[deemash]

Few things I find annoying on Indian roads:

1. 2 wheeler riders simply come and join the main road without even seeing the oncoming vehicles. (Their thought - the oncoming traffic is seeing me and will slow down / stop)
2. 2 wheeler riders trying to squeeze in from all possible sides, they are really restless creatures in this earth.
3. 2 wheel riders overtaking from left side though there is enough space on your right.
4. 2 wheel riders following closely behind your car. When we brake they hit the car from behind (happened twice to me).
5. Overloading 2 wheeler motorbikes - like carrying ladder/cylinder/grass/veggies/wholesale items keeping it horizontal creating scratches to vehicles when they overtake from left
6. most office goers on 2 wheels hang their lunch bags and it scratches most vehicles
7. HONKING, I really hate this (especially by buses)
8. Wrong side driving/riding and some don't even bother
9. One full grown adult sitting infront of the 2 wheel rider on TVS50
10. Unwanted barricades on roads (night time, they are not really visible)
11. People stop their cars on half roads and talk on phone without even realizing how to tough is it for the traffic
12. Bus stops as soon as a signal is crossed
13. Buses stopping in the middle of the road

[mukeshgoel]

Whenever I see a car with folded ORVMs,

This comes to my mind for car driver and I stay away.

That's one of the most annoying habits of idiots on Indian roads.

[Rahul Rao]

I often see low slung sedan (usually registered in a bigger city) overtaking a STU bus doing his locked 80 kph on a not so smooth 2 lane highway and then suddenly braking for a miniature pot hole, making everyone following behind brake in a chain reaction.
Pune has many roads where middle and RH lane are both marked for RH turn, yet there are people who stick to the RH lane and go straight, and often argue with people in second lane turning right even when it is marked for right.



Rahul

[Waspune]

The day the 2 wheeler riders would start acknowledging and using the rear view mirrors before overtaking and changing lanes there would be a drastic decrease in honking.
At least in Pune, majority of the 2 wheelers either have their ORVMs removed or they fold it towards inside.

[shikhar10882]

Came across this thread... And this more or less sums up all my thoughts on this topic...


https://www.cartoq.com/idiotic-thing...lic-roads/amp/

[Lucifer68]

Driving Discipline - How tough is it?

I am a accountant who loves driving, for me its like a catharsis, makes me feel calm, happy, ability to forget wifey when i am driving [what bliss ] and normally at one with the world - in peace. Every day when I head out of office, till the moment I sit in my XUV500, its thoughts of mails to send, office stuff, running around in my head. The moment i unlock, its then the quite hum of AC, pleasant Kishore kumar oldies on the system and i know the next hour is going to be mine, and mine alone - heaven on earth, if thats possible

That's what it used to be, in the last couple of years i have started to observe the way others drive, because slowly we see the change in their driving ways. the 3 worst cases is as follows;

1. Overtaking: Few years before overtaking was precisely planned and executed, we would check oncoming traffic, before you begin to accelerate, then shift gears, go to slightly higher speed, cover the required distance and then ease back into the lane. The other drivers would observe, and understand. There would be no risk from oncoming traffic, because you would have started the move at the right time.
Today there are instances on NH44 [where I noticed], where drivers are racing against each other oblivious to all others on the road !!. Accidents occur in such instances, according to Statista source - In 2019, we had 421K accidents in India, out of which - 55.7% was due to over-speeding and 27.5% due to careless driving - a staggering 83.2% due to driver error, not considering other causes or mechanical failure etc. Just imagine bad driving resulting in deaths of 350000 people.

2. Entering a main road, a junction or a circle: This was standard question by the RTO during the DL test and everyone got the answer right. Slow down, stop, look to the left and then right and then enter the road. How many of them actually do it?? Every single day we see vehicles of every size and type barge right into the main road or a circle without even slowing down. The other day, a guy coming out of an apartment block did the same, just barged in. Few of us, who were about to crash, honked and he had the effrontery to get out of his huge SUV and start yelling, what an attitude. This is not rocket science, all road users need to understand the impact of what might have happened and take care while driving.

3. Consideration for the fellow human being: Respect everyone on the road while driving i.e. let people who have arrived at a signal pass first, if you are in no hurry or would prefer to drive slow, take the left most lane, kindly don’t use your mobile so that it interrupts others – you are talking animatedly on the phone and in the fast lane – certain recipe for an accident.

