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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-448.html)

Yes, it is always better to enter the turn with a speed you are comfortable and more importantly safe with. However, if you must enter the turn at higher speed for some reason, you should keep a deaf touch on the brakes. Not that you should stomp on the pedal, just a consistent & effective touch. The technique is known as 'trail braking'. This helps you shift the weight of the car (or bike) on the front wheels, which are the guiding wheels. This helps you in creating higher traction between the road & the front wheels of your car/ bike. Also, you are in a better position to brake if there is some danger which you did not anticipate before the turn as you are already on the pedal. This way you take away the 'reaction time' from braking. Another important thing about it is that it can help you decrease your cornering radius hence giving you more control while turning.

Accelerate smoothly when you get to the exit point of the turn.

However, for normal street driving, it is best to chop off the throttle and shed off all the speed before entering a turn.

Regards,
Saket

The rule is Loose speed before the curve, power through it, accelerate out of it.

I'm guessing that a lot of cars upside-down in fields, etc, got there just because the driver didn't know that. I had a colleague who wrote off the company's most expensive car, and admitted that he didn't know not to brake on a corner.

But which of us has never entered a corner to discover that it is much sharper than we thought and we are going to fast. We are not perfect: it happens. What is the right way to loose speed when one is already turning sharply?

Yes. As they say - Slow corner in, faster out.
The golden rule of turning - Slow> Look> Lean (or turn)> Go.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom (Post 3530084)

Going by the previous rule, always look where you want to go. Because most of the times, you will end up where you are looking. It is called 'target fixation'. So better to look at the target rather than the scenery if one doesn't want to be a part of it.:D

Yes, it happens. With my limited experience of riding, I would say, a touch on the rear brakes help, without chopping off the throttle. It makes tight cornering possible and helps you maintain the lean angle as the rear wheel acts like a turn 'pivot'. If you hit the front brakes, the bike will tend to get straighter which will make matters worse on a tight corner.

But you don't have separate brakes on a car, hence what I will do in such a situation, if confronted, is to build braking pressure progressively so as to keep the skid under control. If done abruptly, the tyres may lose road grip due to cornering and braking forces acting together on the limited contact patch. Just ease off the throttle and apply brakes progressively. This will keep the load on the front tyres and help provide good traction with the road. If you are at a higher speed, the rear would tend to slide away and help you over steer at the corner. This is the most a layman driver like us can do. I would not advice regular people like us to indulge in pulling the rear handbrakes to over steer on public roads. All this, assuming the car is FWD.

Edit: Better to maneuver without riding the clutch as it will negate the benefit of getting off the throttle and add weight to the front wheels.

Regards,
Saket

Engine braking. Downshift as required. Brake very gently. Handbrake if confident about it - can spin the tail out if not done in skilled hands (instead of the rollover that usually happens due to desperate use of the brake pedal). Spun-out car may be better than rolled-over car in certain circumstances.

The time was 1230am and not pm, it was a typo in my post above. Also I'm sure you know the western express highway is pretty empty at night with cars doing 80 or so. No one expects traffic to come to a stop in a place where it is usually flowing very smoothly. So as soon as I saw the traffic stopped I switched on my hazards, for the reasons Tsk has mentioned. Infact before coming to a stop I myself was confused whether the cars had stopped up ahead or were moving, since no one had put on the hazard lights.

As for the second instance, the guy overtook me from way too close, on the inside lane on a left turn. I'm admitting I got a bit irritated.

I think this chap thought he was in an M3 and not in an Accent. Or he was probably drunk, or just a stupid chap. Either way I'm sure hes learnt his lesson, and luckily I don't think anyone got seriously injured.

When you're right in the middle of it, disengaging the clutch to change down feels like a risky thing to do. On the other hand, if I can't see my way all the way through a corner, I'm likely to have changed down before entering it.

My concerns are probably on the conservative side anyway. I might have been thinking "aaargh" a couple of times, but I've never come close to actually loosing it. Oh, except the time I lost it... and that wasn't so much a case of taking the bend too fast as failing to take it at all, as it was completely unexpected. :Frustrati

Mostly, I'm a pretty slow and boring driver!

I now work in a large-ish IT campus - 6 or 7 10-storey buildings, thousands of employees. Today, I witnessed an incident of road rage inside the campus, where one would expect everyone to drive sedately.

At a pedestrian crossing inside the campus, jerk in maroon i20 refuses to allow pedestrian to cross and almost runs him down. Man was a very large-built expat, and did not take it lying down. Jerk in i20, being a tool, decides to open the boot and take the fight to the next level with a suitable tool. At this point in time, campus security intervened.

Next thing I know, about 500m down the road (still inside the campus), same jerk overtakes me at high speed when I was slowing down to go into the basement.

I can't understand why these guys simply MUST drive like that inside the campus? I have seen some cabbies race on internal roads, but they are not expected to drive sedately/courteously anyway. But a so-called educated employee of some large IT company?
I really wish campus security complains to his company HR and makes a big fuss about it. Dunno if it will happen, though.

I believe your campus would have CCTV camera's all over. You can ask security or yourself send the footage to HR.

Some people learn things hard way! :Frustrati

the point is, even after all this, nothing will be done about. the employee might get a slap on the wrist and be let off, and he'll get back to his old ways of running pedestrians down with his car.

i remember one incident that happened couple of years back. after parking my car (uncovered parking at IDP) my friend and i were heading to the building when i see a black sedan charging down the parking lot (it's a long stretch and people park on both sides). i was aghast, what is someone just pops out after parking the car - he/she would just get run down!

i wait for this fella to park his car and when he comes near i confront him as to why he was speeding in a parking lot. his response was "i wasn't speeding, i was just doing 70kmph", and walks away! :Shockked:

remember the dog tail story? yep, this was such a doggy :D

Nice suggestion. Problem is, I don't know which company he works in (there are 25-30 in the campus). Did not notice a parking badge either.

In which case, you can put an official complaint against the security team for allowing outside vehicles to be driven dangerously inside the campus. The security company can then do the tracking down for their own good

I have seen similar behaviour across tech parks across cities where multiple companies exist. The environment is a lot better if it's a single company - again, seen this across cities. Even the outside vendor/supplier vehicles drive sanely in such cases.

I have stopped expecting any sanity from even the educated folks, inside or outside any campus. Helps to keep my own sanity intact! :D

And the correct analysis award goes to Dry Ice. :thumbs up

For the rest, you are co-ordially invited to come over to Ecospace, ORR.
If you leave the campus in one piece, you should claim for a Guiness World Record.
lol:

Took this picture at Sony world signal Koramangla this morning. Notice the riders on the wrong side of the white line, which in turn hampers on coming traffic, this seems to be a daily occurrence. Also have a look at the Liva. Baby on board sign right in the middle of the rear windscreen. Doubt they use the IRVM at all. :Frustrati

Overtaking from right or allow to overtake from right is the best considering a RHD vehicle. There will be a lot of blind spots due to various reasons and it will be risky to overtake from left, the other vehicle can swerve to left at any point of time. Moreover allowing the overtaking from the right will have more visibility to the driver than allowing from left in an RHD car.