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-   -   Bad Drivers - How do you spot 'em (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/road-safety/3580-bad-drivers-how-do-you-spot-em-400.html)

This happened on Varathur Road on my morning drive to Whitefield.

It was a two lane road and I was in the right lane moving at around 30KM/hr. Out of the blue, an i20 cuts into my lane (no indicators) and I had to maneuver the XUV onto the side median foothpath to avoid collision.:Frustrati I decide to move on, this guy comes zooming by from the left, shouts some crap from inside his car and zooms off. Got irritated and went on to follow the guy revving up the XUV, but then better sense got hold of me and decided he wasn't worth pursuing. He decides to hog the entire road, and does the same lane cutting again with out any indication. Road hogging continued till he took a left from the Shell Bunk and I moved straight.

Lesson learnt - if someone wants to hog the road, be patient and let them move ahead, they will get tired. Never engage with such folks, it only adds to 'ego' ours and theirs.

Indian roads are full of bad drivers and spotting them is very easy. However, what is even more strange is when these bad drivers brazenly disobey traffic rules in the presence of traffic cops.

Here is one such situation, that I saw today morning, where some car drivers can be seen driving on the wrong lane and three traffic policemen standing next to them conveniently choose to do nothing.

I have been reading posts in this thread for a long, long time now. There are hundreds of things I could post here, but I like to ignore them on the road to keep mind calm. However, some cannot be ignored. This is one of them:

We were on NH1(GT Karnal Road), going towards Sonipat from Mukarba Chowk, at around 100-120kmph. The road was fairly empty, with just a couple of cars. We were behind a Black Micra(PB 4949) in right-most lane and he did not allow us to overtake. We honked but he didn't move, so we finally overtook him from the left. This probably offended him. He followed us very closely for a few minutes when we slowed down a little and he overtook us from the left and came in lane in front of ours, missing our car with just a few inches. He returned back to his lane, still a few feet in front of us and took his window down. We did the same, and comparatively lowered the speed. He: Ki bhai?(What brother?) We: Kya?(What?) He: Kidda chala reya ae?(How are you driving?) We: Yaar ham to thik hi chala rhe hain.(We are driving right dude) He: Ha thik! Ik chapait penni ae sab samjh aa javegi!(Yea right! One slap and you'll get on right tracks!). The lady, probably driver's mother saw our faces which were now turning furious and asked her to move, and then forced her to move the car. All this just because we overtook him! :Frustrati

Attached is a photograph I took a few minutes after this. Everyone on the road had the courtesy to stop before stop line while this guy wanted to go all the way across it. I've also uploaded the same to Delhi Traffic Police's page for fancy number plate and stop line violation. Not sure if they would be able to do anything to a PB car though.

I saw a biker do much the same thing here in Chennai a few days ago. This was in Nungambakam High Road. 4 wheelers had stopped for pedestrians to cross, but a biker just carried on, literally forcing his way through a group of people on the road. What an ignorant moron!

Am I the only one who gets confused when a biker is honking from kms away and continues to honk through his journey? I have been distracted several times thinking I've squeezed a biker into the median only to realize that he's honking for the sake of it and will continue to do so until he reaches his destination. I realize that this may be to make people aware that he's coming through but honking without a breather usually on Delhi roads signify that you're pretty close to ramming someone and the driver in question is trying to get your attention.

Even after over-taking my car and with traffic still or moving and with no obstructions in their path some bikers continue to honk. With bumper to bumper traffic checking on your blind spots assuming you've missed something can lead to bumper touch which can lead to an argument. Maybe I'm too sensitive or this really is another problem.

Totally with you on this. But its not only bikers (I call them motorcycle morons) but I've seen car drivers do this too. We have one such Polo driving idiot who screams his way at 100+ in the dead of the night. Don't know how to catch this guy. I had even noted the regn. no.

Unfortunately our house is on an inner main road and that too a corner plot. The other day I actually stopped an Innova driver and tried to impress upon him that there is no reason to honk on inner residential areas (or anywhere else for that matter). His answer stumped me. He said his boss has told him to honk on every junction. Its the correct and safe driving practice!

We've such a long way to go and alas we ain't reaching there in my lifetime.

Would you believe me if I told that Delhi is actually better?