When I started penning down my thoughts, my intention was that we drive safe, so that we are not responsible for any accident either knowingly or unknowingly. And since we spend so much time in driving daily, we can actually make it a time to look forward to, rather than to dread.

How tough is it to do it?, I believe all it takes is a decision by each one of us to drive safe, nothing less nothing more. Lets bring back the fun in driving 😊

[TrackDay]

I guess it is the sum total of our Environment and Experiences. Someone who has had a bad morning at home and is late for work might not be in the right mood for following discipline on the road. Not that those actions are justified, but I guess that is how it is. Then there are some eternal losers who despite whatever the situation will never improve and drive like a maniac. Drunk driving, jumping the red light, lane change w/o indicator, entering road w/o looking is a strict NO-NO. Not acceptable at all.

The most common violation of road discipline can be over speeding I feel, & most of the times, people get into it in the heat of the moment too. Someone overtakes you, you don't like that, want to show whose the boss kind of strange vibes. I guess the best way is lose on purpose. No point racing or driving recklessly to prove to some random stranger your never going to meet again.

These days if any temptation arises to overspeed on the highway I usually pull over, stretch myself and drive again. As for city traffic, I always ensure to leave on time or In advance so that traffic doesn't bother me and I am not in a hurry. I also have reserve music playlists that are soothing and calming in nature.

[BleueNinja]

I have been coming across a new form of stupidity that has become prevalent across our country.

Popping out of sunroof and clicking selfies. This fellow almost collided with a car yesterday and almost took out an autorickshaw because he couldn't see what's happening around him properly.

Why aren't people realising it's not safe for them to pop out of a moving car and take selfies?

[mygodbole]

Wow, we are collectively so wrong.

Any solutions? (MODS please delete if unacceptable)

NONE? I wonder why.

Has anyone had the courage to question the so-called 'wrong-doer'? Or amended their own driving styles? (I confess, I am a Grade A culprit, but I still hope)

'Solutions' ... not narrating problems ... maybe a solution? Something that is a do-able task.

Friends, we all know what the problem is. Can we all together focus on solutions?

Someone makes a mistake, do we criticise it or do we correct it in our own lives? I personally choose to correct it in my personal realm of influence.

Thank you for reading my opinion

[PaddleShifter]

Here in North India, I am seeing this trend exclusively among Delhi-NCR cars.

When driving at night, an idiotic driver in the car behind wants to have a clear road ahead of him. He will start flashing the high beam continuously from behind. In most cases, car will be having a HID in reflector based set up.

It is so very uncomfortable to the eyes. Sometimes I plan to install a wooden box with two iPH projector lens based lights and place it on the parcel tray such that anybody doing this nuisance can be taught a lesson by flashing the lights back at him. Yes I get that irritated and uncomfortable. Will police help stop this? No. I have talked to a few policemen and requested them to challan cars having white HID lights in reflector based set ups.

Those who are doing this flashing headlight business are doing so deliberately and know that it is highly uncomfortable to the drivers of the cars ahead.

[noopster]

Originally Posted by PaddleShifter

Here in North India, I am seeing this trend exclusively among Delhi-NCR cars.

You do the rest of the country too much credit! This is extremely common in Pune too, the major culprits being big white SUVs with "peshul" (special) numbers. Like you, I used to create elaborate fantasies in my mind on how I would get even with these boorish monsters but these days I just ignore them (thankfully my car has auto-dimming mirrors) and let them pass.

Originally Posted by mygodbole

Wow, we are collectively so wrong.

Any solutions? (MODS please delete if unacceptable)

NONE? I wonder why.

It's a combination of woolly legislation, poor enforcement by police and bad attitude of us drivers ourselves. There is no rocket science in this: people are driven by incentives. If there is no incentive to follow the law when driving (or indeed doing many other things in India!) why would anyone do so?

Has anyone had the courage to question the so-called 'wrong-doer'? Or amended their own driving styles? (I confess, I am a Grade A culprit, but I still hope)

Agree with the latter point but confronting someone who in your opinion is a "wrongdoer" is a bad idea, potentially suicidal as well! Concepts like right of way or whose fault it is in an accident are not decided objectively in India. It depends on several extraneous factors like:

- Which is the bigger vehicle? It's always in the wrong!
- Which vehicle has a fancy number/ political sticker? It's automatically in the right!
- Which party has the capacity to bribe more? You got it, always right!
- Which party has public sympathy on their side (local versus "outsider", yellow plate versus white, rich versus poor, young versus old, horrible rude man vs indignant "abla naari" etc.)? This opens up some fascinating possibilities!

