[silversteed]

This nincompoop lady driving a Grey Ford Figo (KA-51-MB-1172) carrying 2-3 other ladies thinks having a gossip talk inside the car and driving as she wishes is cool:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9W0F6s9v9SE

(Action begins at 00:15)

I earnestly hope she ends up in front of some junk Indicab with non-existent brakes, so that she wakes up from her gossip world.

[500ContyCruiser]

Originally Posted by silversteed

This nincompoop lady driving a Grey Ford Figo (KA-51-MB-1172) carrying 2-3 other ladies thinks having a gossip talk inside the car and driving as she wishes is cool:

(Action begins at 00:15) I earnestly hope she ends up in front of some junk Indicab with non-existent brakes, so that she wakes up from her gossip world.

I feel you could have controlled your car speed and let her go without all that honking. I see she was almost on the road while you were still far behind.

My opinion is just based on the video posted here!

[500ContyCruiser]

Not sure if this would be appropriate thread. Still posting it here.

Drifting turned out to be a flop show!

http://youtu.be/asnaN725iQA

[Soumyajit9]

Originally Posted by 500ContyCruiser

Not sure if this would be appropriate thread. Still posting it here.
Drifting turned out to be a flop show!

And a smart biker tastes the dust upon seeing cops.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBTGgT_V5F8

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by 500ContyCruiser

I feel you could have controlled your car speed and let her go without all that honking. I see she was almost on the road while you were still far behind.

The video stops too soon. Has nobody here ever pulled out in front of someone when they should really have waited? Certainly I have. What I try to do, traffic allowing, is to accelerate enough so that I don't slow them down.

It does annoy me...

1. When the person pulling out has obviously not even looked at all.

2. When they pull out and slow down in front of me.

3. When they pull out in front of me when the road was clear behind me.

All those things annoy me, but, apart from trying never to commit number 1 on the list, because that's just dangerous, I'm not at all free from sin myself.

But it also looks as if the car pulled out immediately behind another vehicle, which silversteed would have had to have slowed down for anyway.

[AbhishekB86]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

The video stops too soon. Has nobody here ever pulled out in front of someone when they should really have waited? Certainly I have. What I try to do, traffic allowing, is to accelerate enough so that I don't slow them down.

I think if the lady had pulled in she should not have blocked the entire way. While joining any road if there's an oncoming vehicle, I pull in to the left most space allowing the vehicle to go on without slowing down. Of course the vehicle should not be in that lane.

[sohail99]

Utter chaos at DGE toll plaza caused by bad drivers!

Will they ever learn or even show a hint of will to improve??

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ardR-...ature=youtu.be

[Gannu_1]

Having lived here for 5+ years, I thought I should make a mention about the godforsaken traffic sense in this city.

1. School-going girls ride gearless scooters to their schools. Some of them could barely touch the ground with their feet! Guys are a step ahead in this department - they ride all the fancy bikes their parents have gifted them showing off their leet skillz by revving and doing dangerous maneuvers at high speeds which could potentially put the other commuters at risk. They don’t wear a helmet either. Then there is the elite category who takes his four wheeler to school! I spot a guy daily morn, driving his modded i20 who parks underneath a flyover bang opposite to the school. Do these guys have a driving license? Definitely not! A license for gearless scooters < 50cc is okay but I don't think we have a scooter today that is less than 50 cc.

2. Helmet is considered an accessory here not a necessity. A vast majority of the two-wheeler riders do not wear one. They get pulled over by the traffic cops and cops being the good guys they are, they fine the offenders very modestly - Rs. 50! How very kind of them you see! Some of the bikers who commute to work, wear hard hats. We all know hard hats may at best, protect the skull and the innards during a potential fall but doesn’t protect the face. Well, they don’t seem to care. Ladies seem to wear some sort of a bandana on their head covering everything except the eyes.

On a related note, I had to convince a close friend REAL hard to buy himself a proper helmet. Showed him several instances of fatal accidents, narrated a few incidents and what not! He rides a Karizma and a Unicorn and despite all these years, he never bothered to get one. After a lot of persuasion, he bought one from a Castrol Bike Zone outlet here. He rides well but you never know, it could be someone else’s fault.

3. When dusk sets in, we all gradually turn on the headlamps of our vehicles no? Suratis believe in the principle of conservation of energy! They do not turn on the headlamps, instead they rely on the street lights and the light from the other (read sensible) commuters. I had chanced upon asking a random guy (we were at a [i]paan-gutkha[i] shop) as to why he didn’t turn on the headlamp of his bike and he said, “It drains the battery bro!”. Of course when the street is lit up so well, sometimes we tend to forget to turn on the lights, unless we reach a dark section of the road.

4. A one-way street means all the traffic moves in a single direction. In Surat, this means all the traffic could go in both the directions in multiple lanes - I am not kidding! Usually the road that goes beneath the flyover (disconnecting from it) is a one-way road but here, the commuters drive in both the directions. The one in the wrong direction drives with the headlights or hazard lights turned on. Cops do not seem to have an issue with this either.

For instance, take a look at this snap:



The arrow indicates the direction of the traffic on this road. On the contrary, here the commuters would go in the opposite direction as well!

5. Hazard lights are usually turned on when the vehicle is broken. But here there are a few other uses - while going straight from a 4-way junction ahead without taking the left or right exits, parking at a no-parking zone with the driver waiting in the car and driving in the wrong direction.

6. When there is a junction with a central round-about and we intend to take a U-turn, we do it from the round-about. That’s not how it is done here. They take a turn at the break of the median. Why waste the fuel and time for taking the round-about!

