[ghodlur]

Fantastic narration put in humorously. We have come across such people falling in majority of the classes if not all of them sometime or the other during our driving years. However in the Indian context the road sense is the step child of courtesy & patience.

IMO the Short term memory loss idiots are the scariest of them as they put themselves and other on the road to a greater risk because of their inability to take the correct judgement.

Where would one slot those idiots who talk on mobiles when driving but drive insanely cutting lanes, stopping suddenly and that too at angles yet to be discovered?

[NPV]

Nice thread, thanks for sharing
One of the habits with folks (idiots!) on 2 wheelers and 4 wheelers is the tendency to veer to the extreme right side of the road when nearing a junction where they intend to turn right. What they don't realise is that they're blocking the vehicles trying to turn left (traffic flowing in opposite direction).
Would these guys be classified under "my way is the right way idiots" ?

[SDP]

Originally Posted by ghodlur

...
Where would one slot those idiots who talk on mobiles when driving but drive insanely cutting lanes, stopping suddenly and that too at angles yet to be discovered?

How about "On hotline with the Creator"?

On a related note, the drunken drivers are the "Suicide Squad".

[Mnjdnght]

Great observations. I do wonder at times, several times in fact, if the bad driving habits are more deep rooted. For e.g. I observe similar behaviors on foot in malls, airports, roads and even offices.

Almost all the bad driving traits are on display
- Jumping queues (plenty and wherever there are queues)
- Rushing at a crazy pace, brushing and shoving your shoulders as they zoom past
- Ambling along in quiet confusion making you wonder whether to go around them right or left
- Cutting across with no care to who is behind or elsewhere
- Looking down at cell phones or their fine pedicures while walking straight
- Personally most annoying to me are people with backpacks who make abrupt turns (even in narrow aisles) with their backpacks punching others left and right.

The list goes on but, well, you get the idea.

So you see, we are like this wonly Maybe provides an easier path to cure or maybe not.

[sforsarang]

Thank you so much guys for your encouraging comments and thanks to moderators also as honestly I didn't think this post has kind of relevance and worth to be posted in such a forum with great standards, I intended to post as usual in my personal blog but took my chances (it's heartening to see that you all hate these idiots as much as me and that brings down our own chances of being one drastically! Also, I must say you guys have added real value to this by providing diverse methodologies of idiots ! Kudos !

I chose to skip two more observations in my initial post because these were observed more frequently in the rural areas where I had stayed during my schooling days. I am not sure if these are relevant in urban scenarios (or rare maybe). So the first one is, In villages, everyone knows everyone, and generally there will be one single intercity highway passing through the village which we used to call main road. It was a common occurrence that whenever some pedestrian saw an acquaintance on bike or scooter on the road, he used to call him loudly thereby unintentionally diverting the rider's attention and I clearly remember once the accident happened as the rider hit the goat, once (looking back to see who has called his name) narrowly missed hitting the bus which had just stopped ahead abruptly, once crashed to the nallah boundary. Fortunately all such accidents I knew / saw were non-fatal but at any point could have proven deadly.

Second, the kids...ahh. In the smaller town, we never got scared of driving alongside big trucks or buses (because they simply don't have the lanes to swerve. They will pick one and stick to it without much options) but we were scared of small kids, you are driving a scooter on the virtual second lane on a narrow road, you see a family of 4 walking down the lane in the same direction, you happen to approach near to them from behind when suddenly one smart kid will decide to throw tantrums over some roadside goodies. Just as the hapless parents try to manage him, the other over-smart kid will decide that it's high time he broke the shackles of his parents handholding and run across the street waywardly... Rest assured the screeching noise that you heard fraction of the moment later was from your scooter only (if you are still upright on the road).

[Arch-Angel]

I would like to add another type of idiot to this list "I am Usain Bolt's brother/Sister"
they run in front of vehicles thinking they can cross the road. I remember my encounter with one such lady right in front of a temple. So great was her hurry that she ran with all her stuff and her so called speed of sprinting was that of a tortoise.
I ended up braking so hard that i ended up sitting on the petrol tank and got yelled at by people behind! The heights. Its like god forgot to put in their cpu(brain) right at the assembly line.

[babu.sundaram]

Excellent write up!

A variation of "Hide & seek" personalities: Autos at night on the wrong side at full speed (esp the old black autos!), turning the game into "See me if you can"!

[Ikoner_03]

Hey sforsarang, thats an excellent write-up!! Being a daily commuter on the famous ring road of Bangalore, I seriously wish your post was printed and pasted on all the sign boards. Have rated your thread 5 stars!! Wishing this thread more number of views.

