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-   -   Hedges- Good or Deadly? (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/road-safety/110187-hedges-good-deadly.html)

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Hi

Most of us doing cruising speeds on toll highways have sometime or other felt that sudden scare from intruders (dog, goat, cow, sheep, fowl, monkey, and human) suddenly emerging from the hedge between opposite groups of lanes, thanks to the perfect concealment the hedge provides. The scare is more at night when the hedge is just a dark blob impossible to discern in.

While the hedge seems to have both a good element to it- it cuts off glare from the opposite traffic, and perhaps offers some nominal crash protection as well, in Indian driving such intrusion- shocks are becoming quite routine. Considering that toll highways are meant to be fast to cut down time, I thought we should discuss this on TBHP and see what seems the best way out to live with this problem unique to Indian conditions.

Bye
DrVjy

You forgot one more reason why these are terribly deadly; water-tankers!

More often than not, these bushes (even on a NH) are watered by tankers who either move at 1 km/hr or stand-still on the fast-lane itself.

I remember there have been countless crashes on the Mumbai - Pune expressway because of this.

So,

1) Water-tankers
2) People, animals crossing are invisible

these 2 make the hedges a rather dangerous proposition.

I prefer the plastic panels that are installed on some parts of the Expressway; the gap between them ensures that someone between them is visible and they also cut out the high-beam from the oncoming traffic.

These are helpul at night,as they prevent glare from oncoming traffic.
However,you can always expect an odd moron,to jump in,from behind these.:Frustrati

I for the record cannot drive on our highways in the night due to the glare. It just blinds you. These hedges wherever present do provide a lot of relief from the glare.
So no hedges means glare = Blind. I cannot spot a guy crossing the road anyways.
Hedges + no glare = I can atleast spot the moron crossing and brake.

So I prefer the hedges. Trust me The glare on the highways is very very bad specially for people who wear glasses.

Hedges could be planted for the following reasons:
1. The most obvious reason, preventing beam glare from oncoming traffic during night.
2. Go green initiative by NHAI? (may be)
3. Makes the highways look better (may be)

But its definitely a hazard considering the no. of cows/buffaloes we have roaming around freely on the highway, grazing in these hedges and stray dogs crossing jumping out of such hedges without warning.

IIRC a swift owner (bhpian) hit a dog on his journey somewhere and another dog on his way back. I don't think there were even hedges involved but what happens when such dogs start jumping out of the hedges unannounced.

Here's another account of how a Qualis hit a buffalo which came out of similar hedge

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/street...lo-qualis.html

I myself have had narrow escape due to these hedges. Once I was on my way to agra from delhi and had a dog jump in front of my car from a very tiny hedge in between. The second time I was coming from Udaipur and there was a buffalo that suddenly came out of the hedge and I had to swerve hard, almost losing control, to avoid hitting the buffalo and there was nothing that I could do.

I think railings (metal or of something else) are a better bet that even prevent the glare to a lot of extent and doesn't have any surprises in store from the other side of the road. I think with railings in place even the animals would realize that they wouldn't be able to cross the road from there after some time making the roads a lot safer.

As long as metal railing type things are not installed I will prefer hedges for the sheer amount of glare reduction (from oncoming traffic) they provide during night driving.

fine69

Thanks for the link- it drives the point well- too deep, in fact. It is terrifying to see the extent of damage to the Qualis. A full grown adult buffalo must be over 350 kg, and at 90 km/hr- well, what a crash that ought to have been!

Makes me desire for some sort of radar device we can carry to detect and alarm of movement ahead. That's perhaps the only thing that can protect us in such cases.

In the meantime, until such a device becomes available easily enough, I feel long distance drivers ought to clip on a spy pocket web-cam facing the driving direction. It should help in this and similar contexts to produce evidence. Even the very mention of possessing video evidence would largely deter unscrupulous elements from trying to make bogus claims, etc.

DrVjy

An ideal solution would have been metal railing with the hedges. One would stop the odd cow, buffalo, buffoon and the other would stop the glare at night.

Now imagine this happening to a small car or a sedan. If it was a Civic I think the buffalo would've been found sitting on the dash of the car. :)

+1 to that and it gets worse in the night especially if you are wearing non anti glare glasses or the anti glare has worn off after sometime (Which usually it does).

I guess the only solution that i have been practicing is drive slower (~80 - 100 speeds) and avoid night driving. The max i have driven is till 12 midnight.

Exactly. I wear minus 6 in both eyes mate. As a normal reflex my eyes allow more light to enter my eyes than a person with normal eyes. In night its next to impossible for me to drive. Thats why I never drive in the night. But luckily highways out of delhi have a divider so I manage somehow. Don't cross 80 in any circumstance.

Everybody will have individual opinions, but my view is that they are good.
Positives :
1) Green Cover
2) Reduces glare from oncoming traffic
3) Can cut down on wind. The reason why they are installed on expresshighways.

Negatives :
Almost none.
Possible Scenario/s:
As somebody mentioned, water tankers. But again, water tankers needs to be on the left service lane and a thin pipe has to be extended for watering. So its more of human error related matter not the fault of hedges

Another situation where somebody jumps out from them. Is it not wrong to jump dividers ?
Its more of discipline issue and not design flaw. If we cant get the discipline correct does not mean that there is design flaw IMO, otherwise, one day we will be scared to even come out of our homes.

I believe these hedges are very useful at night where they help reduce the glare in a big way. This is single biggest positive point. Other is green cover.

I agree...
I prefer to start my long distance journeys very early, 4 ot 5 am.
Hedges give a lot of relief from the glare of headlights. If a pedestrian jumps out, you will at least know which direction you have to steer into. The plastic dividers are a good idea, but provide a lot of gaps for pedestrians to cross. I feel that compared to an odd gap between the hedges, the abundant gaps between plastic panels create more risk.

On my recent short trip from Pune to Kaas on the Pune-B'lore 4-lane highway, I noticed that the divider was at a height of about 3 feet from the ground. Hedges were grown on top of this divider.

As I was driving at night on the way back, I could certainly appreciate the help it was providing to cut out the glare from the opposing vehicles. The height of the divider also lessened the chances of someone/something crossing it.

Hedges on the highway are very helpful for night drives. However, authorities should avoid using edible plants. This plants always attract cattle to pasture. Except for Expressways, our highways are not properly barricaded at the left end. As someone rightly mentioned those tankers are very dangerous. Sometimes I noticed workers with big machete kind of blade to trim the plants. They freely roam on the wrong side of the highway.