Like this:



7. A majority of them drive with the high-beams turned on and it gets really painful at times esp. when cars are equipped with HIDs such as the Laura and Superb. A mere flick of the stalk switches to the low beam but they don’t do that. My road, my principles attitude. It really REALLY hurts at times! The worst part being, when we flash the high and low beams requesting them to switch, they don’t pay heed.

8. It would take at least 2-3 minutes for the average pedestrian to cross a road with average traffic. Commuters barely give way to the pedestrians and they do not have absolutely any consideration. Forget about roads which are crowded during the peak hours. Those would need an army of pedestrians to form a group first and then one guy would take the lead who would show the hand to the oncoming traffic asking them to stop and the others follow. However, if you choose to stop your vehicle and give way for the pedestrians, you will be honked to death by the ones who’re following you.

9. This place has a blessing - CNG availability and it is affordable although it is getting expensive as we speak. Thus, 99% of the auto-rickshaws are CNG based and operate cheaply. In 2008, when we had come here, some of us have travelled a short distance for Rs. 2 per person - it used to be that cheap! But a rickshaw can accommodate 3 persons or 4 if the fourth is a small kid or a toddler who could be seated on an elder’s lap. But here, you can easily spot share-rickshaws plying with 7-10 (ten, yes!) people of various sizes and shapes nicely squeezed into the rick.

10. A two-wheeler can be a three-wheeler, four-wheel, five-wheeler or even a six-wheeler!









No wonder Mr. Tata wanted to roll out the Nanos from the Sanand plant as soon as he could!

11. Using the cellphone and driving/riding - plentiful. You'd be hardpressed not to find one on the roads.



These are some of the things I have noticed over the last few years. With this scene in Surat, it took us some time to adapt to this city after having come here few years back. My post shouldn’t be viewed as a rant. I have learned to get adapt with this place eventually.

PS: All the pics have been taken from Google images for reference.

[sinharishi]

Originally Posted by sohail99

Will they ever learn or even show a hint of will to improve??

No,they WONT. Use the Old road via Kapashera

Saves you INR 42/- and all the pain standing in the queue surrounded by morons.

[Thad E Ginathom]

No need to blank out faces. The pictures are taken in public, and, in the very highly unlikely event of the the subjects being shamed --- that would be a good thing! (oh, just saw you got from Google anyway)

Originally Posted by AbhishekB86

While joining any road if there's an oncoming vehicle, I pull in to the left most space allowing the vehicle to go on without slowing down. Of course the vehicle should not be in that lane.

Agreed, that is a good point about joining a toad with two or more lanes: join in the left lane.

[supremeBaleno]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Agreed, that is a good point about joining a toad with two or more lanes: join in the left lane.

Actually, that is how one should join a road - onto the left lane. In this case, the lady instead drives across/perpendicular the road onto the fast lane. But then that's how most people seem to join a road.

[drmohitg]

Originally Posted by sohail99

Utter chaos at DGE toll plaza caused by bad drivers!

Will they ever learn or even show a hint of will to improve??

This is an eternal problem at this toll now and honestly has started getting on my nerves now. But also to be fair one has no idea while joining at the back as to which lane is legal and which one is merging into. You only realise it later. The problem lies with the first driver who takes the wrong decision of cutting into a lane and the rest of the monkeys following. But once a long queue is formed there is no way to make out which is the correct lane.

[sohail99]

Originally Posted by drmohitg

This is an eternal problem at this toll now and honestly has started getting on my nerves now. But also to be fair one has no idea while joining at the back as to which lane is legal and which one is merging into. You only realize it later. The problem lies with the first driver who takes the wrong decision of cutting into a lane and the rest of the monkeys following. But once a long queue is formed there is no way to make out which is the correct lane.

Agreed completely! That, one has no idea which queue is going where!

You can see the swift guy who made a wrong decision and ppl kinda bullied him in, by quickly following him and making the rogue queue of bully drivers.

I'm uploading the whole 20 minute fiasco and this was just the start of it. You will see me being bullied out of my lane, fortunately a kind hearted fortuner driver let me back in and then another fight for queue jumping right till the concrete lane separators!! Completely hopeless.

Now, I have installed a Blackvue 2ch DVR in my i20 and will be able to record from the rear as well! Hehe

[drmohitg]

Originally Posted by sohail99

Agreed completely! That, one has no idea which queue is going where!

I'm uploading the whole 20 minute fiasco and this was just the start of it. You will see me being bullied out of my lane, fortunately a kind hearted fortuner driver let me back in and then another fight for queue jumping right till the concrete lane separators!! Completely hopeless.

But the problem is that there is no real solution to this menace. The traffic volume is so huge that the vehicles start queuing up almost 200 meters before the toll. That too after multiple wrong lanes. If all were to follow the lanes strictly then probably the queue would extend to half a km back.

[silversteed]

Originally Posted by 500ContyCruiser

I feel you could have controlled your car speed and let her go without all that honking. I see she was almost on the road while you were still far behind.

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

The video stops too soon...

Originally Posted by AbhishekB86

I think if the lady had pulled in she should not have blocked the entire way...

In hindsight, I may have been a wee bit late on the brake pedal, and the emergency at hand (it was a real one, and not something like my sphincters are giving way due to the fluid pressure build up inside the bladder) caused the repeated presses on the horn pad.

What really ticked me off, and made me post that video was that the driver was totally unaware of what was happening around her. She was engrossed in an animated conversation with the other occupants.

Appreciate your comments nevertheless.

EDIT:
The video stops soon because the memory card ran out of space