[lsjey]

Wonderful thread! Thanks for sharing, folks. Here goes some points that I practice (or try to practice!):

1. I used to feel the urge to speed up and overtake all others on the road in front of my car. This lead to higher stress and anxiety levels and rage. My father advised me to let go of setting up faster times and get in on the mileage bragging rights game. Till date, I've been following this and have to a satisfactory level conquered the urge to speed up and overtake. This has increased my anticipation skills on the road.
2. When traffic gets bunched and then clears, the fast guys zoom off and slow vehicles lag behind. I've found that if I place myself between these two, ahead of the slow and heavy vehicles and behind the zooming speedsters, I can drive relatively peacefully.
3. When I'm driving, I encourage passengers to keep silence. Chitchat and arguments back and forth is tiring and takes the scarce brain reserves from focusing on driving the vehicle.

Regards,
lsjey

[harry10]

Let me say I do a lot of cursing while driving. I drive in NCR and that explains a lot for people who are familiar with all kind of idiots around here. I have been involved in a road rage too around 10-11 years back which wasn't initiated by me and was unavoidable. However, now-a-days whenever anyone cuts in front of me or drive likes an idiot around me I try to avoid any confrontation. On a routine drive there will be many more like this and we can't fight the whole world. It's only waste of time and energy.

Plus, I will highly recommend getting an Automatic. It makes you much calmer while driving instead of a manual. And as the mileage in Automatic is always less than manual, the subconscious makes you go soft on acceleration

Also age plays a part. My younger self used to enjoy doing 150kmph on highways. Now I don't cross 100 even if the road is empty. With time you learn it's always better to be late than Never. Cars can be replaced, lives can't.

[PrasannaDhana]

Driving is like being married.

There will be a lot of pleasurable joyful times, some hectic times and some times when you wish you could choke-slam the offender (er partner). But at the end of the day, patience keeps it afloat.

Only quality that's paramount to driving is patience. Skills come second.

Before every one starts to think I am a Saint, let me confess that I am the opposite. Used to be a guy with absolutely terrible temper, which had landed me in half a dozen road rage incidents. All of them taught me one thing, - It just isn't worth it. The worst show of my frustration nowadays is just honking like a crazy man, which I symbolize as cussing at the idiot.

PS: I have over 20 years of driving experience, having clocked close to 6 lakh km without a single accident incident. In my opinion, being a motorcycle rider can hone your judgement and response times in this erratic chaotic Indian traffic conditions.

[zadoom]

Really good idea for the thread. Also acts as a good trigger to think of what all could be the Key Performance Indicators to measure how good or safe a driver you are.

In my case I feel 2 key aspects are - 1) Patience and 2) Empathy. These days I am measuring myself on the 1st one by seeing how many Kilometers do I drive without honking. Currently I have driven 700 Kms in Mumbai - Navi Mumbai city plus one trip to Pune in between without even touching my horn. Not sure if that's anything to be proud of but want to test and see for how long can I go.

I am now trying to finalise a list of indicators for myself and see how to set-up a measurement system for those.

Cheers.

[GeeTee TSI]

An eye opening (as well as humbling ) discussion.

In my personal experience, careless and oblivious drivers holding back traffic used to infuriate the hell out of me. With time, changing circumstances (including a personal loss); these or any act of stupidity hardly affect me. The result is I probably drive safer

I always start my journey very laid back and pick up pace gradually (say, while exiting the city I am patience personified, looking up to my drive). However I noticed off late that carried too much speed as I entered city limits, sometimes missing the speed limits progressively reducing to 80, 60, 40 (with a couple of speeding tickets to boot by the ever watchful, strategically placed Bangalore traffic cops)

A car with an automatic can gain speeds quickly with little efforts and signal launches (despite cloaking it under legality of 'within speed limits') are just not safe, with too many variables at play. I don't need to prove my car's capabilities to anyone and have largely outgrown this urge

Lastly, the sheer number of long, wide-open highway drives makes me want to shed speed and urgency to embrace smoothness and endurance instead.