[sukhoi30]

Great write up Sarang. Good to read and excellent illustrations. But honestly, what is it we or anyone can do? Unless, the procurement of licenses are made stricter with proper tests and exams, these idiots will continue to rule the road.
This happened to me today morning iteself ... just ahead of Airoli (Navi Mumbai) station, I was waiting at the right most lane to make a U turn, when suddenly a mini-van overtook from the left lane, cut across from my front and takes a speedy U Turn making all vehicles in the opposite road stop. He just missed a rickshaw by a whisker as the rickshaw speeded up at the right moment when seeing this idiot take the turn.
At other times, I see idiotic pedestrians when they cross intercity highways by holding up their hands to oncoming traffic and not looking at the vehicles at all.

[vikred]

So, true! All of them. Thanks for sharing!

In fact, traffic and traffic sense in Hyderabad is getting worse day by day, with no solution in sight.

Originally Posted by sforsarang

Its also a mystery to me why on most occasions people look exactly at the opposite direction only (from where no vehicle is supposed to come as it's a one way lane) while crossing the road.

This happened to me a couple of times. I never came to terms with the fact that there still are people on this planet who would cross road not looking at the traffic flow. We have to be very careful with these idiots.
Solution: Don't just look at your lane; you have to keep an eye on either ends of the roads to sense the presence of these morons. If at all anything happens, we'll be the one that gets blamed.

There is another breed of people who would assume that, in the night time, as we have headlights, everything in front of us is visible to us, and stand bang in the middle of our lane while trying to cross the road... just like they'd do during daytime. This will spook us big time. I had close shaves a few times with these morons

[carbhp]

I don't care, it is my Grandpa's Road Attitude.

Mostly you can see this on the two lanes where there will be a turn to left/right. Those who wants to turn left will find that vehicles already in queue in the left lane, but they can't wait in the left lane queue, they will go on the right lane which is intended for right turn and block the right lane to take left. Those who wants to take right which is literally free of traffic has to wait till the idiot take left.

This is very common sight @ Tidel Park junction in Chennai when you come from Ascendas and wants to take left to Tidel Park.

I decided to use MRTS just to relieve of this stress, hopefully I can continue using the train.

[Jeash.vk]

great article and nicely done pictures to go with it. I think if we start listing we will end up writing a whole book (777 habits maybe?) of the idiotic road sense of the majority of people on the road.

Not only does this scare the life out of you, many a times it ticks you off so much so that you end up getting angry and upset and spoiling your mood for the next hour or so.

Every sized vehicles - cycles, motorcycles, autos, cars, buses, lorries - all of them contribute to this chaos. And this is such a national phenomenon that irrespective of which city you go in India - you find the same traits. Maybe some aspects to a higher extend and some lower - but these idiotic habits never disappear entirely. Seems like it is in the Indian blood to act stupid when on the road.

Its not the lack of education that leads to such behaviour, because well educated and well paid professionals too turn to such idiots the moment they get behind the wheel.

[travelwriter]

And how about the 'Brittle Ego" Idiots.

Imagine a scenario where you are in the correct lane and you approach a car that is ahead of you and driving quite slowly. You give the proper signals and start overtaking it. You want to complete the manouvre before the oncoming vehcile comes close.

Just then, the driver realizes that he is being overtaken and takes it to heart. his ego is hurt and suddenly accelerates leaving you in the wrong lane. "Oh, I am not a slow driver. Just that I was in deep thought."

You then have to take hasty steps to get back behind that vehicle.

Such idiots also make driving a dangerous activity

[Desmosedici]

Awesome humour. Loved the ' i like to move it move it' one. I was smiling after reading it. This exactly depicts what happens in our country. Very true.

I have also experienced a 'To be or not to be' kind as well. Encountered these last week when i was standing at the Infinity Mall, Malad Signal and i dont see one but two such incidents.

Car No. 1 came in straight in the middle lane, signal is green. He is about to cross the junction when he suddenly feels that he should take a left from the Link Road onto the back road and he does, but does it after looking here and there and probably thinking for a few seconds. I stand there watching and thinking that this guy has lost his marbles and within the next 10 seconds i saw one more idiot doing the same.

Either they thought that the Mall Entrance is on the back road or wanted to park outside and save the 'exorbitant' 30-40 buck parking charge or forgot their way or just plain idiots! Indecisive fools.

[sa_kiran]

These idiots annoy other car drivers to move less than a car length ahead. This happens in heavy traffic situations.

I drive on left lane on Gandhi Nagar flyover (over LBS Marg). Suicide bikers squeeze in on my left and when there is no place for them to squeeze, they honk non-stop! Some other idiots honk from a long distance away, which I can hear even with windows rolled up and music playing!