[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by drrajasaravanan

I think in chennai you should also avoid bikers and especially two wheelers driven by girls. A girl bumps into your car its your fault and everybody will throw fit at the way you are driving and feel pity for the girl. The teary eyed routine these girls pull is absolutely hillarious. So predicatable. Once they start every guy standing around will turn into a hero helping the damsel in distress.

Excuse me but... It is not the girls that routinely invite death by cutting across the front of the car with inches to spare and forcing past through tiny gaps. Just wish I could find the antics of the men even vaguely "hilarious".

Not saying that the women are all good drivers: the standard is much the same for both men and women, just the women are less likely to engage in the show-off and aggressive rubbish driving.

Chennai has a huge bad-driving problem. It does not have a huge female-driver problem.

[aargee]

Originally Posted by Edsel Rulez!

How to spot bad drivers? The question should be how to spot good drivers. The former are a dime a dozen, while the latter are fast becoming an exceedingly rare species in the country.

From my observation, I follow few cues that has worked for me to identify such good drivers (most of the time) driving in front of me. Let me share them
1. The car follows a good lane discipline; it doesn't mean they don't switches lane, but, most of the time within the two lines & drive at constant pace which means, the vehicle flows along with traffic & they don't keep swinging. If you compare the front wheels & white strips (lane), the wheels mostly stay parallel with the strips & the wheels do not jump out of the strips all of a sudden.
2. You feel easy or rather don't feel uncomfortable or nervous driving/riding behind them, or even if you tailgate them.
3. When you see them overtake, they overtake quickly & if you happen to notice their few overtaking skills, none of their overtaking misses. Also they leave sufficient space, not too much not too close.
4. When they stop normally, the car comes to a halt at normal pace without shake or jerk. The car also moves from rest very normally & the gear shifts are hardly noticable outside.
5. Mostly unusual, but still watch for the following cues
a. they have all 3 mirrors open
b. cars are clean or moderate clean with very little dents
c. If not the entire car, their rear & side window glasses are clean
6. If you happen to be riding with one such good driver, you get a feeling that the car is not accelerating or moving fast (though its an illusion) however the time is well maintained & all the more people inside the car don't keep moving front/back during braking/acceleration.

[watashi75]

I have a philosophical question. If I break a red signal because people behind me are honking like mad, does that make me a bad driver or a good driver who is courteous to others?

[jassi]

Originally Posted by watashi75

I have a philosophical question. If I break a red signal because people behind me are honking like mad, does that make me a bad driver or a good driver who is courteous to others?

bad driver - unless there is an ambulance, police, fire or other emergency vehicle behind you. Following rules is more important than being courteous to those who are inclined to break rules and push you to break em too

Edit- i just realized, sometimes it may just be a judgment call where-in a driver behind you is really in an emergency and you let them go.

[rajeev k]

[quote=aargee;1689295]

Your observations are really spot on. Driving behind certain drivers are really horrendous and dangerous. They will never move smoothly and would make following them very dangerous affair.

There are many people who would always drift rightwards from the left lane without any intention of changing lanes. There are some who on the rightside lane at left curves drift to the left lanes and vice versa.

All drivers of the above kind and those pointed out by 'aargee' are bad ones and are accident makers or catalysts for causing accidents.

[SS-Traveller]

Originally Posted by devnull

...15 cars pileup at Delhi.
Due to heavy fog, an approaching vehicle could not spot the truck and rammed into it. And then 14 more cars followed suite, thanks to the heavy fog. I myself felt so angry imagining how much time and money the owners of those 15 cars would have to pay for what the moron truck driver did.

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

No anger for the 15 morons driving too fast to stop?

Originally Posted by SamtheLeo

I have been a part of one such pileup last year & belive me i was only driving at 30. Night fog in these areas is so much dense you cannot see you own headlights & there is no way u can see a stationary truck in middle of the way (exactly what happened to us) & 9-10 cars & Suvs were rammed. Thanksfully all were driving slow so no injuries.

Hmmm... that's how bad drivers are spotted - lined up one behind the other in dense fog. Very hazily!

[Thad E Ginathom]

It's to do with changing driving style according to the conditions. It is horrifying how many people don't.... rain, fog, ice, wet road, they just rush on as if nothing but themselves exist.

[thefuturist]

I believe the most common offenders are the ones who switch on their high-beams immediately after dusk and are either ignorant or totally impervious to the dim-dip protocol. In a city like Bangalore most of the roads fortunately are well-lit, obviating the need for high-beam (or even the low-beam for that matter). Heck, after the low-beams of my nightbreakers conked off last season I managed to drive on the stock fog lamps for two weeks without any problems whatsoever - which makes me wonder even more at the high-beam racket.

I guess the only contraption that can save us from such inconsiderate drivers is some kind of an auto-dimming windscreen or probably a day-night one (like the day-night IRVMs). Hmmph, wishful thinking...

[jassi]

Originally Posted by soumyadeep

I guess the only contraption that can save us from such inconsiderate drivers is some kind of an auto-dimming windscreen or probably a day-night one (like the day-night IRVMs). Hmmph, wishful thinking...

why ofcourse - just for the indian market cos we have no discipline and absolute morons on the road

[FastLove]

Want to Spot a Bad Driver? - They are more audible than visible ! If you hear "Honking" behind or ahead of you , you have a Bad Driver to deal with. Simple!

[Glass]

Originally Posted by soumyadeep

I believe the most common offenders are the ones who switch on their high-beams immediately after dusk and are either ignorant or totally impervious to the dim-dip protocol. In a city like Bangalore most of the roads fortunately are well-lit, obviating the need for high-beam (or even the low-beam for that matter). Heck, after the low-beams of my nightbreakers conked off last season I managed to drive on the stock fog lamps for two weeks without any problems whatsoever - which makes me wonder even more at the high-beam racket.

Sorry, that is worse than hi-beam!

[Thad E Ginathom]

Fog lamps should be directed slightly down to illuminate the road in front of the car. Thus, they should not be a problem to oncoming traffic.

They are not for giving distance visibility, though, and I don't think it is really safe to drive without the headlights. As Soumyadeep says "managed" in the past tense, I guess he has got his fixed by now.

[Glass]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Fog lamps should be directed slightly down to illuminate the road in front of the car. Thus, they should not be a problem to oncoming traffic.

They are not for giving distance visibility, though, and I don't think it is really safe to drive without the headlights. As Soumyadeep says "managed" in the past tense, I guess he has got his fixed by now.

Right. However, regardless of the direction, I think fogs are definitely more distracting to oncoming traffic (even compared to hi-beam), and should strictly be used in fog.

[thefuturist]

Originally Posted by Glass

Right. However, regardless of the direction, I think fogs are definitely more distracting to oncoming traffic (even compared to hi-beam), and should strictly be used in fog.

I drive mostly during office hours on moderately to well lit Bangalore roads, so "managing" was no problem whatsoever. Thad is right, I would never imagine driving on the highways on only fogs - that would be catastrophic.

BTW, I hope you have seen the fogs on the Swifts - they are impotent to say the least and I am not even sure if they work well in the rains. To further assure you, my fogs are properly directed on the road - I haven't seen anyone getting distracted by the lamps and doing the dim-dip routine

[Glass]

Originally Posted by soumyadeep

BTW, I hope you have seen the fogs on the Swifts - they are impotent to say the least and I am not even sure if they work well in the rains. To further assure you, my fogs are properly directed on the road - I haven't seen anyone getting distracted by the lamps and doing the dim-dip routine

He he, enlightening! I was surely thinking of the yellow ones on my Santro that dazzle the whole road if I put them on!