[Amey Kulkarni]

Originally Posted by indranilmuk

I again caught site of the car and finally overtook them at some place, where they were pretty reluctant about it. Not sure what their intention was.

This was the wisest thing you did in the entire story considering you were travelling with family. Never engage in a road rage situation with family besides. Just my two cents.

Such incidents happen with us on every Bike ride where people have zero value of their and other’s lives. Either village boys want to race with their Passions and Pulsars or teens in cars provoking for a race. You might notice absurdly self driven cars by teens is becoming very common now.

Ignorance is bliss mate!

Cheers
Amey

[SideView]

Originally Posted by Latheesh

Similar experience - I was going from Silkboard to Ecity and took BETL elevated way. I was maintaining consistent 80 kph speed and all of a sudden a white Manza came behind and started honking like there is no tomorrow.

I hope this was before they undertook the maintenance work, since now they have reduced the speed limit to 60.

Imagine driving early morning on that empty stretch at 60. I would say 80 was the right speed.Maybe to reduce accidents?

[indranilmuk]

Originally Posted by libranof1987

I was prepared for much, much worse. Considering the particular stretch of the highway you've mentioned, I had a feeling this was going to end up in a bad case of road rage.

What actually happened isn't even remotely it. A lot of people drive like buffoons, this is just one example.

True. Even though nothing much happened, but it surely did double my heart beat and I cannot forget that moment. First of all brakes in Alto are not that strong to be able to bring down the speed from 110 to 30 suddenly. Also, as you rightly said, I am not sure if I would have touched his car, things would have been much worse.

[indranilmuk]

Originally Posted by SideView

I hope this was before they undertook the maintenance work, since now they have reduced the speed limit to 60.

Imagine driving early morning on that empty stretch at 60. I would say 80 was the right speed.Maybe to reduce accidents?

I think they renovated the elevated toll road for a couple of months and then reduced the speed limit as the flyover has become weaker than before ? Just my own thought, no evidence to prove this. I remember they stopped heavy vehicles, buses to ply during maintenance. Yes 60 kmph is too less, but I have myself observed some extremely dreadful scenes, including a car from the other side tumbled over the divider rails and fell into down lane, with completely upside down state. I was returning back from office on my Access. I could not cross 40 kmph on that day after that.

[indranilmuk]

Originally Posted by Amey Kulkarni

This was the wisest thing you did in the entire story considering you were travelling with family. Never engage in a road rage situation with family besides. Just my two cents.

Such incidents happen with us on every Bike ride where people have zero value of their and other’s lives. Either village boys want to race with their Passions and Pulsars or teens in cars provoking for a race. You might notice absurdly self driven cars by teens is becoming very common now.

Ignorance is bliss mate!

Cheers
Amey

I have always loved to travel with my family and have never been interested in racing and not even drive hastily. My first lookout is to get the maximum mileage out of the car and for that I used to accelerate and brake smoothly as much as possible. As also my family members used to suffer from travel sickness and that includes both my son as well as my wife. So, I have learnt to drive as smoothly as possible. As an example, I can tell you that it took me 17 hours to drive from Bangalore to Pune.

[boniver]

This happened today morning, and I thought of sharing it with you guys since I can't get it out of my mind. Please read on.

My friend and I (both 20 year olds) ride to and from college every morning. It's usually one of us riding the bike while the other takes the pillion seat. We ride a total distance of approx 40kms daily through city roads. The onward journey takes place between 5:45am and 6:15am and the return journey takes place between 9:30am and 10:30am, through peak office hour traffic.

The following incident took place at Nagerbazar today around 10:15am. My friend was riding the bike and I was riding pillion. On the main road itself, we encountered an uncle on a RE Classic riding in the middle of the road, without a helmet, with his left hand holding a cellphone to his ear. My friend honked twice, but he continued riding in the middle of the road. We passed by the man, and my friend shouted at him asking him to keep his phone down and/or move to the side of the road. For people who understand Bengali, he said, "Phone ta rakhun, ar side e shorun", and rode on.

