[TROOPER]

People have no clue that vehicles, can be used as weapons, indirectly or directly(read some terror attacks).

And by people I mean everyone. The ones using them as well as the ones just walking on the road.

There's zero awareness that one could hurt someone or can get hurt by a vehicle.

That's just the most important point and no other points are worth discussing unless people accept or aware of this basic fact. I mean how many two wheel riders are plying as I write and you read this post, without helmets? When one's own brain matter is worthless, how can you expect such people to respect or care for others lives?

Till then we aren't going anywhere as far as road safety is concerned.

[ashivas89]

My biggest pet peeves?

1. Cars with Team-BHP stickers being driven by folks whose house is likely on fire

2. Two wheelers overtaking a car on the left while the car is making a 90 degree left turn

3. Tailgaters on ramps of any sort

4. Jaywalkers on elevated highways ( i mean.. )

5. Latest gen Thars being driven like there is no tomorrow on traffic infested streets (i saw one knock someone's mirrror off and nearly take a biker out while escaping scene 1. Inevitably the dude had a team bhp sticker on )

6. Unlit trucks

7. Hazards while driving in the rain

8. Coasting in neutral/ throwing the car in neutral while slowing down.

9. Cabs with bald tires

[BleueNinja]

I think people plonking their kids out of sunroof is very risky. Not only kids but even adults sit on the roof or stand through it while in a moving car.

Another one is people talking on phone while riding their scooters with one leg over another like they are sitting on their sofa.

Last but not the least the “ego trip”. Some folks seriously believe that they have the right of the way and other peasants in front of their vehicle can just move aside while giving way to the mighty. This behaviour is generally attributed to a certain group of vehicles but I will refrain from naming them as I own of those vehicle too people in India generally believe that it’s the other vehicle’s duty to allow them to pass without understanding or realising whether it’s safe to do so or if the vehicle in front of them can give them a safe pass or not? The other day I saw a Thar owner continuously honking and hurling choice words at an ambulance driver because it was “blocking” his way.

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller

1. Many professional drivers (including cabbies) I have come across, do not understand that they should not rest their left foot on the clutch pedal, when not shifting gears. Or that the clutch and brake pedals should not be pressed simultaneously in a moving car.

Yup, I have seen this. I asked one of them why do that. The cab driver replied that a friend of his while teaching him how to drive taught him this “trick” by which his car won’t stall because if he were to press only the brakes then he won’t have sufficient time to downshift and stop the car from stalling but if he presses clutch and brake together the car won’t stall and he can downshift easily. He said that now he understands that he will have sufficient time to downshift and need not press clutch along with the brake but that behaviour is just engrained him like a muscle memory.

[StepUP!]

On Indian roads, everyone is in their fairy land where he/she is the king/ queen. Egos fly high - as big and as fragile as their car's touchscreens

1. Riding on the wrong side with phone sandwiched between tilted neck and shoulder
2. Riding on the footpath and honking at the pedestrian walking on it
3. Tailgating ambulance closely
4. Waiting on the narrow road, hogging one lane, blocking flow of the traffic. To top it up, driver / passenger sitting inside the car, checking his Facebook/ WhatsApp nonchalantly
5. Pressing on the gas when you see amber signal or some pedestrian about to cross the road
6. Driver opening door of his moving car to spray his tobacco / Gutkha / Paan on the road
7. Thinking every left turn is a free turn and honking incessantly at other vehicles which are blocking it while waiting at the signal
8. In a traffic jam, cars/autos blocking all lanes, leaving not an inch of a space for two wheelers which otherwise can easily pass
9. 2-3 adults with kids and luggage on a bike riding fast highway
10. Two wheelers moving laterally at a very close distance in a traffic jam behind big vehicles or between two big vehicles. If that vehicle rolls backward even by an inch, they will get crushed

[Mustang Sammy]

Yup.
1. People fiddling with their phones while driving.
2. Driving extra slow in the fast lane on highways. People on this forum beat up on truckers, but cars are equal offenders in this regard. So many of them doing 60-65 in the right lane on the Pune Mumbai lane expressway.
3. Attitude of big vehicle drivers, including and especially those ferrying politicians and government officials.
4. People forming multiple turn lanes and not leaving any room for traffic that is going straight.
5. Stopping in the middle of traffic to pick up items from street vendors
6. Turning and making u-turns from whichever lane they please.
7. Throwing trash out of windows that can hit the vehicle behind them.
8. Spitting. Dear god, spitting. Seeing that makes me want to throw up.

