[Heart_Revs]

1. In UP, there is no concept of low beam!!! Even in well lit roads, people drive on high beams all the time. I could not spot even a single driver using low beam.
2. There is no concept of using ORVM, both of them are folded permanently to avoid getting them nicked. I don't understand how people drive with this handicap.

[driver52001]

1. Many people unknowingly encroach on a different lane when the road is turning and at roundabouts. This is very common. And if the sensible driver doesn't slow down to let the moron proceed, the other car will end up hitting your fender. It's very common and is No. 1 on my list of road irritants. If one is on the left lane and turning, for example, then one should remain on the left lane only. Coming to the right will unnecessarily slow down traffic also. But few follow this simple thing.

2. I once slowed down on seeing kids standing from the Sun roof at a hill road near Shimla. It was a BMW SUV, don't remember the model exactly. The guy who was driving, probably the father, shouted at me: "Move on, what's your problem?" Well my problem was I was trying to tell him to keep his kids safe. Money doesn't help if one is illiterate.

3. Those who crawl like snail on the fast lane. Enough said about this. People are forced to overtake from the left and make mistakes. While the crawler comfortably think they are safe drivers.

[DrCar]

Few observations from my side which I feel is unsafe:

1. Driving your respective bikes or scooters alongside large vehicles like buses and trucks. You either accelerate your way out to get in front of them or slow down to let them be ahead of you. Driving alongside such large vehicles is extremely dangerous. Your vehicle tyre may burst suddenly or you might lose your balance because of potholes. Chances of coming under the wheels of such vehicles are extremely high in such situations.

2. Cars have 3 spoke steering wheels to make them more comfortable to hold and give us a sporty feeling. But what do experts do? They easily fit there mobile phones into the gap that is present and happily scroll through it while driving. If I start listing the consequences because of such actions, then a seperate thread will be needed altogether.

3. Hazard blinkers 'on' while driving through rains or tunnel. This is already discussed in details in some other threads on the forum. Similarly is a case of driving with DRLs only during night time.

4. Bikers and scooters driving over the footpaths. Remember, footpath have bus stops, light poles, etc. built upon them and a pedestrian too don't expect a vehicle running on it. Yes most of accidents happens because of pedestrian error, but in this case they are not responsible.

5. What is up with people driving their vehicles while smoking cigarettes? Whom are they trying to impress? God? High risk of fire hazard is there with such behaviour. Don't the driver remember that their cars also have to carry petrol or diesel along with their degenerated brains?

6. Special award should be reserved for people who open their car doors at speed of 80km/hr and spit out red flames from their mouth. It won't be a pretty sight for them if they had to see their own body spitting out red liquid from within in case of accidents.

[JayKavadi]

Good Thread. As mentioned by the OP, the thing which i find the scariest is Kids popping out of the sunroof while the car is being driven on highways. It really beats me how parents allow such a thing. Now with many Indian cars getting sunroofs, I see this only getting worse.

A small stone/gravel chip on the road is a potential scud missile and god forbid it were to hit someone sticking their head out of the sunroof, it would cause serious injuries.

When I lived in Dubai and had some friends visiting over, on one of our drives to Abu Dhabi, my friend decided to stick his head out of the sunroof of my CRV (against my instructions). My friend is a bit on the heavier side and the sunroof was not exactly a panoramic one :-). As luck would have it, while he struggled to get himself unstuck from the sunroof, a cop car passed by. The cop politely told us to not indulge in such antics as it can be very unsafe. Lesson learnt since then.

[echo77]

Two wheelers squeezing in between cars without warning.

Our car had a minor accident a few years ago as cars slowed down for traffic, a two wheeler came from behind and squeezed between us and the car in front. The driver did not react in time and the bike got squeezed between the two cars and the pillion fell on the ground. All were quite slow so the damage was not much. However we ended up having to pay for the repairs as the driver got scared and blanked during the arguments. It took him some days to piece together what had actually happened.

This actually happens quite often and we are naturally tuned to react to it.

If there ever was 2-way car racing on narrow two lane tracks, I think Indians would definitely win with our exceptional reaction times

[White-taurus]

Few of my observations,
1. Vehicles driving with High beam ON, I have tried to educate them and few accept their mistake, whereas some argue roads are visible only in High beam. Around 40% of people to whom I spoke were not aware of the headlight adjustment switch.
2. Aftermarket LED lights in different colors.
3. Two wheelers without side mirrors, they just turn back and see.
4. Government vehicles (includes all the department), Sorry rules are not for us. We just know to drive.
5. Auto Rickshaw and Share Autos, if anyone raises their hand, no matter in which lane they are, they just swere to the left.
6. No education about how to use the road which is common for everyone.

[vmathews]

What about car owners / drivers hanging ornate or large pendants (religious or fancy) from the IVRM. They just do not understand that it obscures your line of sight and is a major distraction as you can always see it in your peripheral vision.

