Team-BHP - Bad Drivers - How do you spot 'em

Quote:

Originally Posted by jassi (Post 1421513)

although left-right is bad, i think you are missing the bad drivers who are driving real slow (30-40kmph) in the fast lane on IRR and don't budge. This at times causes me to overtake bad slow driver 1 from the left only to end up behind an equally slow driver 2 on lane 2. So i overtake driver 2 from right and end up back in lane 1 behind slow driver no 3 on fast lane. With an empty road ahead, i have no option but to honk-light signal and go back to lane 2 to overtake driver 3 from left.
You can see how I have become a bad driver now doing left-right-left looking like a crazy zig-zagger, just because slow drivers on fast lanes, have an illusion of going fast (at 40kmph) and refuse to budge n move to lane 2/3/4 despite incessesant honking and lighting by someone at 60kmph stuck behind them on lane 1.

That does not make you a bad driver. Atleast not in my books. If i saw you on IRR, i'd probably just follow you going left right :D and give my horn a break.

I've stopped considering slow drivers in fast lanes as bad drivers. To me, they are just slow. Bad driver is the idiotic driver behind a slow driver who decides to overtake the slow driver from left when he sees me coming up from his left and decides to go first. Thus blocking me.

Quote:

Originally Posted by amitoj (Post 1421710)

That does not make you a bad driver. Atleast not in my books. If i saw you on IRR, i'd probably just follow you going left right and give my horn a break.

Aah - now that makes sense, i am gonna try and find one of this good samaritans who i can follow, instead of solving the jigsaw lane overtaking puzzle myself :)

Quote:

I've stopped considering slow drivers in fast lanes as bad drivers. To me, they are just slow. Bad driver is the idiotic driver behind a slow driver who decides to overtake the slow driver from left when he sees me coming up from his left and decides to go first. Thus blocking me.

now that you put it that way - yes 'slow drivers in fast lanes' are better than idiotic 'me first' drivers :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by jassi (Post 1421717)

now that you put it that way - yes 'slow drivers in fast lanes' are better than idiotic 'me first' drivers :)

what puzzles me most is that till they see me coming from left, they are perfectly ok following the slow driver!!

And then there is this typical biker. I am the first one to stop at a red light, on the white line (where there is one). A biker will come and stop in front of me. Light turns green and this dude gets into 5th gear at like 30kmph. And all this in the middle of the road. Most often there are 4 or 5 of these, going side by side.

Quote:

Originally Posted by amitoj (Post 1421732)

Haha..been there 'seen' that! Happened last month when I was in B'lore. Trying to turn towards Cox Town, I had 3 such jokers in front of me trying to get past a few meters in a high gear!
All I could do is drop my head in disbelief! Someone lend them some brains!

Quote:

Originally Posted by amitoj (Post 1421732)

And then there is this typical biker. I am the first one to stop at a red light, on the white line (where there is one). A biker will come and stop in front of me. Light turns green and this dude gets into 5th gear at like 30kmph. And all this in the middle of the road. Most often there are 4 or 5 of these, going side by side.

yep that happens a lot with me, especially because normally if i am last at the green signal i prefer to get the red signal. That way i have a clear road in front of me when it gets green. But then autos, bikers come in and get in front of the whiteline blocking me :Frustrati
At times i have gestured them to move (to no avail), but more often its the loud exhaust that helps and they back off :D

Quote:

Originally Posted by jassi (Post 1421513)

We are like that and meant for bullock cart age only.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jassi (Post 1422381)

^^ i am a bit slow, what is bad here

lol: I had the same question, and then figured out that it is the fact that the driver of the car seems to be the one that has taken a picture!
On a more serious note, how to spot them????? Are they so rare that one has to do anything more than to just look around at any point of time on an Indian road? Even in the best of localities in the swankiest of cars? It is a national disgrace, even the way supposedly educated people drive. The ones that are not educated at least have that fact as an excuse.

Hats off to those who said not to spot them!

I'm trying.

Today I had someone right up my backside, hand on horn, on the Adyar flyover. I got narked and did my slowing to a stop trick, so he had to stop too.

Once on the LB road, I pulled to the left and waved him past.

Errr... why couldn't I have just done that in the first place?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sawyer (Post 1422413)

Well even if its a fraction of the people on the road that are bad drivers, its the other good drivers who are forced to drive badly because of these buffoons. So to the untrained eye almost everyone seems bad, but truly its the irritation of being around bad drivers that causes most to drive wrongly in an attempt to escape the bad drivers.
So i have two questions
1) Now if this fraction of bad drivers were to disappear, will the other irritated (but mostly good) drivers drive right?
2) If all of us (supposed good) drivers, stop getting irritated by the bad drivers and ignore their antics, would the breed of bad drivers die down (with everyone trying to emulate the good) or multiply (ignored bad behavior grows with no resistance)?

If only we had a strict traffic police force, stringent license testing and negative points system with heavy fines like in other countries, the above 2 questions would never arise :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by jassi (Post 1422512)

Till I came to the last sentence, I was truly excited to read all you have written and where I thought you were going with this. Except - I would include in the definition of a good driver - one who does not allow his driving quality to be influenced by external influences. Including other bad drivers in that description of external influences.
And the last sentence disappoints because it looks to for all of us to behave only if supervised. Which means an acceptance of having grown physically only. Does it also mean that I will refrain from murder only because I will be hanged if I am caught? And I do not think I am exaggerating here, a lot of bad driving results in manslaughter.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sawyer (Post 1422518)

And the last sentence disappoints because it looks to for all of us to behave only if supervised. Which means an acceptance of having grown physically only. Does it also mean that I will refrain from murder only because I will be hanged if I am caught? And I do not think I am exaggerating here, a lot of bad driving results in manslaughter.

yes you, me and the dying breed of good drivers will drive properly and don't need fear to govern our good behavior. But i am not sure all of the current bad drivers on the road are like us, they may need fear of fines to straighten things out for starters. In a few years the drivers on the roads will have discipline ingrained in their minds and fear won't be needed anymore. And then future generations will grow up disciplined and trained and tested to drive properly (unlike today's stupid driving schools and license system!)
What i wish for is courteous well mannered drivers on the road, but we aren't going to get there by just wishing :)