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-   -   Dangers of driving, post lockdown (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/road-safety/223350-dangers-driving-post-lockdown-2.html)

Few observation:

1) I was going some place this evening earlier today. Hit a barricaded point that was sealed off owing to some covid +ve case there. One of the guys manning the barricades walks up to me to inform of the same. I lower my window and the chap lowers his mask (which was already below the nose but above the mouth)!

I asked him if he was a cop. He says he is a "health inspector." I asked him if he could tell me the protocol to follow while speaking with respect to the mask! The guy takes offence to that hurt-ego (!) and starts muttering something to express his displeasure. Seeing that he is not among the kind that is open to learning, I just roll my windows up and reverse to get going!

2) I see plenty of driving school vehicles on the road. Lot more than I used to see them earlier. Looks like many that were not too keen on a DL eatrlier have had a covid-induced change of heart.

3) Many of the two-wheelers might be in a race to see what gets them first : covid or road-accidents.

True.
Mid- May had some hospital runs as my cousin was pregnant and had to take her to the hospital.


Traffic was ofcourse sparse, but the way trucks/lorries were bearing down the highway!!!
The nearest divided highway is 15kms north. Rest all it's just undivided roads down south.

Agreed they were delivering goods and taking risk in all aspects, but the way they blasted through the roads, seemed like some sort of freight trains.

And 2-wheelers:Frustrati ofcourse lockdown/harthal/bandh don't apply to that category and they were merrily ambling along middle of lane, middle of road, opposite lane et al.

At present, it's all mayhem, and surprisingly I find myself hoping for KSRTC buses to come back full force.

Yes, they hog lanes, bully you, even kill you if you might come in their way.

But they do bring order to the road via their top of the chain reputation, and others falling back on the bully scale:mad:

I'll sheepishly admit it- I've changed lanes without turn signals and checking my blind spot a couple of times in CA.

So, bad driving in India doesn't surprise me.

Going by the feedback, it is safe to assume that general driving behavior has gone bad from earlier. Relatively free road, urge to reach back to safety of home, the throttle itch, least to no policing and the metal pressure of lockdown seem to be the factors here. Well not to forget most of the drivers were always lacking driving etiquette to begin with.

I've two weddings in close family which got postponed due to lockdown and most probably I'll have to drive down the highway for a good 300+ kms in one direction. Hope situation stabilizes by then and people tone down the aggressive behavior to the at least the pre-lockdown level.

For me its choosing "a known devil is better than unknown angel" or wishing for the "lesser evil among the options" :D. But, most importantly its going to be how we are driving, "drive safe and drive sensible"

Have noticed the same aswell, I felt like are they driving thinking no other vehicles exist or what. Have seen many people overtaking in turns, getting into main road randomly, hogging in middle of the road, etc. Also people parking on roads is more common in rural areas these days, at times have seen people parked right before a turn:Frustrati. Seems like there are many learners on the roads now, always being in middle, taking right turn way before the intersection actually is, and they may stop in the road all of a sudden.

I beg to differ, I actually feel it's more risky at the current scenario, right of way is non-existent. You don't know when someone pops up in front of you from the sideways.

Just hoping everything will back to normal when all vehicles are back on to the roads.

As pointed out earlier, some behaviors are more of venting out frustration, while others are people who probably used to drive/ride the same pre-COVID. I guess people also want to get to their destination as fast as possible and not stay in public, hence doing whatever it takes. Also getting back into a routine after 2 months is not easy.I believe this will subside within a week as common sense starts kicking in and a level of enforcement is implemented.

I believe that the driving manners are largely same. Earlier also fellow motorists wanted to shift from rightmost lane to left most lane in a jiffy (upon spotting a cigarette shop), not giving turn indicators, braking suddenly , driving in opposite lane, bad parking etc or a permutation combination of above.
But earlier people had less space to play due to heavy traffic. So while doing these stunts both the amplitude as well as speed to vehicle was less.
During lockdown, with wide open roads available to all, its just that the more space is available to the drivers to continue to swerve over greater margins at higher speed so we notice them more.
Mind you, this freedom is more risky as likelihood of accident at higher speeds is more in this scenario.

I agree. Especially those leyland mini trucks ( dost I think they're called ). They're everywhere in my state, and the engine is also decently powerful, so they're very rash.

Some of the fish transporting ones I've seen, frequently touch 90+.

