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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-554.html)

I have no issue with them sleeping. By sleeping, the deeper meaning behind that is 'Ignorance'. You ask your company to give you a sane driver, and sleep. No problem with that. But the issue is when you sleep while the world around you is being rampaged by the driver. Day before yesterday, this driver of a company bus bumped into an Indica Cab just because the Indica cab wouldnt let this guy jump the signal. And this is not the first time such an incident has happened.

There are instances where drivers have turned up drunk to pick up employees from my office. But they were reported and the driver and vehicle was changed the very next day. Not that the driver was bothered since he would find another company to move to. But if these bad drivers are shown the door repeatedly, only then they will learn. Else, it will become a rampant issue in the coming days.

Here's an example of a self-righteous educated moron. After making sure there are no vehicles closeby, I take the U-turn quickly to avoid slowing down vehicles in the rightmost lane. However Mr BlazingFastRiderInFullGear appears out of nowhere, has to brake hard (probably, and the reason for his gesture) and shows me the 'nice job' sign. I wave back at him out of amusement. He shoots off as fast as he appeared.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulAsGRlS0Yg

His 'nice job' sign

Driving 3-4 abreast is not a Kerala-only thing. Met plenty of their brethren on a recent drive on the undivided Hunsur-Madikeri stretch. Got nearly side-swiped, intimidated, ran off-road and almost ran over by a handful of such morons, some proudly displaying T-BHP insignia while attempting vehicular homicide/suicide.:Frustrati

Do you honestly think taking a U-Turn in a single swipe like this is safe and right? Especially with those bushes in the median?

Sure enough, I don't think you spotted that guy on the bike when you pulled it off.

PS: I always stop near the median until I see the opposite lane completely. Even I don't like holding up the traffic but a couple of seconds delay is better than getting T-boned. And I was almost killed once by a guy in a BMW who did a U-Turn like this.

Sorry to burst your bubble, Nileshch, taking a fast single swipe U turn is not a safe driving practice. The best way to take U turn is to stop, look for vehicles and then proceed - you may end up blocking the vehicles for few seconds, but that is much better than surprising some one with fast maneuvers like this.

I am pretty sure you would have spotted the rider if you took time to slow down and look for incoming vehicles. Better safe than sorry. In this case, I am with the rider.

--Anoop

Single swipe is a bad practice in general. But it is a narrow road and I slowed down to take some width to make the turn. If I stick to the median, it would have been even more dangerous because the rider would have had to come to a complete stop as I would block the whole road.

Also if you see carefully, the bushes on the median are thin and all approaching vehicles are completely visible. During the turn, you will notice that there is no vehicle for almost 150m. When I complete the turn in a few seconds, the rider comes out of nowhere.

By supporting the rider, are you encouraging the practice of riding fast on narrow roads?

No, I am not supporting riding fast in narrow roads, but I still believe firmly that it is better to take a slow U turn than doing a fast swipe - when you stop and do a slow U turn, approaching vehicles can see you better.

When you say he came out of nowhere, partially it is because you were too fast in doing the U turn that you missed noticing him. If you were slow, he could have seen you from far and you also could have seen him.

As I said earlier, better safe than sorry and losing few seconds to be safe is not a compromise at all.

--Anoop

Assuming that he was indicating, and gave sufficient warning (I often use a hand signal for U turns too(, then the biker should never have overtaken on that side. If the biker then got squashed, it would have been the biker's fault.

In the real world that would not have been much compensation for the car driver in that situation, whose car is now smeared with biker and who is going to have to prove that it was the biker's fault.

Given the visibility, there is nothing at all wrong with doing it in one. He could see the road was clear of oncoming traffic. Stopping (eg, at a "give-way" line) when there is no need to stop, is a reason for failure in a British driving test.

Can I fault theexperthand in this? Yes... Proper use of mirrors would have revealed the approaching biker, and experience says that bikers are at least 50% likely to do the wrong thing, so we must assume that they will.

(Acknowledged: I wasn't there. All comments are therefore highly fallible!)

If there is one thing which my experience in driving and riding have taught me, it is never to assume things when you ride\drive. For all we know, the biker would have been taken by surprise by the sudden U turn (it is not always easy to spot gaps when there are bushes in the median), so if Nilesh was slow, it would have given ample time for the oncoming traffic to react. For a moment, replace the biker with a big SUV - instead of a 'well done' sign, Nilesh would have got rear ended or side swiped by the SUV. I can't really see (on a second watch, it seems like there is a turn) if there is a turn on the side or if the road is a plain stretch, but by being slow, Nilesh could have spotted the oncoming traffic.

Given the visibility from the cam footage, I feels like the road have a left hand side turn ahead (may be it is an optical illusion - and if it is, my apologies), so chances are that the visibility of oncoming traffic will not be much better. If the oncoming traffic is coming after a turn, then the sudden U turn can sure catch them in surprise.

Err.. em - Me or Nilesh?

On a lighter note, well, the saying goes like 'When you assume, you make an ass out of u and me' - so, do we really need to assume that all the bikers are at least likely to do 50% or more wrong thing? ;)

--Anoop

This "Risky Job" (cab in J&K) drove like this for a good 3-4 kms. Weaving in and out of traffic. I was confused why is he driving like this, and managing the various controls. Turns out, this was a passenger!!!

God save India!

Whoops, sorry!

Careless copying of user name from the wrong post.

stupid:

... and I make it to this thread. Had to climb over a pavement today to bypass a stalemate on the service road just outside my residence!! School buses choke this road during the morning hours and I left home at the wrong time and took a wrong turn to end up in a soup!! :Frustrati:Frustrati

Will dig up the dashcam footage once am back home.

Bad drivers/bad driving practices in Mumbai. People try their best to ensure you wouldn't overtake them, go faster than them or join a queue at the toll booth or make a left/right turn. The moment you begin to make any of these maneuvers the drivers of Mumbai ensure that they will either speed up/slow down or cut lanes just to ensure you are 'behind' them. I am not sure if this is a cultural thing or some mass sickness. It may be the reason of not wanting to get left behind in the great 'rat race'

I have to admit that I don't obstruct people who are annoyingly or bullyingly trying to get past --- but I don't facilitate them either. I'm not speeding up to keep them behind me, but nor am I taking the trouble to slow down or pull over for them

Another impatient, educated guy, fresh catch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FX9UqXhmjbg

Makes me wonder what kind of kick do these people get, by cutting off others and squeezing into virtually inexistent gaps! This guy zoomed off once he exited the campus, and was driving like crazy. No indicators for lane-changes and turns. And cutting others off. "The complete man" :D The irony is, without any of his antics and never going above the legal speed limits, I was right behind him.