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-   -   New road infra changes that are safety hazards and spoiling the driving experience (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/road-safety/266277-new-road-infra-changes-safety-hazards-spoiling-driving-experience-2.html)

Specific to the news article and the general tyre awareness in our country (pardon the generalisation) I know of many close friends and family members whose private cars might not take a Samruddhi like express highway without a tyre incident.

There is an unfathomable reluctance to spend on tyres - replacing two out of a set of tyres, perception based call on tyre tread, ignorance on tyre age (not wear, not kms run) and its risks, poor discipline in maintaining recommended cold air pressure, the list could go on.

Then you have commercial vehicle owners and deliberate compromises to cut costs

The expansion joints show the inadequacy of our road builders on using better standards and processes.

On the topic of rumble strips, there is one on ramp from Manyata tech park joining ORR towards Hebbal. They have put these on the curve where the roads join. At normal speed going over these on the curve slides the car with no grip. Haven't seen anyone getting into a mishap luckily.

It’s more of a tyre profile and tyre softness issue than suspension, unless the suspension is as soft as to react for such small undulations. Even premium cars with low profile tyres have the same problem and the vibrations reach the cabin. These cars handle very well otherwise. The rumblers are absorbed by the flex of the tyre sidewall.

I hate having reflectors in the middle of 1.5 or barely 2 lane roads. At night they are useful, but during the day, any attempt to keep to your lane will result in your car being rattled by them continuously as you keep moving in and out of your lane to avoid parked/stopped cars, pedestrians etc. You end up with no choice but to drive right down the middle of the road.

This is definitely a growing nuisance.
Recently while coming from Salem to Bengaluru noticed a new kind of speedbreaker in which instead of a hump ,our intelligent highway people have cut the road like 3 or 4 lines stretching the width of the road, this is way more dangerous than the others. I was shocked when I saw that on an Highway, couldn’t take any pictures though.

“Safety” features that I despise-

1. THICK rumble strips, plastic speed breakers- Slowing down makes me paranoid about someone ploughing into the back of me, going over them at speed in a sedan almost makes me cry.

2. The cross-hatching at intersections- Many important intersections are getting a cross-pattern painted on them and they are very slippery when wet. Almost understeered across 2 lanes a few nights back.

3. Use of digital billboards- I see multiple digital billboards now advising me to drive safe. How am I supposed to see the road when I am blinded by a bright video in the middle of the night?

4. Stupid road markings- I don’t know who is responsible for road signs and markings but I see STOP signs on highway off-ramps. This one is going to be a bigger menace once ADAS usage ramps up.

5. Check-posts- How is a makeshift slalom in the middle of the highway made using metal barriers supposed to keep the road users safe?

6. Illogical speed limits- Some highways have posted speed limits of 30kmph depending on the section. Enough said.

With the kind of miserable salaries that civil engineers get, most people with a degree in that field will jump ship to IT or get an MBA.
Those that are left are (mostly) either incapable of making the leap or are in it to make money at any cost.

We see the results on our roads and in the shoddy construction quality of our public buildings.

I've found the highway rumblers to be ok. I haven't had bad experiences with it. Its the non-standard ones inside city that throw up a surprise. There's one set between Kamatchi Hospital and Vijayanagar bridge on Velachery-Tambaram road which looks deceptive but is big enough to alter your direction.

I find the reflectors indispensable, especially on 2-lane highways. Its an absolute pain to judge on roads with opposing traffic without reflectors.

Both these are more long term effect problems. We have challenges that can potentially kill its users:

Speed Breakers or mini Mountains on major NHs - Most famously the one at Haveri on NH4 that flung a Mini Cooper into a bus stop. There are quite a few massive ones on Chitradurga-Bijapur stretch. All of which will instantly damage your suspension or worse kill you if you fly off them.

Unannounced shrinking and expansion of multi-lane highways - Most famously NH68 between Ulundurpet and Salem. The lead-up to Ambur(this has been corrected very recently). Indore-Dahod NH.

Oddball divider cuts - Yes this will mean longer detours if you are on opposite direction. But its better than ones that'll put you in the firing line of fast traffic.