To be continued…

[tilt]

Originally Posted by ashivas89

My biggest pet peeves?

1. Cars with Team-BHP stickers being driven by folks whose house is likely on fire *SNIP*

What does one have to do with the other? Also, don't you know, every sticker adds 5 BHP?

Cheers

[ashivas89]

Originally Posted by tilt

What does one have to do with the other? Also, don't you know, every sticker adds 5 BHP?

Cheers

Something along the lines of BHPians (or lurkers) should know better...

[blueather]

I think it comes to down to selfish nature of Indian drivers (both 2 wheelers and 4 wheelers).
Everyone wants to reach their destination asap. It doesn't matter what means they acquire to reach there.

Enough has been said about poor city traffic conditions but I want to talk about a rising prominent issue. I don't know if it happens in southern India but people have suddenly started a LHD system on highways in North India.
Every 4 wheeler is now driving on the right side just besides the divider.
What causes huge safety risk in this situation is that bikers are in the left lane and cars are in the right lane. So everything is fine if the traffic is fast moving. But you'll be in a lot of trouble when you want to overtake a car and there's no choice but to shift to left lane for overtaking.
And then there's huge tankers and trucks driving in the right lane at the speed of snail.
I don't know what happened or when the meaning of lanes was changed but I always thought that right lane is for passing and them you shift back to left lane. Some people call it the fast lane. Whatever that means.

These huge trucks sometimes start a racing competition but they have no power in the engines so it takes ages for one truck to overtake another while you're stuck behind them like a sad clown.
I will never understand what these trucks achieve by overtaking another truck because even after overtaking they drive just behind one another. All that drama for nothing.

I'm tired of driving like we're in a LHD country.

[MyLife_MyCar]

All good points already covered here. I want to point out the one most difficult to understand rule:

RED means STOP!!

However, due to its complexity, we observe below behavior:

1. The (mis)understanding of this rule knows no gender, no caste, no educational qualification, no socioeconomic status. "India is a land of diversity" can very well be applied here when it comes to breaking this rule.
2. This rule is so complex that people cross it instead of stopping.
3. This rule is so complex that people approaching the signal, while timer nears zero, will double their speed rather than slowing down.
4. This rule is so complex that if one person stops at red light meant for the pedestrian crossing, others will honk at him/her while wondering why this person stopped in the middle of the road when it's not a traffic intersection.

This list can go on, but I hope people got the point...

[Mustang Sammy]

Originally Posted by ashivas89

My biggest pet peeves?

1. Cars with Team-BHP stickers being driven by folks whose house is likely on fire

Must be those duplicate T-BHP stickers from China.

Jokes apart, we as members of this forum should set the standard of proper driving. Sad if there are some who use the sticker just as a badge of membership in an exclusive club while not living up to its expectations.

[Downshifter]

Well, how about over slow driving??? I see people driving at 20kph despite having an empty road for no apparent reason.

How many people look into their car’s mirrors while driving. People don’t even realise that they exist.

I think there should be a basic awareness while driving like “THERE IS SOMEBODY BEHIND YOU” keep your eyes on the road. How do people think that when there is no one in their front there is no one at the back as well?? I see countless idiots going toooo slow stopping traffic in behind and suddenly cutting to left of a shop.

While making a basic assumption that accidents happen by overspeeding is such a gigantic nonsense. Lots and lots of people don’t maintain their vehicle well. How many regularly check and maintain optimum tyre pressures. I see even showroom people over inflating tyres after service.

