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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-589.html)

One's own safety IS about staying within the prescribed speed limit. In a way, I am glad Delhi Police and the judiciary have incentivized driving within the speed limit, by making sure offenders have their driving licence taken away for 3 months.

Only if everyone around you also strictly adhere to the limits, otherwise at times it's more of a liability. :Frustrati

You are right, and I completely agree with you. Which is why I said earlier today...
Being a good, law-abiding driver today IS considered to be a liability.

Most cab drivers (not this TATA model; generally) are graduating from driving auto rickshaws. The old habits are tough to control.

I had my own Darwin moment(s) when I drove a Maruti van a few times. As all know, its front wheels are located beneath the front seats. If you swing into a turn like a normal car, you will invariably end up making a very tight circle.

Many a scrape on my left and right sliding doors taught me to drive like a Volvo bus driver. That is, make wide turns and use my wing mirrors effectively.

Another one from my dashcam ,

Clip 1: A learner driving cluelessly on the highway (already posted in my previous post)

Clip 2: A wagon r driver who has blocked his entire rear view by a curtain

Clip 3: A scorpio trying to enter the opposite lane of the highway through the gap in the median created by locals

Clip 4: A learner in an amaze who clearly cant manage to find a safe clearance with adjacent vehicles

Clip 5: Three college kids on a two wheeler without helmets

Clip 6: Festive weekend = too many learners on the highway


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIXLA8HPwi8

Had a very very narrow escape today!

All Chennai Bhp-ians would know that when you exit Phoenix market city, you come through a side lane onto the Velachery 100ft road. While just nearing the end of the service lane I was gonna turn left so glanced ahead and there was no one and then looked to the right to check if there was any traffic since I was merging onto the road. After a split second glance looked ahead again and suddenly two heroes( Only shades no helmet. Duh!!) on an Activa, riding down the wrong side barge in front of my car. I braked hard and my car stopped in the same place( was doing about 10KPH!) just an inch or less from the two-wheeler.

I kept calm and did not say anything and the rider also kept quite cause he knew it was his mistake. But the great pillion hero started abusing me(rider joined him then) and asking me where I was looking and driving. I got so furious I reversed my car pulled over to the side and gave them the choicest of abuse in Tamil and told them you should first learn to ride on the correct side of the road. These heroes were also halfway across the main road where they stopped in the middle of oncoming traffic to hear me giving them a piece of my mind. I left and saw them turning around in my IRVM. Since I was alone plus was driving my Innova just floored it and took the left towards Guindy to avoid spoiling my evening. They turned right thinking I went that way.

When will these people ever learn? I honked, had my headlights ON and the indicator and yet they couldn't care less. Also the millions of other 2 and 4 wheeler's that witnessed this would've thought I was the bad driver.

Only recently my Blaupunkt Dashcam went kaput, was wondering how useful the footage would've been had I,God forbid, hit those idiots.

Vehicle - KA-51-MC-9247 - Red Skoda Rapid with LTD on the rear bumper
Where - GST Road
When - 01-Nov 2016
When - Around 9:25 am

Why don't you follow lane discipline? You were too close to my rear bumper at Meenambakkam signal.

And, remember to use indicators while changing lanes.

Finally, please remove that LTD sticker!

OT - I have noticed few cars with Team-BHP stickers driving in a sedate manner the moment they see another Team-BHP stickered car. Until such time they continue with their usual acrobatics.

One more from today, I experience atleast two idiots a day!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CShPDKt2zGQ

I was considering picking up an automatic scooter or an electric bike next year for ease of commuting and also because there is no car parking available around my place of work.
After recent events though and this thread, Im wondering if it is safe to ride a two wheeler anymore ? Expecially for someone who is used to driving a car since the last 12 years Im wondering how easy it will be to switch

Really.

All we can do is to promote safe driving, we cannot guarantee that everyone in this forum follows it.

Being a member of this forum doesn't mean that they are good driver.

As a forum, a lot of us here do play our part in trying to create awareness towards defensive, co-ordinated calm driving, I certainly do every bit I can to tell people that rules, limits and laws are there for a reason. Team-BHP also is explicitly against posting of speeds and anything remotely associated with anti-social behaviour on the road.. that's just about everything that can be done.

Other than that I'm surprised why people think that being a forum member would automatically result in best driving practices, I've seen some stickered cars that are simply terrible at driving, they aren't even proper drivers yet. Its not surprising, as a forum of several tens of thousands of members its natural that there are differences in terms of experience, knowledge or even outlook.

We should keep whatever thoughts of familiality/kindredness strictly within this forum here, and even in that, between the few dozen members who might agree with each of the unique viewpoints. A stranger on the road is still a stranger to me, no matter the number of forum stickers he/she may possess. Many owners use those stickers even as non-members, and may do so just because they feel its "cool", what the sticker says they might never have even read in the first place.

+1. You have to also keep in mind, many of these stickers are counterfeit. They resemble LTD stickers of TBHP but are NOT original. They just stick that to be fashionable NOT knowing anything about the forum or it's ethos.

To be honest: this is one of the reasons I do not carry the TBHP badge on my car. At times, it is literally impossible to be a law abiding driver on these Indian roads (specially NCR), and not follow the law of the jungle. Some examples being:

1. Having to overtake from the left; due to a dumper/3-wheeled goods carrier carrying on at a snail pace on the fast lane. Just last week on the Gwal Pahadi highway (average speed is around 70 kmph) three goods carriers were riding in parallel, and literally chocked up miles of cars behind them. So weird.

2. Honking. It is the only way to grab someones attention, who is behaving like a moron, or deep merging from a free left. People just do not look at incoming traffic when merging.

3. Suddenly swerving left/right to protect ones vehicle when drivers change lane carelessly or again merge dangerously.

4. Holding up traffic at a legal red light, with the whole swarm egging you to jump and set them free.

5. Suddenly braking: when a Vikram carrier decides to disembark passengers where they deem fit.

6. Trying to avoid two wheelers, when it should be the other way round, since no one follows lanes here.

I feel embarrassed doing the above, and would no ways want someone to read the TBHP sticker on my vehicle. Basically driving in India, is just protecting your vehicle (and yourself) rather then driving in a straight lane. Simple. Nothing can be done about these basic social menace in India. It will only worsen with times (specially in the high influx urban centers), due to cars being sold at high rates, untrained/careless drivers mounting the wheel, and people literally glued to their smartphone while driving. God help us all..!

I am not sure if there is any law anywhere in the world that says you are at fault for panic braking. Hence if you pull up to the car and say that its his fault, he would shrug. He should have stopped by to enquire if they needed any help. Thats the only fault that I can think of. Riding a Dio myself, I know how pathetic the brakes are and it is my responsiblity to keep distance from a car and this distance increases with the speed. Thats what the Dio in the video did not do. Had he maintained good distance, they wouldnt have had to brake so hard as to skid and fall down.

Also a sticker on a car doesn't necessarily mean it is being driven by a member. It could be a driver or a mechanic or even a friend. Reporting here definitely helps to educate and improve driving habits. I have sold my car but didn't remove the sticker 'Live To Drive', as many of my friends have appreciated it as a "good message". So if the new owner rash drives then whom you would blame?