Team-BHP (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/)

-   Road Safety (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/road-safety/)

-   -   THINK before you BLINK! (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/road-safety/232311-think-before-you-blink.html)

It is a statutory requirement that all vehicles are equipped with turn signal indicators/blinkers. The normal usage of blinkers is while taking a turn or changing lanes on a highway. Interestingly blinkers are also used(misused on most occasions) to let the vehicles coming from behind to overtake. I say blinkers are misused, because I have found few old posts in TEAMbhp highlighting the confusions and the dangers associated with this informal driving practice. I myself once had a near collision incident because of this confusion.

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/stree...ic-signal.html

On a two lane highway, it is logical to use the left blinker to allow someone overtake us. It is logical on the highways with multiple lanes as well, but as we all know, not many follow lane discipline. There are sign boards on quite a places on highways, suggesting the slow moving traffic to take the left lane, but no one seems to care. Even the highway patrol squads are happy to turn blind on this issue. With ever increasing vehicular density in our country, this is a serious issue, so "Think before you Blink".

Since many years, my father had this idea of having a different coloured blinkers to facilitate overtaking. Tweaking his idea further, how about having a Green Blinker just below the high mounted stop lamp at the rear end? And a steering wheel mounted button to operate the blinker with auto turn off after 5 blinks? Whenever someone wants to overtake you, just stay on the lane where you are and signal the vehicle behind you to pass with Green Blinkers! Your thoughts, fellow BHPians?

Please no. As it is people don't use the one coloured blinker they already have. Adding more is just a colossal waste of time.

What we need is proper education of road rules and a strict licensing system along with a good enforcement mechanism.

Neither the person behind will know you have a green blinker for him to expect you to signal him (or what it's meant for in case you do use it), nor will the person having it be kind enough to do such social service in our country!

We all know trucks had a bulb on "ok" for "sound ok horn" or whatever they chose to write either side of it. That was precisely for this purpose which has simply died away.

Implementation and usage is a totally different matter. It's taking decades for most drivers to make it a habit of using turn signals alone!

Not until, drivers use the existing blinkers judiciously for their intended purpose. These new blinkers at the top will end up as the blinkers atop the Police vehicles or with a bright LED's for reversing or partying.

I would rather welcome a tech, which analyse the driving and say "You driving was really bad/good today".

I appreciate your concern, but what you are proposing needs educating the road users on new implementation as a solution since they are not educated in first place for an already existing solution .

Also, using any other color of lights on a car other than below is deemed illegal.

Front: White/Yellow (Head lamps, park, DRL, Fog), Amber(turn indicators)
Side: Amber (Turn Indicators)
Rear: Red (Brake and position), Amber (Turn Indicators). With exception on reversing lamp (White), since technically in reverse gear the rear of the vehicle becomes forward moving for a preceding vehicle and needs illumination as well.

Sorry, but I absolutely don't agree. As already mentioned this nonsense has caused severe confusion numerous times as well as deaths.
The person who started this trend needs to be traced and forced to travel on rough roads in a vehicle without any suspension.

Apologies, I probably missed a point in my first. What I actually mean is, what if the government introduces a feature similar to what I am talking about. It's definitely not a DIY stuff. As you guys have rightly pointed it out, it won't help if the people are not aware of it. We are seeing quite a few India specific features in the vehicles these days. While a few are really good ones, a few others are just meaningless in my opinion(full time headlights in two wheelers is one such feature)

Most of the driving we do has our focus on the road ahead and an awareness of the objects around us and behind us. Our focus should be on objects in-front of us rather than being overly kind and excessively accommodating to the vehicles behind us. The guy behind us should be doing the same and before you know it everyone on the road is doing the same.

Rules like sticking to the middle lane does the same thing as signaling to the car behind us to overtake if they wish to. Problem is that people have already invented new rules (hazard lights in fog, turn signal to allow an overtake) without knowing and adhering to the standard set of rules.

IMHO As long as everyone knows and adheres to the standard rules, there is no need of adding extra signaling lights to mean different things.

If you mean use the left indicator to say Go ahead and overtake me on the left then I have to disagree. The same signal cannot mean two completely different things. That is a recipe for disaster.

On highways and expressways I change lane to the left if I am being tailgated (which is quite normal behaviour from people in very large SUVs and Volvo buses), to allow the suicidal/homicidal maniac through. I do the same thing pre-emptively on long straights when I am at the speed limit and I see some other maniac at a speed of >140 or so catching up fast in the rearview mirror.


+1. The same thing needs to be done to the person who started the trend of using hazard lights in tunnels.

I have never used indicators to facilitate overtaking. The number of use cases in our country for indicators has actually put the actual reason to use indicators to shame!

Keep a regular eye on all your mirrors and you will always get hints on whoever is wanting to overtake you. There is a lot of hint that you as a driver can give the other drivers that lets them know that you are allowing them to overtake you.

In a country where people like to constantly drive in the overtaking lane, where are going to use the Green Indicator?

If someone tries to keep a 2-3 second gap from the car in front, rest assured, some other car will occupy that space. Let alone giving anyone a chance to overtake. People here drive more with their egos and less with common sense.

If at all we need something, that would be better road manners, defensive driving and to an extent stricter rules ( I consider safety and safe driving has to come from within, no amount of rules or regulations can force a person to get in line, atleast not in India)

I might be sounding very negative of the entire thing, but trust me, I love to drive and live to drive! Nothing comes close to driving and exploring here in this great nation!! :)

Probably just me, but I have ZERO trust in overtaking based on another's indicators, electric or via hand. The issue is not the blinker; I have to trust the potential moron ahead of me to judge my speed, their speed, the overtaking speed required, the gap to vehicles ahead of the both of us and their respective speeds, any intruder lurking on the median or by the side of the road, not to mention the size, speed, and distance of a vehicle approaching us in a 2-lane road. No sir, thank you very much.

I'll stick behind the bloke in front of me, leaving a large enough gap to look past the bloke without craning my neck, until I can judge the road ahead for myself. I'll then power through with a polite toot, and a show of thanks if that aforementioned bloke has been courteous by not drifting into my lane or suddenly speeding up/slowing down.

On a two lane highway I don't think it is ever possible to allow someone to overtake you from the left. It is not a sane thing to do. I meant slowing down(if required) and allowing the vehicle to overtake from the right. Hope I have clarified your concern.

I don't think it's feasible cause there's no such thing worldwide.

I would suggest that RTO s across India mandate atleast 30 min of retraining videos be shown compulsorily to all people who are getting licenses renewed to re -educate and correct these wrongfully learned techniques. May work slowly but it's a start.

The indicator bit is done by a lot of truck drivers on narrow roads down south, you let them know you need space to go and they move to the left and switch on the right indicator asking you to proceed. You overtake them and give two chirps of the horn and you get one back.

The textbook practice is to honk, wait for the truck driver to provide you hand signal to overtake and then proceed. Also in that textbook it will tell you not to overtake if you are not able to see what is coming from the other side, not to overtake in curves, intersections etc. The responsibility is with the driver doing the overtaking maneuver.

Read through the Indian driving school manual once and it should clarify a lot of things, but there are some localized quirks based on where you are.