[AirbusCapt]

Folks, we all want to drive fast, cover large distances in a reasonable time, also want to have a smooth, stress-free journey. The trick for ensuring we can enjoy all of the above is quite simple.
1) start early. Starting off on a journey early in the morning means you don't encounter city traffic. The added advantage is that rural traffic like motorbikes, tempo, tractor etc will be scarce since they start coming on to the road only post 10/1030 am. Truck traffic is quite scare between 5 am till 11am because they all would have reached their destination and not heading out of the city. Interstate buses are almost nil since they prefer to operate in the night.

2) higher average speed not high speed driving. Understand this key difference. If you mantain an average speed of 80kmph you do 600 kms in 9 hours including breaks. If you mantain an average of 90kmph you do the same distance in 7 hours. To mantain an average of 90kmph, you need to cruise at about 110kmph (well within most legal speeds). The worst mistake drivers do is to vary their speeds. They drive erratically at say 60kmph, then zoom to 130kmph for short stretches and then reduce to 80/90 and what not.

3) plan your breaks. If you are disciplined then you always plan your breaktime and your halts. Stopping for selfies and snacks at every scenic place will get you nowhere. Keep your meal breaks as you would in office. Three meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner) even when done slowly will not consume more than 1.30 hours in total.

4) get adequate rest before the drive. A good 8 hours of sleep is required to keep your metal and physical faculties at its peak.

5) get your car serviced, tyres filled and the tank refuelled befor each journey. You don't want to waste time on the highway due a breakdown.

[pathik@2020]

Brilliant thread - wonderful to know how many of us are always trying to be the guy who diffuses a situation rather than aggravating. Speaks volumes for a forum like TBHP - proud to be here.
I started driving late and have about 2L KMs under my belt. I remember a colleague's wise words "the most unreliable nut in any car is the one behind the wheel". It has sort of stuck in my mind, not that it has prevented me from near-miss or foolhardy behavior always. I must confess that driving on our roads is a stressful exercise most of the times but over time I have realised that if I stick to below triple digit speed and am able to keep my ego aside then any drive turns enjoyable, at the very least not stressful.
It is easy to get angry with others but just like I make mistakes on the road - if I am able to condone others' mistakes it automatically diffuses any situation. Like someone's has already said - a little ego-massage smoothens any instance of road rage.
I enjoy driving but I also dread being a cause of any major accident. So far I've not caused anyone grief and I would love to keep it that way. Even if I have to give way to those who are in a hurry - genuinely or otherwise.

[shourya_lahiri]

A very informative and relevant thread. It will be worthwhile to learn form the comments of experts on this. Although me being quite a novice in the tbhp environment, yes road rage and lack of road sense rather has become something very prevalent. I must admit, even I do not follow all the rules. Cause its impossible to get anywhere if I start doing! I think the point nowadays is to drive smartly, use the power of the machine and its ability to move ahead efficiently, without hampering others nature cadence. And yes, if this pisses of certain fellow motorists (more so after spotting the tbhp logo), its better to let them pass. I have even pulled over and waited in order to end a prolonged desperate attempt to just get ahead of me, cause it was turning out to be risky for others as well.
My confession - I almost always drive on the left side or the center and less often on the rightmost, which is ideally the right side to overtake. Simply because all the slow cars are on the right nowadays!, cant help it.

[SPIKE ARRESTOR]

I break down this into 3 aspects, me, the car and the environment, then I follow these 2 principles:

1. I was into vehicle testing and calibration. My Guru and Boss Behram Dhabhar taught me during my M&M days. In his own words, "Remember, while you are driving, every other person on the road except you is a moron. Only then you can drive safe."

2. Know the limits - your limits and the vehicle's limits.

Points 1 and 2 cover me, the car and the environment we operate in.

