[vasudeva]

Only 2 days ago, a 20-year `human' full of adrenaline bashed an old lady because she dared to stop at a red light on a Sunday afternoon.

In close to 2 lakh km of driving over 18 years, I have seen (at least in Delhi/NCR) a high percentage of people not following traffic etiquette most of the time, regardless of their education. It is a total free for all.

Perhaps better, honest, and highly stringent law enforcement is the only solution. That is unlikely for a sustained period of time in our system.

[dr_know]

Originally Posted by Surprise

This is not true atleast to the part of this country where I live & Iam happy to be a part here

Not a personal attack or anything of that sort but this is the main problem, people failing to accept reality. Look around you and see for yourself to see how many people will for real stand by your side when a real need comes up.

What the actual post had mentioned is absolutely true and I believe there is no point in denying such realities.

Such behaviour is the main reason why majority of Indian people end up being totally discourteous. Anywhere you go you can see Indians breaking up queues and taking out the attitude that they are more important and using silly excuses to get to the final destination first. The end result is that such behaviour translates in to thier driving habits.

[DKG]

Our chief ministers may have a skewed perspective on traffic because they never need to encounter the horrors. But what about the home minister or the commisioner of police etc. Are all these guys so dead to the problem that they can't see the need for some corrective action?

I find it hard to accept that the state home ministry is so handicapped on staff and resources that they cannot even begin to address the problem of traffic management and awareness drives as suggested by Greenhorn.

When will the day arrive when across the country an awareness campaign is launched and driven at grass roots level

[anurag_p80]

I am going to invoke Nash on this. Just like in the famous game theory experiment, where local optimization leads to the worst outcome, we experience the same on our roads. Consider that there are only 2 users of the road. Four outcomes- (W,W) means driving utopia all safe, happy, on time and all the other benefits. (L,L) is the current situation, bad driving, bad mood, bad jams. The other two can be (W,L) or (L, W). Meaning, one guy is winning by driving rash, going quick while the other guy is losing by driving safe and proper. In absence of knowing what the other guy will do, what will you do? We will ALWAYS get (L,L). Extrapolate and you get the mess which is our traffic. People who start out being courteous get fed up after a few dings from pesky autos, a few scares from buses, and uncaring attitude of all around them. If one cannot defeat them, join them. Agree it is an oversimplification, but close enough.

So, we need to balance the outcomes in order to fix this. How? Easiest would be through an agency already in place- traffic police. Fine the pants off people who break rules. And have sane rules in the first place. Can you follow the speed limit of 50kmph on an empty highway? A scooterist hits you trying to take a u-turn in front of you, and you get to visit the swanky coutthouses till your shoes are worn through. I don't get it. Traffic is brownian motion which can be seen through naked eyes, that is what it is. Can we impose order? Sure!!!! Will we? Maybe by my next lifetime.

[Surprise]

Originally Posted by dr_know

Look around you and see for yourself to see how many people will for real stand by your side when a real need comes up.

I remember I have done that for others (include unknown ones) when there is a desperation and real need.

I have faith, if there is a need, there are dozens of them in various circle including relatives n friends will attempt do their best extent possible. I might be wrong though...but the fact I tried to mention is that atleast me not experiencing the highlighted (bold) part (ref quoted text from greenh0rn post)

Originally Posted by dr_know

Anywhere you go you can see Indians breaking up queues and taking out the attitude that they are more important and using silly excuses to get to the final destination first. The end result is that such behaviour translates in to thier driving habits.

Yeah.. known fact

[bblost]

The disconnect between the rules and the roads is crazy.

A Volvo run by a Govt agency has a published schedule that is impossible to match unless it breaks the speed limit by going 50-80 kmph over it.

[vnabhi]

What DKG has raised is a true picture of the sorry state of affairs on today's roads, and moreso in Hyderabad.

When I moved in to this city about 7 years ago, I was aghast at the driving habits, and hesitated to take my car our for the first 2 months. It was through gradual seasoning that I started venturing out, and have learnt to live with the mayhem.