[Vibhav-Van]

A worrying trend I observed recently is bikers taking refuge from the rain under metro stations.
No, not to the left side of the road, but to the right, just by the divider. Last week, there were a bunch of bikers waiting just by the divider, amidst heavy rain and right along a bend - so visibility was really poor. Thankfully, I wasn't traveling fast.
The moment one bike stops, 10-15 bikes end up settling there in no time. Absolutely unsafe.

[Bsimhan]

Thanks for opening up a very good thread.
I invariably get confused with the indicators that people use while indicating that you may overtake. The guys invariably use the right indicator and then you tend to slow down thinking that the person ahead wants to turn right. But that's not what the driver ahead thinks. His impression is that if he has the right indicator, then I have right of way to overtake.
There are also other morons who do not indicate while wanting to turn or turn on the indicators at the very last moment.
The thread has some interesting and illustrative reads. Thanks again.

[giri1.8]

Kids in front seat? I have seen much worse, kids sitting on their dad's lap while he is driving

Worst ever habit would be idiots on Dio skidding their front wheel. What's even the point of this stunt? Idiots queue up to buy that scooter for some weird reason.

[srvm]

From my experience of riding/driving in Bangalore over the last decade, nothing surprises me anymore, particularly stunts by bikers. Jumping red lights, wrong side driving on one-way roads have become way too common. Still let me try to enumerate some unsafe practices that irritate me:

1. Bikers squeezing into every inch of a traffic jam or traffic signal when bigger vehicles have come to a halt. Including occupying opposite lane. Most of them have no clue about blind zones of trucks/buses/cars.

2. Riders who have no clue about braking distance of 2-wheelers (particularly ones with puny drum brakes) tail-gating cars/buses/trucks at high speed.

3. Parents zig-zagging through traffic doing insane maneuvers to drop kids at school in the mornings - subconsciously teaching their wards bad-driving skills.

[JojyKerala]

Excellent thread!

I would like to point out drivers who sit too close to the steering wheel. They are at risk of severe facial injuries.

A friend who drove like this had to apply brakes suddenly to avoid a dog. Nothing happened to the car but she lost 2 front upper teeth. The Dentists that worked on her teeth did a bad job. The replacement teeth looked yellow and was visibly different from her other teeth.

She gave up driving after this incident.

[Kishen.padiyar]

The most unsafe practice I have noticed is egoistic driving.

Earlier, some of the practices were:
1) I have seen all of this, I know what to do.
2) I have full control of my car.
3) I have a bigger car, I command respect, let the other person wait!
4) I drive on this road everyday so I can push the limits.

Now with the advent of more modern and safe cars, the list is updated with:
5) Hah! my car does 0-100 in under 10 seconds, let me pull out this tricky overtake.
6) My car has ABS, Airbags and a 5 star rating, nothing untoward will happen.
7) Look at that bloke tailing a slow moving truck for such a long time! (On a road with turns). He doesn't know to drive!

[rr_zen]

Originally Posted by bongSENse

1. Driving cars with folded ORVMs! Absolutely atrocious! While it's a normal trait for yellow cabbies in Kolkata, these days it's almost commonplace to spot Uber/Ola cabs driving with their glasses closed. And it isn't uncommon to see a few aged private cars completely MISSING the ORVMs all-together!

+1 to that. I see that a lot here in Chennai and that too with private sedans doing high speeds on the highway. God save them. The moment I spot such a vehicle I become wary and steer away from it.

Mirrors on two-wheelers are removed for ease of navigation as per riders but I for one cannot ride my bike without both mirrors. Also, from my experience very few bikers that ride with rear view mirrors ever use them effectively.

Another important factor is road rage and the fight for the right of way. Size and power of the vehicle play an important role here I have mentioned this in one of my earlier posts years ago but worth a repeat. There is no concept of 'YIELD' on our roads with everyone claiming right of way.

We don't have a choice but to practice defensive driving on our roads for our own safety.

[digitalnirvana]

Originally Posted by ABHI_1512

3. Parents holding kids through the sun roof- Small kids peeping through the sun roof for joy and parents holding them and when the car is in motion. Even after many deaths occurring due to the same, this practise still continues unabashedly in the name of joyrides.

An example of the above situation, if seen closely, the small kid was being held by the arms of the parent
Attachment 2056566

This is the Salt Lake sector V flyover. The flyover ends right next to the Sector V Metro Station where the road narrows due to the pillars supporting the station. Plus the road surface is uneven (due to the metro works and subsequent repairs) and is a mixture of tar and concrete. There used to be a big hole that would easily burst a tyre at high speeds (there was one on the opposite flank too and it has claimed my tyre one rainy night).

I was a regular on this road pre COVID-19 and would have to slow down to a crawl in this stretch. There is always someone panic braking here.

Mind boggling that someone would hold up their kid, that too at this place. They could very easily be thrown right out of the car.