500 metres later, we heard the unmistakable sound of a RE coming behing us at full speed. Seconds later, the man appeared on our left and swerved towards us, intending to run us off the road. We stopped, and an altercation ensued. Both my friend and I were wearing helmets, and the man raised his right arm several times, indicating that he'd slap my friend. This happened in front of an auto stand and as expected, a lot of local autowallas gathered. From their tone we realised that they either know the man, or have automatically assumed that we're the ones at fault (two youngsters on a sports bike wearing full riding gear). At this point, the man got off his bike and we got off ours too. Both of us removed our helmets, and the shouting match continued. The man was apparently aghast at the fact that he was asked to put his phone down. He kept saying "Ami phone-e kotha bolchi toh tor ki?" (What's it to you that I'm using my phone?). He then raised his hand and slapped my friend across the cheek.

At this point, I should interject and tell you something that's relevant to this story. I've grown up as the kid who was always getting into fights. I've gotten into numerous fights in my school days, and I wouldn't hesitate to beat someone up who's causing harm to me or my close ones. Long story short, one of those fights ended in my best friend's head getting cracked open. He and his mother both convinced my school's principal that I wasn't the one at fault (although I was), and that it was purely an accident. It was a wildcard for me. My parents spoke to me at length and sent me to therapy, and I've never gotten into a physical fight since.

Coming back to the story, the moment the man hit my friend, I was enraged. I wanted to pin him down right there in the middle of the road and punch him till he passed out. My friend grabbed my arm and asked me to quickly hop onto the bike. There was an intersection less than 50 metres away, and he was sure there'd be policemen there. We raced to the police booth, and narrated our story to the policeman on duty, who then took his own sweet time to walk with us back to the spot. Needless to say, the man had escaped and as expected, the autowallas denied having seen the man slapping my friend. It was then that I realised what a huge mistake I had made: I had failed to notice the registration number of the RE. In the heat of the moment, this simple thing had escaped my mind.

The policeman couldn't do anything to help us. He then sat down with the autowallas and started discussing other worldy issues. My friend and I realised that we were simply wasting our time, and left the spot.

I've been thinking about the incident over and over again, and I wish I had done something. I could've taken down the man if I wanted to, and held him till the police arrived. However, I knew that without knowing what was happening, the autowallas would get into the fight too, and they would have taken the law in their own hands. Dialling 100 wasn't an option either, since the police would take a minimum of 10 minutes to arrive at the spot and by then the man would've escaped, aided by his "friends". I also didn't want to leave my friend alone at the spot and run to the policemen sitting in their cabin 50 metres away. What I could've done is, noted down the registration number of the man's bike and given it to the police. That was my mistake.

To avoid running into any more such incidents in future, my friend and I are getting action cameras that can be fitted onto our helmets. We have approximately 7 months of college left, and all we can do is hope that we have a safe commute everyday until then. Thanks for reading, and I hope penning this post down will help me get my mind off the incident.

[ninjatalli]

This happened over a year ago in Mumbai, I was driving to Vashi from CBD Belapur via the Palm Beach road. The road was sparsely filled and I was on the right-most lane as I was to turn right at the next junction a km away. A biker was riding very slowly (even by city standards) on the right-most lane, and soon I had almost reached him. I honked lightly once, and then after half a min, honked again. But he didn't change his lane or increase his speed. I moved left and overtook him and soon changed lanes ahead as the junction/turn was approaching. However his in-action had somehow cut a nerve and I felt a bit pissed off. This reaction was somehow further enhanced by the fact that he was speaking on his mobile and wasn't wearing a helmet.