Apart from what DKG and others have mentioned, what really irks me is:-

1. Bikes overtaking me when I am taking a sharp right or left turn---those nitwits try to turn within my turning radius, sometimes forcing me to widen my turn and face the danger of oncoming traffic---once a scooterist scraped my right door and fell down even!
2. Idiot car drivers (not only Indicabs, but bada sahebs also) overtaking a line of slow-moving cars on a narrow stretch, leaving no way for opposite direction traffic---this happens daily near Nectar Gardens at Durgam Cheruvu.
3. When I am on the extreme right lane (so called fast lane) and following the car ahead at a safe distance, some bike or Indicab trying to side swipe me and nudge in ahead of me to avoid that slow-moving auto rickshaw in front of his lane.

The list goes on and on. Somebody give me a whip that I can crack---only then will the nincompoops come to sense.

[DKG]

What can be the motorists' worst nightmare? Being stuck in a traffic jam with a whole bunch of inconsiderate morons attempting to sort their way in their own warped ways! Believe me I have never ever lost my cool in traffic and never ever got into an altercation with any one ever. But the sheer onslaught on my nervous system is insane. Its so harsh to encounter such callousness. You are stuck in traffic and inching your way ahead and you encounter jokers trying to cut across or run you aside (buses) as if you don't exist.

My father recently turned 80 and was asked temporarily to avoid driving as part of medical rest. Now that he's recovered he's itching to start driving again. I keep telling him "why do you want to subject yourself to this inhumane harshness?" Just avoid driving!

You know the sad part is the traffic is now affecting me beyond the road too. I don't any longer look forward to attending social functions during the week days because the thought of battling the traffic again post returning home from work is too daunting. Even the amazing biryani served at wedding bashes is not good enough for me to warrant a tryst with Hyderabad's horrid evening traffic mess

So I end up socialising more with friends who live in areas where I don't have to mess with traffic. This is insane! But I have no choice. I am just dreading the day (and believe me the snarls are catching up till pretty close to my house) when I won't be able to step out of the house once I get back in just because of the congestion.

The most mindboggling behavior is you are backed up in a traffic lane waiting for it to clear and a whole bunch of cars race ahead into the oncoming lane hoping to bypass the backedup traffic only to cause an even more complicated jam by preventing oncoming traffic to proceed. What are these guys thinking?

[vasudeva]

In India, the situation at least on Delhi/NCR roads is
1. let us cut through in front without any regard. The car wallah will take care of me because otherwise his car could be dented.
2. it is only others who will die on the road, and not me
3. drive on the wrong side of the road. The oncoming traffic will take care not to collide.
4. why stop at the stop sign on a red light. There is enough space for the pedestrians to cross the road anyway.

Come to think, accidents and death happen because people think that only others die. They also happen because death comes in milliseconds. If everyone had 10 seconds to rectify a mistake, very few would die.

[DKG]

Here's a totally whacked out situation. You enter a intersection because its green for you. Midway you find traffic coming into the intersection from all other roads and everyone jams at the centre. Almost like not to miss out on the fun in an instant cars start lining up behind all the cars jammed in the centre creating a most idiotic traffic jam. Everyone's sitting at the steering wheel blaring horns and violently gesticulating at each other. You wonder why like an idiot you drove into the intersection at green !! Shouldn't I have forseen that a whole bunch of morons will jump signals simultaneously and attempt to cut across the junction?

Moral of the story - proceed into a junction only when others have not already crossed their red lights ! Some driving dynamics

[Gandhi]

Not implementing the laws by the authorities adds to all the mess that is created by idiotic driving.

Today morning on old madras road, I saw two 2-wheelers jumping the red signal (when I was waiting for my turn) and there were cops waiting on the other side to catch such idiots. Cops just wave their hands to tell the law breakers to stop but they JUST DON'T CARE to stop. The cops DON'T CARE to note down the vehicle numbers. Now those two guys won't follow a single rule as they know they won't be caught .

