watch the overtaken vehicles very carefully.

Last edited by rks : 13th February 2008 at 16:17.
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Old 13th February 2008, 16:17   #74
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Originally Posted by rks View Post
On the Mumbai Pune Expressway I do high-speed overtakes only because I have a vehicle that can swerve at 140+ speeds and there is enough swerving space. Even then I watch the overtaken vehicles very carefully.
To each his own RKS but - is that the Santro you are referring to that can do supposedly safe swerves at 140+?, I'm outta here before I lose it altogether & crack up.

No offense meant.

Last edited by suman : 13th February 2008 at 16:19.
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Old 13th February 2008, 16:18   #75
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Originally Posted by gd1418 View Post
No I don't. My blaring twin Stebels & the blazing roof quadruplet lights make sure the errant truck, bus & hapless Sedans stay put on the extreme left side of the road..period.
Bully! Now I understand why certain threads come up here.

@ suman - why do you bother????
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