Now at a signal, most cars leave a bit of space away from the divider, and bikes have this habit of squeezing through this space to head ahead of the standing vehicles. So was the case at this signal, with the two cars ahead of me leaving space enough for a bike to squeeze through. (Out of habit) I had too left this space but I saw the bike approaching behind me with clear plans to squeeze through the space and go ahead. So I purposely turned my front wheel and parked my car at an angle that was visible to anyone. The biker landed up right next to my window and started shouting at me for the next 45 - 60 seconds as we waited for the signal to change, while I ignored him. In my mind, I felt I had done nothing wrong as I was in my lane completely.

So I had my "revenge" on the biker, but within a few minutes, I realized the foolishness of my action and the potential brawl it could have got into. And by my action, not only had I not inconvenienced that biker, but even the ones behind him.

Originally Posted by boniver

On the main road itself, we encountered an uncle on a RE Classic riding in the middle of the road, without a helmet, with his left hand holding a cellphone to his ear. My friend honked twice, but he continued riding in the middle of the road. We passed by the man, and my friend shouted at him asking him to keep his phone down and/or move to the side of the road.

After that experience of mine, I keep telling myself to stop correcting such idiots on the road. For e.g. if there used to be someone who drives on the wrong side of the divider, I would inconvenience him to the max possible; but now I realize by doing that, s/he would not change his habit, but rather I risk a scene where my vehicle could get damaged due to my actions.

I'd suggest you and your friend consider such a thought process too. Enough headaches in our life than to take up new ones like these!

[hema4saran]

Originally Posted by boniver

To avoid running into any more such incidents in future, my friend and I are getting action cameras that can be fitted onto our helmets. We have approximately 7 months of college left, and all we can do is hope that we have a safe commute everyday until then. Thanks for reading, and I hope penning this post down will help me get my mind off the incident.

The policeman will not take any action even if you would have known his registration number unless until you have some connections. I appreciate you for being patient and not getting into a brawl. I was exactly like you in my early 20s and fought with many people on road for talking on phones while riding. But I realized quickly that we cannot change these lowlifes and we need to keep away from them. He will definitely meet the consequences of his action soon through one or the other way.

This is common problem across countries and even here in US, I have seen people speaking on phone and driving cars at high speeds. My wife once asked me why can't they connect to their Bluetooth handsfree in their cars. I told her that most of them are so dumb that they don't know how to connect, or are too lazy to connect it to Bluetooth .

[shankar.balan]

A very senior executive of Steel Authority of India was assaulted by four drunken youths in Delhi on Thursday last.
This rage and anger is becoming increasingly evident everywhere.
Concentration of population in cities, poor roads, crazy traffic etc compound matters.

Its becoming more and more unsafe to live in these cities these days.

[Axe77]

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

A very senior executive of Steel Authority of India was assaulted by four drunken youths in Delhi on Thursday last.
This rage and anger is becoming increasingly evident everywhere.
Concentration of population in cities, poor roads, crazy traffic etc compound matters.

Its becoming more and more unsafe to live in these cities these days.

From what I have read this (SAIL Executive) was not an incident of road rage and more likely a planned attack.

But of course, as a general matter what you are saying is absolutely spot on.

[locusjag]

Originally Posted by boniver

This happened today morning, and I thought of sharing it with you guys since I can't get it out of my mind. Please read on.
....
The man was apparently aghast at the fact that he was asked to put his phone down. He kept saying "Ami phone-e kotha bolchi toh tor ki?" (What's it to you that I'm using my phone?). He then raised his hand and slapped my friend across the cheek.

Here's what I've come to realize - and this is the reason we have an arch nemesis from a law enforcement agency for every story book vigilante/superhero, who tries to drive home the point that ordinary people shouldn't be enforcing the law - none of us should attempt to tell others how to drive or what to do on the road. However wrong they may be. We would not only be inviting the wrath of the others. I'll avoid restating the fact that we would be wrong in playing the role of a cop; impersonating one is a crime, besides.

