[gkveda]

Originally Posted by deehunk

This is a cleverly done stickering job, the plate only says "President, District Telugu Youth". It is not a government vehicle nor belongs to anyone in ruling party. In Karnataka also people stick a green band on their number plates and put something like "President" or "Chairman" and have a flag post on the bonnet. This is only to avoid paying tolls and nothing else.

But, where is the Registration number plate? Even Car carrying President of India should have Registration Number plate per Law

This is a crime and if Cops catches, the car can be seized as well

[DriverR]

Maybe it is just me, but these days i am seeing increasing more number of Bullets being ridden rashly. This is not to say that other two wheelers ride more saner, but i am seeing more number of Bullets on the Hyderabad roads and a good number of them are being driven fast, rashly (sudden lane changes) and between two cars, effectively blocking both lanes, given the huge leg guards.

There was a time i remember people buying Bullet for the pleasure of cruising on the road. Looks like those cruising days are gone and people now are treating it as a commuter bike.

[NPV]

With the taxi revolution of recent times, the latest menace on the roads of Bengaluru is with cabbies:
- stopping anywhere and everywhere, many times they just come to an abrupt stop without any signal/indication, can catch one by surprise. They also don't seem to bother that traffic behind them gets stalled.

- Other problem is driving slowly in the middle of the road and most times you find the driver is talking on the cell phone, probably for directions from the customer to be picked up next ?

[Snehal Sekhar]

What about these Water Tankers in Bangalore. They are a law unto themselves. Park their canters or tractors as they please and sometimes even diagonally across the road to dispence water into a water tank of some home. They do not move their vehicles until their tank is emptied out.

Saw a fellow on the fly over road connecting E-city phase 1 to phase 2 coming in high speed on the wrong side and was looking at us as if we were at fault.

[Ruchir031]

Today I encountered not just a bad driver but probably an evil driver.

So, I was headed towards Amity Noida, a daily trip via the DND. Now since this a very nice highway, speeds of 80-90s are an usual affair. So I was doing 80s in the middle lane and an Innova with about 7 passengers and 2 infants in the left lane doing 100's. Everything was fine and we both had a fair amount of distance from each other, his car starts to slow down a bit and I was almost at the distance of his boot but in a different lane. Now the idiot opens half his door and brings out his head to spit whatever he had in his mouth, in doing so his hands are still at the steering. He doesn't realizes this but he was moving the steering to the right coming into my lane that too while doing 80-90 and no view of his front. I was sticking to my lane and would've overtaken him without any issues until he suddenly got into my lane out of nowhere and scared me to death because I had to steer my car to the extreme right to change lane in a jiffy as if I was trying to pull a stunt. Hadn't I managed that I could have knocked his head off leading to god knows how many fatalities. It all happened so quickly that I did not anticipate this could happen else I would have already cleared my way off from him.

What's even more disturbing is he did know he had just did something wrong and instead of slowing or stopping he just accelerated through and ran.

Although I can say I saved the day for myself and him, I'm not sure if I was at any fault and could have avoided any of it all together.

Quite a disturbing day on the road.

[gkveda]

These kinds of people have to be taught a good lesson. I have seen multiple such instances with Truck drivers, Bus passengers sitting on the right side of the bus, spitting without bothering what is there on the outside world.

In One of the instances, at a signal junction, when my car was just next to the bus similar spit happened on my car. I lost patience and stopped the bus and made the guy clean my car as well.

Originally Posted by Ruchir031

So I was doing 80s in the middle lane and an Innova with about 7 passengers and 2 infants in the left lane doing 100's.
Quite a disturbing day on the road.

But, in my view, the above statement was one life saver for you and driver. If he was really doing 100s and you were at 80s, then, your car going and knocking his head off is not a possibility since the gap between you and him will be divergent and will not decrease as time passes.

Good that you managed the situation well and nothing major happened

[Shanksta]

Originally Posted by Ruchir031

Today I encountered not just a bad driver but probably an evil driver.

........
What's even more disturbing is he did know he had just did something wrong and instead of slowing or stopping he just accelerated through and ran.

Although I can say I saved the day for myself and him, I'm not sure if I was at any fault and could have avoided any of it all together.

Quite a disturbing day on the road.

That is disturbing on a whole new level! Opening the door at 80-90Kmph. Good that you saved the day.

Don't even think for a moment that you were wrong, just think of it as a new skill learning on Indian roads - Avoiding human heads at 90KMPH!

I used to beat myself up mentally, whenever I encountered such situations. Wondering whether I was a bad driver for being courteous to others and following the rules on the road. But over a period of time I have realised sometimes you need to be street smart to get ahead in life (literally) and that I have to adapt myself to these idiots on the road.