Then there are the 2 wheeler idiots who literally cross the road from the wrongside like they are somehow walking. It’s so stupid to even imagine like that.

I think people should be fined for not maintaining their vehicle properly which lead to unnecessary accidents. Also, there should be proper investigation before concluding that overspeeding are causing accidents. There may be many factors like the negligence of autos, 2 wheelers and many other blind people driving which are somehow let away by everyone. Most of those people value their life too less and its very unfortunate and pathetic to see.

[noopster]

While our sins on the road are legendary (and there is an entire Bad Drivers thread on the forum to show for it!) I want to focus on those aspects that are considered absolutely essential in other countries but are completely omitted in India, either out of ignorance or malice:

- Calling the police after an accident: here we allow “common sense” or worse street justice to decide who is in the right and who isn’t. Cops are at best intermediaries (“Gareeb aadmi hai Saab, settle kar dena!”) or at worst bullies and predators.

- Exchanging insurance information after an accident and following the due process: after 25 years of driving here I am convinced there is no due process. Like a fool I keep insuring my cars and paying for my own damage, regardless of which idiot has hit me in the street.

- A scientific and consistent method of setting and implementing speed limits: Our famed Mumbai Pune expressway has places where the speed limit literally drops from 80 to 30 without any warning or even justification. If you follow the law you will almost certainly be mowed down. Implementing is worse: speed cameras issue tickets citing random limits (that are not even marked). One TBHP friend was ticketed for doing 102 in a 95 zone on NH48 (as far as any of us can remember there is no marked 95 limit anywhere on that road).
- Right of way, yielding to those with right of way and stopping for a pedestrian crossing: I am confident that these are not even in the law books by now. If you get mowed down by a vehicle and claim you had the right of way as a pedestrian you would get laughed out of court.

- A comprehensive and universal licensing system: The current system, though vastly improved from a generation ago, is still imperfect. The general consensus seems to be: the process of getting a DL only certified that you can hit the road legally, all your learning follows experientially after that! It sounds rather ridiculous when stated like that but this is a fact.

- Unscientific road design, especially exits off highways and service roads: In Pune where I live, cops deliberately keep usage of service roads ambiguous- when convenient these are two-way and other times they are designated one-way only. It also results in ridiculous situations where you exit from the highway directly into oncoming traffic (and this is quasi-legal).

[anjan_c2007]

An older version of the Maruti Alto is seen carrying a shipping container on its roof. The video has gone viral on social media. A RE Bullet is seen trailing the loaded hatchback presumably to oversee its safe passage.

The Instagram post says:-

"You can Argue but there's no match with Lord Alto".

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CssRu..._web_copy_link

[Ltinsane]

My biggest pet peeves:

Car in front of me driving in two lanes. Please, just pick a lane.

When People turn on indicator at the last possible moment and think that all traffic behind will just stop instantaneously.

Random police Barricade in the middle of the road in Kolkata. It's not a police Naka, it's a lone barricade placed in the second or third lane without any apparent reason.

Earlier this year, I drove to Puri from Kolkata. The number of times a biker will cut me off on Highway, while talking on phone was in double digits. That was really surprising to me, do people don't care for their own lives?

At one point I was walking on a small street and came up to an intersection. Three motorbikes coming from three different roads. All of them talking on mobile phones. I was scared for a moment, but thankfully no accident happened.

[shankar.balan]

Depressing threads borne out by the facts around us.
This morning just to give my beloved Gypsy a run, I loafed around the neighbourhood and encircling areas for 10-12kms. Went into a large empty site which was full of mud just to slot the 4WD H and 4WD L for a few minutes.
All this is fun.

But increasingly nowadays, despite being a borderline obsessive driving enthusiast, I just feel like selling all the vehicles, buying one single modern-small-footprint-all-purpose vehicle like the Jimny and sitting quietly.

Once a year or so, research and plan a nice driving holiday somewhere interesting where one can rent a few great cars and drive on some superb roads.

Better to invest in such driving experiences across the globe rather than plonk money on car ownership in India is what my head is saying to me.