In the US, horn is use mostly to say ' bye ' when you leave a friend's house , you honk and your host, standing outside his door, waves . Just two short ' honk-honk' .
Sometimes you honk indicating your arrival at a friends house if they are expecting you - one short honk. As you are driving thru a neighbourhood and you see a friend
, it is ok to honk , to which your friend responds by a wave of his hand. Using the horn otherwise is considered bad manners. Certainly not when you pass pedestrian
ladies. In cities , like New York, where the influx of drivers from South Asia have cornered the market as taxi cab drivers, they start by being rash and noisy drivers but quickly are forced to give up the use of the horn because no one else uses it and they are frowned upon or even shown the bird if they do. I have had to replace dual tone horns in three of my cars - why, because they just went bad because of non-use !

I understand it now, the people(mainly bikers) who constantly honk are actually greeting us! I've been rude lately for not replying with a wave, it seems...lol:

A few days ago I was asked to reverse by a car coming head-on into wrong way. :x

Today came across a moron on Old Mumbai-Pune Highway. He was driving a brand new VW Polo. He was talking on phone and the car was doing 80-90 kmph. Meanwhile he wanted to shift the gear and he freed his left hand by holding the phone with right hand but on left rear :Shockked:. For few seconds the steering wheel was without any attention. What to call idiots like these..?

Talking about morons, yesterday I observed mornonity of epic proportions. I was driving on the link road connecting Vaishali to Indirapuram. Suddenly a white Skoda Yeti, coming from the opposite lane takes a U-turn and joins my lane. Fortunately, I had slowed down at the intersection thus, nothing untoward happened. Then, this Yeti swerves towards left lane and again swerves towards right, and then back to left lane. I really lost it at that point and honked to bring him to his senses and remind that there are others on the road too. He slowed down and I came parallel to him to instill some knowledge but on noticing the driver, I had nothing more to say. :Shockked: A middle-aged man had his son (probably 8-9 YO) on his lap and the kid was controlling the steering. :Frustrati

The man was smiling and his son was elated at the feat. I can understand the kid's happiness but I am really at loss of words for such irresponsible parents.

Ze Grim Reaper :D

or

Ze Organ Donor ;)

I have seen quite a few morons like this.
Few days back, I was returning from a trip to Bidar .. I was going at pretty high speed 120+ kmph. Now, one Volvo S60 overtakes me at very high speed easily 160 kmph. After that it slowed down a bit to 100-110 kmph and I caught up with it..while overtaking, I saw a 8-9 year old kid sitting on this guy's lap and operating the steering. Obviously, the father is still controlling the steering but still, how unsafe is it? I mean driving a car at 160 kmph with a kid on your lap! As a father myself, I can't think how a father can be so irresponsible.

On a separate note, a colleague in my office was doing the same - driving with his 3-4 yr old son on his lap not at such high speeds though. Few days later in the office, I told him once not to do that in a friendly manner. I could make out from the look of his face that he didn't really enjoy my advice - he was like who the hell are you to give me gyan? And guess what, few days later, I saw him again doing the same. I guess the only way these people will learn if they or their close ones experience something really bad ( I hope that does not happen though)

I came across a moron biker yesterday evening. I was at a crawling speed in the right lane as I was near an intersection from where I wanted to take a U-turn. I saw a biker approaching the same intersection from opposite direction and logically thought that he also wanted to take a U-turn. The moment I started steering to right, this biker zoomed in front of me forcing me to brake hard and stop to avoid collision. Then he slowed down, calmly squeezed through the narrow gap between my car and the median and moved on in the wrong direction, the direction which I came from. I gave him a stern look while he was crossing over that gap. He reciprocated with an equally stern look as if he owned the road and did nothing wrong.:Frustrati

Milestone, isn't it on Hosur road, near GB Palaya? It's mostly the 2-wheelers and ricks that do this stunt of nosing their way through the opposite side on the service lane, and then blocking the path. However, never seen anyone have the time to get out of the car, remove the barricade and then squeeze in.

Another example of "Money can buy many things, but definitely not traffic sense":



Mr.Laura-man is in a hurry. He cannot wait behind the stop line at Forum signal. He inches forward. Hurray, the signal is green for traffic to turn right from Raheja Arcade side towards Adugodi - after all it's a green, why wait now! He bullies the traffic and makes his way.

I posted a complaint in the BTP Public Eye portal:



With the way he drove off, it makes me wonder why he doesn't have any pending violations on this car!

All it takes is the slightest reason for the airbag to blow up in the kid's face. Try describing that to colleague! Or maybe not: it probably does take the hard way to learn sometimes.