[airbus]

This morning while going to drop my kids at school, I have observed many two wheeler riders and pillion riders were wearing helmet. Increase in fine definitely compelling people to at least think twice about traffic violation, which in my opinion is a good sign.

[myavu]

Yesterday I had a drive from Vasant Kunj to IFFCO Chowk, Gurgaon via M.G Road at around 12:30pm. Everyone was driving around 45 to 50 kmph and it was actually boring. The two wheelers stopping before zebra line was a welcome scene. Each and every red lights were guarded with at least 2 officers and they were busy issuing challans for non-helmet and triple riding.

I really wish if some of the intercity speed limit was upped to 70 kmph to avoid boring snooze fest.

Cheers!

[R2D2]

I for one am truly glad the Govt. has upped the fines/penalties to a level where it becomes a serious deterrent to breaking the rules. That's the way it is overseas. Indian roads should become safer in due course. Yes, it will take time but there is hope. You can't change bad road manners overnight.

Some States are even thinking about getting their own penalty slabs for each offence that fall within the min and max ranges of those prescribed in the MV Act.

[sushantr5]

Originally Posted by myavu

Yesterday I had a drive from Vasant Kunj to IFFCO Chowk, Gurgaon via M.G Road at around 12:30pm. Everyone was driving ....
I really wish if some of the intercity speed limit was upped to 70 kmph to avoid boring snooze fest.

Cheers!

50 KMPH speed limit within city limit is kind of norm Worldwide. Even in EU with this kind of class infrastructure, 50 KMPH is the limit with in cities.

And for highways with controlled access (Like Mumbai Pune expressway) should be 120.

Other national highways even 80 is good limit considering our situation on the road where you will see animals, wrong siders, villages, slow moving vehicles; but it can be increased upto 90 but not more than that even if the situation improves.

[Nav-i-gator]

Originally Posted by myavu

I really wish if some of the intercity speed limit was upped to 70 kmph to avoid boring snooze fest.

Cheers!

Better to be in a snooze fest than being in a death trap that our roads are. Rather than 50KMPH speed limit, it is the random changes in speed limits on different intersecting roads that annoys me. I realized it while crossing Delhi from Gurgaon yesterday. On Delhi Gurgaon expressway, limit is 70, as soon as you reach RTR, it is 40, soon after it oscillates from a low of 30 to a high of 50. At DND it is again 70 and when you hit Greater NOIDA expressway, it is 90. How are we supposed to maintain this while commuting through different roads? I had to continuously keep looking for road signs everywhere as soon as I made a turn to a new road. IMO, it should be uniformly at 50 (or whatever it should be) within city limits and 90 on expressways.

[Pancham]

Originally Posted by myavu

Yesterday I had a drive from Vasant Kunj to IFFCO Chowk, Gurgaon via M.G Road at around 12:30pm. Everyone was driving around 45 to 50 kmph and it was actually boring. The two wheelers stopping before zebra line was a welcome scene. Each and every red lights were guarded with at least 2 officers and they were busy issuing challans for non-helmet and triple riding.

I really wish if some of the intercity speed limit was upped to 70 kmph to avoid boring snooze fest.

Cheers!

Just to understand, intercity meaning Vasant Kunj to IFFCO? or within the city? The thing is when you set the limit at 50 KMPH you will see people usually doing 65-70. So within city 50 is pretty decent and 70 could be a tad bit dangerous. Almost the entirety of Delhi is 50 KMPH now, although I still see a lot of cars doing more than 60.

The Noida Link Road has a speed limit of 60 KMPH, DND has 70 KMPH, but everyday I see cars doing significantly higher.

Originally Posted by Nav-i-gator

How are we supposed to maintain this while commuting through different roads? I had to continuously keep looking for road signs everywhere as soon as I made a turn to a new road. IMO, it should be uniformly at 50 (or whatever it should be).

Just maintain 50 KMPH (unless the road conditions demand lower) and you should be fine.