Originally Posted by DKG

Here's a totally whacked out situation.

If you find that a whacked out situation, how about this?

Originally Posted by Gandhi

This can happen ONLY in BANGALORE.

Let me explain.

I was on whitefield road near Zuri, going towards Hoodi Circle. There is a wiegh-bridge counter just before Zuri, so there was a huge queue of around 25-30 trucks waiting on the left most lane for their turn into wiegh-bridge. As one lane is blocked because of this and the other lane is moving really slowly, some idiots (cabbies, BMTC, private cars, two-wheelers all included) decide to go on the wrong side and zoom past everybody.

There is a lot of traffic coming from Hoodi Circle as well, and hence the traffic on that road also gets really slow and have almost reached a dead-lock. Now comes the funniest part. Some idiots on that road also decide to go on the wrong side to zoom past everybody.


So now you just imagine the situation (if you can) where there is a 4 lane road with a divider and there is traffic flowing on both sides in both directions .

I manage to sneak through this stretch (because I am on a two-wheeler) just before entire traffic stops because of dead-locks on both side.

Hats off to Bangalore traffic.

[greenh0rn]

I get really pissed by buses and autos stopping suddenly after a signal to pick up passengers/hires, when a bus stop or auto parking is like 100 meters away. Greed makes the driver turn stupid enough to stop all the traffic from behind, when people are anyway rushing because of green light time running out. Happens all the time in south Delhi, dunno about other areas/cities.

Now come on, this is a simple enforcement issue. Like cities all over the world, we also have bus stops and cab parkings (although rudimentary in many cases), but why can't we enforce buses to stop from treating the entire road as a bus stop- picking passengers at will? This simple step will help a long way in improving the flow of traffic.

[DKG]

Originally Posted by greenh0rn

but why can't we enforce buses to stop from treating the entire road as a bus stop- picking passengers at will? This simple step will help a long way in improving the flow of traffic.

Any other developed country would stipulate that all buses move only in the left most lane, at all times !!

In the US such is the case (owing to the LHD) buses ply only the right most lane

Ahh I just remembered. Another crazy traffic situation. Say for example two lanes are stopped at a signal waiting for a right turn. Invariably you will have traffic moving into the third outer lane and making a sweeping uturn across the other two stopped lanes. Now imagine what happens when the lights turn green. You have cars from the outer third lane trying to do a uturn while the cars from the first and second lane attempting to make a right turn. Crazy? Insane is more like it

[vnabhi]

Originally Posted by DKG

The most mindboggling behavior is you are backed up in a traffic lane waiting for it to clear and a whole bunch of cars race ahead into the oncoming lane hoping to bypass the backedup traffic only to cause an even more complicated jam by preventing oncoming traffic to proceed. What are these guys thinking?

That's exactly what I was referring to in my post above at point # 2.

Originally Posted by DKG

Ahh I just remembered. Another crazy traffic situation. Say for example two lanes are stopped at a signal waiting for a right turn. Invariably you will have traffic moving into the third outer lane and making a sweeping uturn across the other two stopped lanes. Now imagine what happens when the lights turn green. You have cars from the outer third lane trying to do a uturn while the cars from the first and second lane attempting to make a right turn. Crazy? Insane is more like it

This is a daily nightmare at KCP Junction. I once tried to make things tough for a biker attempting to do this, and he had the cheek to start yelling at me----all I could do was yell back as I did not want to hinder traffic behind me.

[Gandhi]

Originally Posted by greenh0rn

Now come on, this is a simple enforcement issue. Like cities all over the world, we also have bus stops and cab parkings (although rudimentary in many cases), but why can't we enforce buses to stop from treating the entire road as a bus stop- picking passengers at will? This simple step will help a long way in improving the flow of traffic.

Forget about enforcing this issue, in Bangalore all the city bus stops (BMTC) are invariably either immediately before a signal or immediately after a signal.