I read about a case yesterday where 3 men on a motorbike came the wrong way at high speed, skidded and went under the wheels of a truck quietly going about his business. Unfortunately they died. The truck driver who, to his credit, did not flee the scene but was cooperative with the cops, was arrested for negligent driving causing death or some such and sent to jail pending trial. The newspaper article adds a gratuitous quote by the senior policeman involved, "We will take further action after checking all the papers of the truck".

Wonderful! So far from patting the (literally) poor driver on the back for doing the right thing, you scar him for life and hold him accountable for things he may not even be responsible for (he's a hired employee, should he be jailed for say not having a valid PUC certificate, which is the truck owner's responsibility?)

[PaddleShifter]

Originally Posted by noopster

You do the rest of the country too much credit! This is extremely common in Pune too, the major culprits being big white SUVs with "peshul" (special) numbers. Like you, I used to create elaborate fantasies in my mind on how I would get even with these boorish monsters but these days I just ignore them (thankfully my car has auto-dimming mirrors) and let them pass.

As I have driven extensively in PB, HR, CH, HP, UP, UK, RJ only, I restricted my previous comment to North India since I have no experience of driving in other states. My car also has auto dimming IRVM but its action is not instantaneous. Even with the IRVM in night mode already, the ORVMs add to the irritating glare.

Thank you for sharing your experience from Pune. Though I believe 2 wheelers (bikers) are one of the biggest headache for Pune drivers.

Originally Posted by mygodbole

Someone makes a mistake, do we criticise it or do we correct it in our own lives? I personally choose to correct it in my personal realm of influence.

Nobody is perfect and we all make mistakes while driving. Some could be unintentional while others could be intentional (overtaking a bit aggressively on way to work, if getting late).

The intention is not to point out others’ mistakes or wrongs but to highlight grossly dangerous behaviour that could have been easily avoided.

[ninjatalli]

Originally Posted by PaddleShifter

Here in North India, I am seeing this trend exclusively among Delhi-NCR cars.
...
When driving at night, an idiotic driver in the car behind wants to have a clear road ahead of him. He will start flashing the high beam continuously from behind. In most cases, car will be having a HID in reflector based set up.

A similar version (especially seen in city roads with traffic) is the 'aggressive honker' - basically someone who's got a bit of an empty stretch on a traffic filled road and accelerates as if he's driving an F1 car and then realizes the rest of the road a few 100 mts away is still full of traffic; and thinks by honking aggressively, the other vehicles will disappear or magically create space for him out of thin air.

In both scenarios, I generally do this - if there is an empty road ahead of me (or I'm 'blocking' the only empty lane on the highway), I move to the side and let him pass. But any other scenario, I slow down a bit (not too much) - at times matching a slower moving truck/car on the adjacent lane and do it till he tires of honking or flashing the lights (they generally do).

The above experiment generally lasts maximum 1 min. - they either calm down or find there's an empty lane all along on the left/right that they can take.

To ignore the honking, I use music; and an anti-dimmer for the flashing. No reverse honking/flashing or revenge tactics once they move ahead. If they glare at me (while passing by), I smile back.


Note: I'm generally traveling at decent speeds, so I'm definitely not 'blocking' the road at slow speeds.

Originally Posted by noopster

You do the rest of the country too much credit! This is extremely common in Pune too

+1
Actually across the country - especially when you are on highways with (/without) dividers.

[iamahunter]

I am tired and sick of people using High beams in the city traffic.
When stuck in traffic, I turn off the headlights of my car to avoid the reflection from the car in front.

Disturbing part is - the being in the chariot behind me enlightens my car from within.

Is there any law against installing powerful aux lights inside my car (facing behind)!?

[BleueNinja]

Originally Posted by mygodbole

Wow, we are collectively so wrong.


Has anyone had the courage to question the so-called 'wrong-doer'? Or amended their own driving styles? (I confess, I am a Grade A culprit, but I still hope)

I agree with finding solutions to problems but trust me confronting someone isn’t the wisest thing to do you will end up getting involved in unnecessary altercation which won’t end well most of the times. You are from Pune I think we can agree on that

One way can be reporting a vehicle which is breaking the law via public cop portals. We that service in few cities like in Indore where you can report a vehicle but, there are many vehicles with impending fines in thousands of rupees so I am not sure how effective that would be.