P.S: I quite enjoy driving in Delhi. The roads are pretty good and for office commute, everyday doing 50-60 KMPH on nice smooth roads, is quite peaceful and stress'less'.

[myavu]

Originally Posted by sushantr5

50 KMPH speed limit within city limit is kind of norm Worldwide. Even in EU with this kind of class infrastructure, 50 KMPH is the limit with in cities.

Agreed. My opinion was based on intercity M.G Road here between Delhi and Gurgaon.
Last year March Central Government had already upped the city speed to 70 kmph. But the states are just following the old speed limits.
What I felt yesterday was that due to 45/50kmph drive there was too much bunching up at red lights and affecting smooth traffic flow. Parking cars at leftmost lane and unscientific road humps were not helping the situation either.

Originally Posted by Nav-i-gator

I had to continuously keep looking for road signs everywhere as soon as I made a turn to a new road. IMO, it should be uniformly at 50 (or whatever it should be) within city limits and 90 on expressways.

That's what I meant. Just to avoid over speeding everyone was driving below 50 kmph.

Originally Posted by Pancham

Just to understand, intercity meaning Vasant Kunj to IFFCO? or within the city? The thing is when you set the limit at 50 KMPH you will see people usually doing 65-70.

Intercity means between Delhi and Gurgaon. In my experience it was M.G Road. I drive daily from Khanpur, South Delhi to CP. Today it took 40 minutes to cover 1 km. Hitting 40 kmph till Chirag Dilli red light at ~9 am is an impossible task. I always drive within speed limit throughout Delhi. Till August end driving towards Gurgaon was smooth on Sundays. Normal folks in 60s and some VRs/Bimmers/boy racers in 90s.

[ani_meher]

I believe events such as breaking signal, wrong side driving etc should be penalized heavily, however temporary/non-threatening misdemeanors such as not carrying documents at that moment etc need to be given a chance of 3-7 days to produce documents in court and get the challan reversed/reduced. It is not as severe a crime not to carry original RC book or insurance at every moment as it is breaking a signal or not wearing helmets. Of course if one doesn't have these documents and fails to produce them in 7 days, penalty should stand.

[FrodoOfTheShire]

Link

Odisha gives three-month window to people on MV Act

Faced with growing discontentment over enforcement of the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act, 2019, in the State, the Odisha government on Monday gave a three-month window to people to get their papers ready.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, directed the enforcement agencies not to go on an overdrive but rather counsel and guide the public to facilitate compliance with the amended provisions of the Act.

“The Transport Department has been directed to augment public services, strengthen the facilitation centres, open extra counters and conduct camps in public institutions so as to enable motor vehicle users to update their compliance status,” Mr. Patnaik said in a statement.

The CM’s order came two days after people and police fought a pitched battle at busy Rajmahal Square in Bhubaneswar over the enforcement of the amended Act. The face-off took place when people insisted on examining if police and other government vehicles had valid papers.

[NPV]

Cross posting on this thread (mentioned this in the PUC thread earlier):
At a nearby HP petrol pump, I'm seeing long queues the last few days. Turns out there are lots of cars getting the PUC/emission test done. This is definitely after the recent news about implementation of the new MV Act rules & subsequent raised penalties

I'm not sure if the cops have started to check PUC certificates. In my experience, I've never been asked for it by cops in Bangalore, but RTO folks do ask if they're out on a checking spree.
Also, not too sure about PUC certificates being checked for two wheelers. From the local newspapers, I've seen reports about traffic cops raking in good moolah the last few days with mostly Challans for helmetless rider & pillion, seat belts and few cases of wrong side driving/riding.

[stuntfreak]

Originally Posted by R2D2

I for one am truly glad the Govt. has upped the fines/penalties to a level where it becomes a serious deterrent to breaking the rules. That's the way it is overseas. Indian roads should become safer in due course. Yes, it will take time but there is hope. You can't change bad road manners overnight.