This phenomenon is observed in most cars. Properly laid rumble strips go fine on my Altroz but the ones laid with higher thickness can shake the hell out of the car. The problem is, some rumble strips are good but some are too thick and we can't be sure which ones are thick.

This may no be observed in Hexa and Compass considering they are good in ride quality and have sufficient tyre size and sidewall thickness but most cars will feel them. When we slow the cars to near speed breaker speeds, we can feel the car move over them as if they are mini speed breakers. That's how bad they are.

Some even have reflectors on top of them in alternate spaces to ensure the wheels travel over them as well, creating even more discomfort and damage. It's like shaking a sleeping passenger awake even when we crawl on highways.

These and the flashing red/blue lights on the highways that literally create headache during night drives. The older highways may be smaller/poorly constructed but they were many times smoother than these newer so-called advanced highways.

I agree 100% on that.

I too have an Altroz, and some of the rumble strips literally shake up everything. Every time I cross one of these, I wonder what might have been damaged in the car.

There are a few manageable ones, like the one on NH44 as you are about to reach Thoppur while going towards Coimbatore. Why can't all of them be like those?

However, most of them are a nuisance. And since they are not standardised, there are no specific speeds at which they are not uncomfortable.

The red and blue lights are another thing all together. Combine that with everyone using the high beam on their vehicles, and soon a nice road trip turns into a headache.

I don't think the people claiming this to be a car suspension issue have actually encountered these unscientific rumble strips. Just like speed breakers, there can be well implemented ones and very poor jugaad jobs. For example, there was this one road in Goa where the tar between the rumble strips had worn out and the result was violent shaking when driving over them no matter how slow or fast you went. Also here in Kerala, some roads have overly thick rumble strips possibly due to contractors double coating them in an effort to prevent them from wearing out as fast when overloaded trucks etc go over them. You can feel these in any car, whether it be a BMW, an Innova, a jeep compass or a Hyundai hatchback.

In either case, going fast over rumble strips is a bad idea since even though your suspension will take the brunt and prevent it being felt in the cabin, your tyres are still having poorer contact with the ground due to jumping up and down. Braking will be poor and emergency maneuvers might lead to you losing control since you have much less traction. Putting small sets of rumble strips a set length before a turn can still be okay since it will jolt drivers awake as well as provide a warning that a turn is coming but putting them in the curve itself is the height of idiocy.

I drive past ITPL every day.

To the folks who do not know what ITPL is, it is a "premier" tech park in Bangalore that happens to house the who is who of fancy companies.

The road quality was absolute crap along the corridor proudly named after the premier tech park until recently. The roads have now become pretty good after the metro project in this area was inaugurated by our esteemed PM.

However, here are two rumble strips that are laid right in front of this exalted space.

The central AC vent on my wife's 11 year old Fabia popped out when I drove over them at 30 kmph. So much for German quality, eh? NO

The strips shake my teeth fillings loose on my Slaiva. They felt terrible on a Creta + Kushaq+ GV+ Hyrider+ Seltos +Hycross I was test driving for my MIL (the said rumble strips now serve as a ride testing location). Heck, they felt the same in my boss' C-Class and a colleague's Compass model S.

So NO. The whole "it is not the road, it is the car" argument needs revisiting.

More examples:

Rumble strips laid out mid corner on a road in Coorg made a car I was driving nearly swap ends once.

Another poorly marked speed breaker which was in a place least expected led to a sudden loss of tyre pressure after a few km. Thank god I wasn't speeding!

Safety? HA!

Moral of the story:

If the road appears nice, be doubly cautious. They very likely have features on them designed specifically to say gotcha!

My thoughts too :thumbs up why can't they all be the same sane ones.

There's one stretch of road in trivandrum, just before the airport exit which have 5 series of rumble strips one after the other.
The first one appears the correct one, as it gives a slight rumble effect and noise, but no shaking of the car. (Serving the real purpose of the strips). But then, the thickness of subsequent set of strips increases drastically, so much so that, the last two sets cannot be run over without getting car to crawling speed. If you don't reduce the speed, yea, it hurts :unhappy. It is that bad and I cannot understand for what reason they are doing this.

Even if some cars could or might soak it, it's suspension and tires are still getting the beating unnecessarily.