For example, just yesterday I had two experiences that were a huge put off. The one that stood out was a case of the fellow motorists not letting me switch lanes. This was to take a left turn from one major 6-laned road to another. It was a distance of 2 kms to the turn. After driving about a km on the middle lane I put on my left blinker to change lanes, there is an estilo behind and BOOM he accelerates to close the gap. This is normal action so am not perturbed, the Xylo ahead of me is happily sitting in his place without accelerating. The Estilo is being tailgated by a MTC bus. At this point Xylo accelerates fast and passes the Estilo and an indica that is ahead of the Estilo. I accelerate and pass the indica to come left and he accelerates and his cars nose was parallel to my rear door. The turn has arrived. Funny story he went straight being on the leftmost lane of a major junction without traffic signals (Inner ring road - GST road, Chennai BHPians will know). The Xylo with out any indication turned left from the middle lane. Both of them avoided colliding with all of us braking abruptly and they exchanged pleasantaries. I found my chance to cut in front of the Estilo now and take the left. All this could have been avoided maybe had he let me in. He might have switch lanes to continue straight and I would have turned leftmost lane to leftmost lane and the Xylo turned left onto the rightmost lane.

What I am trying to convey here is that I though I was the one that was wrong and should have stayed on the leftmost lane the whole time. I merged from another road into the middle lane and there is another major left turn before the one I had to take and hence stayed in the middle lane.

But the general driving mentality of people has hit new lows that there is no point pondering over it. Keep Calm and Continue Driving.

[Ruchir031]

Originally Posted by gkveda

IBut, in my view, the above statement was one life saver for you and driver. If he was really doing 100s and you were at 80s, then, your car going and knocking his head off is not a possibility since the gap between you and him will be divergent and will not decrease as time passes.

Good that you managed the situation well and nothing major happened

This is exactly why something like this even happened all of a sudden without my knowing. When he opened up his door his vehicle had started to slow down and I had almost reached the distance of tailgating him but in a different lane with a lot of distance to spare.
Now as his head was still almost half out spitting and hands on the steering, I don't think he realized that he was accidentally drifting towards my lane and all of a sudden he (due to the opened door and his head) just suddenly got in my way and my sudden steer towards the right most lane saved him. Had I suddenly braked at that point maybe someone would have rear ended me and the chain might have continued, so it was a two-way risk for me but I'm glad nothing major happened, and every vehicle got out of this safely, specially the 2 infants in his car.

I'm glad you taught the bus driver a lesson!

Originally Posted by Shanksta

What I am trying to convey here is that I though I was the one that was wrong and should have stayed on the leftmost lane the whole time. I merged from another road into the middle lane and there is another major left turn before the one I had to take and hence stayed in the middle lane.

But the general driving mentality of people has hit new lows that there is no point pondering over it. Keep Calm and Continue Driving.

This is very common in Delhi also and unfortunately no matter how good we try to be on the road, some instances we have to do whats needed to be done to avoid the danger other create. I have myself many times got into the left most lane (bus lanes here in Delhi) just because the other lanes are busy being street raced on, or being driven by vehicles at 20-30kph causing slow down of traffic.

But like you said, keep calm and continue driving!

[rajivtelang]

Originally Posted by Ruchir031

What's even more disturbing is he did know he had just did something wrong and instead of slowing or stopping he just accelerated through and ran.

Although I can say I saved the day for myself and him, I'm not sure if I was at any fault and could have avoided any of it all together.

Quite a disturbing day on the road.

Just try to forget this as soon as possible since it will haunt you often. Keep on doing good things and thank god for saving the day.
I too experience such incidents often in Bangalore that includes overtaking from left and when I turn left they will break suddenly and look at me as if I am a fool know nothing about driving.
Secondly I missed an auto couple of weeks back. This guy put breaks at hardly 10 feet in front of me when he saw a customer. I was at 40kmph in my santro. Thanks to Hyundai for real powerful breaks. I could stop few inches before him. Right from day one I am admiring santro brakes and they proved right.

[Thad E Ginathom]

As per my UK driving instruction, there is a concept of the safety line. It involves always having a gap of one to two metres between one's own car and others. Of course, yes, there are roads too narrow to do this, but on such a lane would should be crawling anyway (eg, on narrow kuppam roads I adopt the attitude that I am driving through peoples' living rooms) but the safety line is a valuable concept.

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by paragsachania

However, there were 3 cases where we could easily notice the way the maps worked and showed us "Jams" with that dark red line on the road we were leading to or were already there

With the amount of driving you do, you ought to become a tester for such map based applications They will love to have a person like you.

Btw, please welcome the douche-bag of the day:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBmD...&feature=share

How much more idiotic can people get..

The Indicab driver on the other hand somehow managed to work the brakes and just nick the vehicle. Had he continued in the same speed and confidence, this video would have been more dramatic. As the rider started yelling at the guy who jumped the signal, this cab driver somehow escaped the wrath and scooted away from the scene and didnt even bother to check for damage to his own car.

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by audioholic

Btw, please welcome ..

With such amount of bravery and confidence to "scare" others on road with what you ride/Drive, am sure you won't be surprised if he is a BMTC Driver .

On serious note, look at the way he pounces into the traffic. So much hurry even on a 2 wheeler!