Some States are even thinking about getting their own penalty slabs for each offence that fall within the min and max ranges of those prescribed in the MV Act.

I completely agree with you.

However the cops have started misusing their power and have started charging people without valid reasons.

To start of with the cops themselves don't know more than half the rules. People should be educated first. Literally no body knows common rules of intersections, lane keeping, right of way, nothing. And then there are ridiculous signs like a no parking sign right next to a parking sign where my friend got charged for parking.

No doubt this is a good step, however the application is one sided. There is no defence for a genuine citizen in case he is genuinely stopped and being fined without reason. The govt should focus on both ends.

Speed limits across many parts across pune are simply unrealistic. 3 lane (on each side) roads have like 10 or 20 kmph. Expressways have 30. It's impossible to maintain these things lanes don't exist, Intersection rules don't exist, and so much more..

Anyways, let's hope for the best and do our part to follow the rules as much as we can. Peace my friend.

Good day

[Axe77]

Actually come to think of it, the one rule that I fear strict enforcement of is the one on compulsorily using only ISI marked helmets. (I have put one of the many links critiquing it for anyone who doesn't know of this issue. In short, any helmet that's not ISI marked is illegal even if it meets the very high international standards set by ECE, DOT etc.)

http://overdrive.in/news-cars-auto/o...y-be-bullshit/

There is a HUGE quality difference between some of the internationally available helmets and the ISI certified ones by Steelbird, Vega, Studd etc. There is no way I am going to compromise on my safety and wear one of the alternatives when I already have a Shuberth / HJC and the like in my cupboard.

Unfortunately, I have no idea how to deal with this situation if a cop pulls me over for this. Whether in the old fine regime or new one. I can only appeal to his sense of moral justice but if he is out to be a nuisance I may have no defense.

[SideView]

I expect minimal impact (I follow rules to the T)

My only worry being fake challaned for a crime that i have not committed (Case of fellow bhpian) and how to tackle such scenarios.

[sushantr5]

Originally Posted by Axe77

Actually come to think of it, the one rule that I ... defense.

One solution is screen print ISI mark. Though it can be termed as illegal approach but when law makers are fools and we have a better solution for safety then I see no other way.

[rrsteer]

How do you plan to adapt?

My answer: Follow the rules as much as I can and then exploit the careless and uninformed attitude of our traffic police to bail me out once in a while.

So i got stopped a few days ago. I was surprised for a second, why they stopped me. Then this constable approaches me and asks me to come out with DL, RC , PUC certificate and insurance. He directed me to the officer sitting under the shade of a tree. I parked the car on the side and walked up to the officer, still confused. My only worry was the expired insurance document and of-course how do I pay the money, as I had no cash. Now the insurance of the car lapsed on the 27th August and this time like an ostrich, head buried in work, I literally had lost contact with the world and missed renewing insurance. Although I got it done a day later on the 28th, but forgot to put the document in the car.

Officer: Why have you put a carrier on the car, it is illegal on private cars.

Me: Sir, I have to frequently carry cement bags. If I put them inside the car, the car becomes very dirty. Also, I am allergic to cement dust, I start coughing and sneezing and then I can loose control of the car. (I don't know how I came up with that excuse, but it worked!)

Officer: (Nodding) - the car's insurance has expired.

Me: Sir, it has been renewed. It is on its way through post, and the reason its not in the car. I got it done especially from Chandigarh, as the local agent was charging too much. I can make you speak to the agent (this was a worry - the agent is a fool really, he would have spurted the whole story) if you want and can also show a picture on my phone. (I thought if he asks for it, I will ask my wife to whatsapp the picture)

Policeman: (Appreciating the small metallic box where I keep the RC smart card) There is no PUC certificate?

Me: (Pointing to the circular 'Mt Fuji -3776' sticker that my daughter recently pasted on windscreen of the car) I have the sticker on the windscreen.

The officer: (who continued to play with the metallic box throughout our conversation and never made eye contact with me) OK, let him go! (shouting to the constable)