To avoid running into any more such incidents in future, my friend and I are getting action cameras that can be fitted onto our helmets. We have approximately 7 months of college left, and all we can do is hope that we have a safe commute everyday until then. Thanks for reading, and I hope penning this post down will help me get my mind off the incident.

Definitely, you should get a helmet-mounted action camera.

Let's also keep in mind that even trained MMA fighters can and do get killed in road rage incidents - https://www.martialtribes.com/bjj-bl...rage-incident/

Or, they tend to blatantly misuse their fighting prowess and end up getting arraigned for manslaughter on the road. There are numerous examples of this.

Road rage is a lose-lose proposition.

[luvDriving]

Originally Posted by boniver

This happened today morning, and I thought of sharing it with you guys since I can't get it out of my mind. Please read on.

Thanks for reading, and I hope penning this post down will help me get my mind off the incident.

Thanks for sharing and kudos for not getting into a physical fight. The policeman will always be reluctant to help because it means he has to earn his salary. I encountered an errant jeep driver here in Pune once who tried to run me off the road. I overtook him and sought the help of the traffic police at the next junction.

However the policeman only told me that if I was ok physically, I should carry on and not think about it. I would say honk once and if the idiot ahead does not respond, overtake at first opportunity. Do not create a way for them to take you to their level of stupidity.

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

A biker was riding very slowly (even by city standards) on the right-most lane, and soon I had almost reached him. I honked lightly once, and then after half a min, honked again. But he didn't change his lane or increase his speed.

I'd suggest you and your friend consider such a thought process too. Enough headaches in our life than to take up new ones like these!

I try and do one of two things - either ride the car all the way upto the divider so that no 2 wheeler can ride on my right or else deliberately leave enough space for a 2 wheeler (and some more) can pass through.

Even then some manage to clip my rvm and I ignore that. Taking revenge, even if we are successful increases our blood pressure because now we have given a chance for the idiot to come at us with a feeling of rightful vengeance. So my mantra is keep calm and move on.

[self_driven]

While on my way home, I hit a new-gen Swift from behind. The car had stopped bang in the middle of the road because someone's phone had fallen on the road right in front of the car. I was on a bike, coming down a flyover and could not stop in time.

Impact was at 5-10 km/hr resulting in a small dent on the Swift's bumper and slight paint marks on my bike's headlight. Also, the bumper had dislodged from one side.

I paid up 200 bucks for his car's repair after some haggling as I knew it is the responsibility of the motorist following a vehicle to maintain adequate distance. The person who caused all this picked up his phone and just walked away.

What do members think? Was it my fault to hit that car from behind? Or the car driver's fault to stop in the middle lane of the flyover?

[sushantr5]

Originally Posted by self_driven

While on my way home, I hit a new-gen Swift from behind. The car had stopped bang in the middle of the road because someone's phone had fallen on the road right in front of the car. I was on a bike, coming down a flyover and could not stop in time.

Impact ....behind? Or the car driver's fault to stop in the middle lane of the flyover?

It is the responsibility of vehicle following, no matter the reason for which front vehicle is stopped.

[theexperthand]

Got a taste of road rage yesterday evening, on the way back to home. I was coming from ORR to HSR and I wanted to take the left turn under flyover to the 29th main (NIFT road), but the signal was red. I stopped my scooter ( I was riding wife's Zest) to wait for the signal to change. A guy behind me started honking so I told him in kannada that signal is red and I am not jumping it.

After honking for some more time, he started abusing me. Then he started hitting my helmet, while another guy on a bike on the other side started pulling my backpack to push me down. I just stood there humming some song, pretending nothing is happening. This made the guys furious. Then the signal turned green, and I took off.

One guy chased me and tried to hit my scooty from left, but I didn't brake - just did a quick cut and went my way without even looking. He had to brake hard to avoid hitting the curb, so after that he came again with more speed, doing some threatening gestures with his hand. I just kept riding like he is not there, just humming some tune.. then I lost him in traffic.

--Anoop