I always say this - I am more scared when the light is green for me than red because there will he someone who will just appear like this disregarding the speed of moving vehicles and thinking that they will just pass but eventually they "pass away"

[haria]

Originally Posted by paragsachania

I always say this - I am more scared when the light is green for me than red

Ha ha. +1 to this. Especially if it is just turned green, or when light is green and there are no vehicles in your lane (in front of you). I always blare my horn in these situations, and go very cautiously, as there is a high chance that someone from other side will be ready to risk limb and life for a measly few minutes and jump the signal!

[arunphilip]

Originally Posted by paragsachania

I always say this - I am more scared when the light is green

Originally Posted by haria

Ha ha. +1 to this. Especially if it is just turned green, or when light is green and there are no vehicles in your lane (in front of you).

In Bangalore, the bravest drivers are those who drive through a green signal between 10 pm - 7 am

I try to avoid it, but when I'm forced to do this, I go as slow as a thief in the night, ready to either accelerate out of danger, or brake to avoid danger. Seeing me, anyone would think I was the law breaker!

[ecenandu]

Guys, I think I have become a militant defensive driver and I expect the car I am in to be driven(by friends or family members) according to my perceived safety standards. I try to be as constructive as possible and only intervene with people who I got good rapport with. Atleast that is what I think I am doing.

The reason why I am writing this is because I am back from Sweden rally along with my friend who was doing the driving duty. He drove the whole distance ~1100 kilometers. I am not sure whether this is the right thread, this is 'How to spot a bad driver'.

My question is 'What will you do, if are driven by a bad driver'.

He was constantly driving over speed limit (up to 10 to 20 kmph) but he mostly ignores the speed limit signs near towns, etc there he might be well over 30 to 40 kmph the speed limit during those reduced limits. His reasoning for doing this stunt is, he is wary of the speed limits but is extra prepared in case of emergency.

Just for an example, while going through towns on two-lane roads the speed limit usually drops from 80 to 50, but he continues to go at 80 to 90 Kmph.

Purposefully being jerky with steering inputs on curves to induce drifting. He managed to do that successfully twice. I call it a slide each being 0.5 to 2 second long and the rear might have stepped out may be half a feet, not sure. But his opposite lock to save the slide was less than a quarter turn of the steering wheel. It is no drifting in my book but he was gleaming with joy and I guess it self validated his driving prowess.

My friend seldom uses the high beam while driving but this is where I believe I crossed the line, I made him use the high beam so that I will be at ease. The road where I asked him to use high beam was via the woods, so there is steep drops on both side of the road and there is possibility of animal crossing(deer).

He was relying on the google maps for the direction changes(phone fixed on the windshield) as well as the reflectors on the poles which are fixed near the edge of the road. I would have been happy if he followed this technique if he was doing maybe 10 Kmph below the speed limit. I found this technique to fail read the elevation changes which there were many. But the problem was he was well over the speed limit, 20 to 30 Kmph. So basically out running the reach of the headlamps.

Okay let me clarify.

• I asked him to use the high beam legally and made sure it won't blind the oncoming traffic.
  
• 50% of the drivers on that road had extra pair of foglamps or Led light bar and nearly all of them used high beam when ever possible.

On the last day he was doing well within the speed limits because of my constant pestering. At one point a red VW Passat over took us, he flashed the headlamps before overtaking. He(Passat) might be doing 120 Kmph, which is again 40 Kmph over the speed limit. This is via the woods btw, and few minutes after the overtake, my friend had enough and he wanted to show his skill. What followed was my scariest ride so far of my life.

So here I am stuck with a driver who is over confident with his driving skill doing well over 140 Kmph on roads he had never driven before, with constant elevation changes and ice/snow patches near the edge of the road(grip level unknown). I asked him to take it easy but my pleas fell on deaf ears, I felt so helpless. Only saving grace was he was using highbeam at least this time .

He caught up with that guy after sometime, he was again gleaming with pride over his achievement.

Him: "Macha(dude), you don't know my skills that is why you are this scared. There are people who enjoys my driving, especially *named few friends* and my father."

Me: "Okay, I admire your skills but don't you think you are taking unnecessary risks?"

Him: "No, what I have done just now is well within my limits."

Me: "But you have little knowledge about this road, leave that, so how much percentage of your skills did you use for this stunt. "

Him: "60%, yeah 60%."

Me: "60%, you have to be kidding me, I thought it was close to 90% but then I know very little about your driving style back in India."

Him: "If I went at 90% of my skill, then I would have caught up with the other guy who overtook us before."

Me: "Okay."

*Pause for few minutes.*

Me: "Buddy, don't you think it is your responsibility to take care of the safety of the people who is travelling along with you."

Him: "Of course, I do take it seriously."

Me: "Will you drive like this, if your mom is sitting next to you."

Him: "If my mom is here, I will follow all the traffic rules."

Me: "Ah, nice. Can you do me a favour, just consider me as your mom for the rest of this journey."

He shrugged of my suggestion with a laughter, the rest of the journey was less dramatic, expect a 33 kilometers where we had a company of local who was doing 140 - 160 kmph on dual carriageway(speed limit 100 kmph) and my friend obliged in following him albeit keeping a 4-5 second rule.

Fellow bhpians, what would you do if you were in my shoes?