Spike

[turboNath]

Great thread Samba !
It was really interesting to go through all the points and read about such a varied list of experiences. Indian roads throw up a lot of surprises (both pleasant and unpleasant ones). I feel it’s best to be constantly aware of the situation even when one is cruising down a particularly empty section of a highway. For every ‘safe’ driver out there, there will be hundreds of random bikers, pedestrians etc. hurtling down the wrong direction and cutting across your path from every imaginable angle !Few things that I always keep in mind (although it’s tough to follow most of the times) -

1)Keep calm always (even when the other driver is showing signs of aggression)
2)Always own up to my mistake with an apologetic gesture (this is actually very hard)
3)Expect the unexpected at all times
4)Keep an eye out for rogue drivers/riders and avoid getting near them

[Mustang Sammy]

IMHO what helps massively with driving (and life) is being mindful.
Meditation practice has helped me immeasurably in this regard. Cannot recommend it enough.

[Nalin1]

Originally Posted by BlackPearl

There is a saying that the most dangerous thing we do on a daily basis is driving. No other activity can have so much impact on others as well as the driver. If something goes wrong and there is an accident, everyone in that scene gets affected. The victim can pay with his/her life, get permanently disabled, can lose his/her future if the person is an athlete/dancer or sports person, maybe lose payment for days if the person is a daily wager! Then there is the driver who will have to undergo a lot of questions, trials, insurance claims etc. There are surrounding people who might have to stop doing their work and try to help the victim/s. Finally the family members of the victim/s and driver are also severely affected. If we take all these into account, it is really a very dangerous thing. in time to avoid an accident due to my sheer negligence!

Golden words BlackPearl .

However 99% of those on the road never ever realize this hard core fact. The consequences, if something goes wrong, is the same as that of someone climbing Mount Everest or fighting for the country on the border and not commensurate with the activity.

[careind]

I think unless you pass through something heart stopping you cant just learn/habituate SOME safe driving OCDs.

6 years back, I was driving my i10( 2010 4 speed TC AT) and spotted a slow moving vehicle quite a distance ahead on the highways. I gave a cursory glance in the rear view and there was a vehicle way back which I didnt think was a threat. I started gathering speed, as much as the TC would allow, and was about to change lanes to overtake when there was a long horn behind me. The vehicle I saw earlier turned out to be a BMW X5 driven by batman. I was very lucky that the brakes were able to stop me from crashing into the load carrying vehicle before me.
After that incident, I developed an OCD of looking at my rear-view and shoulder(s) every minute or so, so that I am aware of the traffic behind me.

[7000plusrpm]

Originally Posted by Samba

"Idiot!" "That guy has no driving sense!"
"Who gave him/her the driving license?"
"He is driving like an idiot!"

I use the 'driving like an idiot' phrase and more colorful versions of it in two scenarios primarily:
1. Anyone driving faster than me
2. Anyone driving slower than me
So, on the road, everyone is an idiot except myself. And I try to treat them like idiots.
I enjoy driving and usually take the car out on holidays for long drives. I feel comfortable doing 80-90 on our highways. Anything faster requires a much higher level of concentration and reflex and takes away the joy from driving. I may arrive 15-20 mins late while driving in a group, but hey, my bp is in check, and more importantly, I'm still enjoying the drive.

Apart from the driving skills, patience also goes a long way towards a safer drive. Unfortunately, the general population has neither of them. Most of the folks on the road may know how to operate a vehicle but don't know how to drive! There is a huge difference. Hence the need to treat them like idiots.

Originally Posted by DogNDamsel12

Just for kicks, a video where Schumacher hit Coulthard and then stormed into his racing garage charging him for his own fault.

Totally offtopic but It wasn't Michael's fault

[DogNDamsel12]

Originally Posted by 7000plusrpm

Totally offtopic but It wasn't Michael's fault

It wasn't, was it? With all due respect to the maestro, he did admit to it in a press conference. And, YouTube also puts it up as one of the top unsportsmanlike behaviour in F1. But I could be wrong - I am sure you have your reasons when you say it wasn't his fault.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mF50oFvs5Ew