Few things I observed in Delhi:

a) people have forgotten basic road sense like driving on the right side or parking cars properly. I have seen cars parked in the middle of the road with the driver ordering items from a store, maintaining social distancing from his car!

b) many youngsters are going on a two wheeler ride as a relief from lockdown, and they ride like maniacs!! Given even the lanes and by lanes in the colonies are relatively deserted, some kids are racing up their bikes to dangerous speeds !

c) In the initial periods of lockdown, people drove extremely dirty cars. Some would only turn on the jet spray and wiper for some visibility to drive and that was it. I have a pet peeve about driving dirty cars. What does it take to clean up your own car even if the hired help is not coming?

The two wheeler atrocities have returned in full strength. People have resumed reckless driving in every inch of available road often on the wrong side. They do not give us enough time to react and are extremely dangerous to the others. Worse nobody pays attention to traffic lights and two wheeler riders simply jump the lights not willing to wait another few minutes often endangering themselves and others.

Time that these violators face strict action.

Not sure of its coincidence or what, right after the lockdown ended inwas T boned by a cabbie waiting to take a U-turn. I was passing through the intersection, and an Etios waiting to take a U just lunged forward a bit scraping my dentfree 5 year old Punto. Now I have a small dent on my rear wheel arch.. The driver was an old man, apologized and said he thought he was in Neutral and let go of the clutch. I believed him because even I did a few such errors on the first drive after 2 months.

Lucknow never had a great traffic sense. Wrong siders have always been plenty, and traffic rules were violated right in front of police chowki-s.

During the lockdown, however, there was improvement, especially as police did their real work and regulated and controlled traffic. Even as I went out driving within municipal limits, I could see people being rare on road and be surprisingly patient.

During lockdown, vehicles were very few and even those that came out were rather decent.


Once the lockdown conditions are eased, the policemen began to sit back and traffic is back into its old mad form here. So, in Lucknow, much difference is not felt between pre- and post lockdown phases in the case of traffic behavior.

I am not sure of what is happening on the highways.

Good thread, have been observing the same myself, the upside is ofcourse the roads are a lot less congested and i on the contrary have seen lesser people on Delhi streets rashly driving, me and dad suspect that it is due to the lockdown and immense stress, fear and repercussions it has brought, people including me are only out because we absolutely need to and not because we are happy to, obviously we won't drive as enthusiastically as we once did.

Another thing i've noticed is a high increase in ill trained and novice drivers on roads, i suspect this is due to the lack of public transport, fear to travel in any kind of shared transport and people who usually don't drive and perhaps are no good at it are also driving on roads these days, i have found an alarming number of people driving at 40-50 Km/h in middle of Delhi Gurgaon Highway.

Don't think the lockdown can be used as an excuse for reckless driving.
Habits dont change that easily. If you have been driving reckless, jumping red lights in the past, or just plainly honking for no reason you will continue doing it irrespective of a lockdown or the presence of a cop.
Old habits die hard!

People are mad on the roads.
I'm from Kerala and people on the road are acting like there is no traffic rules, I'm talking about post lockdown 2.0 mid lockdown 3.0.

Things I saw while sitting at home (My house is on the side of NH 183/MC Road, It's a two way single lane road.)

I was having a cup of coffee, black coffee to be precise, so right in front of my house there is this rumble strip (hump) I see a guy on bike slowed down crossed the hump and he is stopping. I thought oh my god is it a break down?, how can I help him? it's corona time, what should I do? All sorts of thoughts trespassed my mind and suddenly this guy goes HELLO!! then he reaches for his pocket and takes the phone and talks. I do not know if his phone is equipped with such modern tech so as to attend a call by just saying hello or did he do that out of respect to the person calling even though that person cannot hear you or is he just being an idiot on the road. I am sticking to the last thought. Also the most important point to be noted is that he is still in the middle of the road on his phone! Sorry I was not expecting such a thing so I didn't have my phone on me hence I couldn't take a picture.

This is the picture of the rumble strip

If you have noticed there is a Suzuki Gixxer with no headlights on the right bottom corner. I must say he is a victim of the nation wide lockdown. An accident happened (accidents are very often on this rumble strip) pre-lockdown and he is still standing there.

Another incident goes by when I was sitting in my balcony chair when a truck braked on the rumble strip I first thought huh! it's a usual truck then when the door of the truck opened I got a bit confused, did the door open on hitting the hump or what but then I saw a hand on the door which made my thought futile and then was kind of trying jump out. Instead he was trying to pluck mangoes from our mango tree which is a bit leaning towards the road. This also was a random incident and I didn't have my phone on me. But also I never thought I would be posting this on a thread.

I guess I will share some pictures of similar incidents that I have managed to click

Who wants milk...

This is a milk tank driver on the phone

This is a freezer truck driver on a call.

Again if you have noticed a silver coloured wheel cap on the left bottom it is from an accident where in an Ashok leyland pickup truck (a like pickup from the picture showing the milk van) and a Eicher met with an accident on the rumble strip