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

We have been talking about bad driver since over 670 pages, now here is an example of probably the most idiotic pedestrian I have ever encountered in my life.

Delhi-Gurgaon expressway, like many others, is not supposed to be crossed on foot at any point other than designated ones. Now this idiot, carrying a 2 liter bottle of petrol in his hand has crossed the expressway casing nearly entire traffic to brake and that also quite hard for a few - putting his and other's life at extreme risk.

Rest I am still thinking how would he have crossed the central median, until he did the same stunt that a few people do by climbing up and jumping over the tall railing. Here is the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lI_smguXa64

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom (Post 4388545)

Holding the hand up actually stops cars. Erm... right? :Frustrati

Yes, that's the unique way of claiming right of way in India, simply hold your hand up and you can expect that even a car doing 300 kph will stop and let you pass, no matter if it stops with a crash or crash on you and make you pass away! I once saw one such encounter where the car driver was explaining the pedestrian that his hand is not enough to stop a speeding car. :deadhorse

Quote:

Originally Posted by StarrySky (Post 4387055)

I am in India for a few days and drove today for the first time during this trip. Spotted two bad drivers:

1. An Innova was in front of me. There were a few slow-moving vehicles in front of him. I was waiting patiently behind the Innova (no honking, no flashing lights). Then we came to a flyover with 3 lanes and both of us cleared the slow-moving traffic. I then proceeded to overtake the Innova, when for no reason, he tried to push me to the wall on the curve in the flyover (I was on the inside part of the curve, so it wasn't understeer). I honked, but he kept coming. I backed out. I did overtake him shortly afterwards and he didn't try to block again. So I'm not sure if the first block was intentional or just a case of trying to change lanes without looking.

2. Just after the exit of the flyover, a bus guy decided to take a left from the rightmost lane, causing everyone coming down the exit ramp to brake hard. Thankfully, no body rear-ended anybody.

Both incidents are standard operating procedures in India.

Most drivers are unable to stay in their lanes on a curve. They will drift in towards the inside of the curve regardless of a right hand curve or a left hand curve rather than staying in the lane they were in. I have been observing this since i started driving and I am unable to understand this phenomenon. Why can't they stay in their lanes on a curve? Irritating and unsafe. You can observe this in the cities and on highways.

And taking a right from the left lane by commercial and private vehicles is also very common. Sometimes it is an error of judgement where the driver realises that he/she is going to miss the exit and just indicates and drives through traffic.

^^On a curve, the ORVM view doesn't fully show any car trying to overtake. My experience was the other way around. While on such a curve, vehicles from behind suddenly speed up to overtake and can't get them on ORVM too. Regardless, why overtake on a curve? Why not go with the flow, merge with the highway traffic, get clear ORVM views and then overtake.?

Quote:

Originally Posted by RajaTaurus (Post 4388778)

^^On a curve, the ORVM view doesn't fully show any car trying to overtake.

This is indeed true and 100% agreeable in case of any vehicle on the outer side of the curve trying to overtake, they are normally out of the field of the view of the ORVMs, additionally you don't expect a driver to check his ORVMs properly while taking a corner at least, that time their focus will be mostly on the road ahead, at least until you honk.

Quote:

Originally Posted by VKumar (Post 4388872)

Bottom line is "don't overtake on curves". In TN every bus and truck has this written on their backs. For safety, I suppose.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sparky@home (Post 4387846)

I had a run in with this congenital idiot on a bike, I wonder what he was thinking. The only thing is that I can drive safe and hope for the best, these morons are dime a dozen, and drive everything.

Looking at these guys and their antics, I get a feeling that they take their bikes' ads too seriously :D
KTM - Ready to ride; Bajaj Dominar - GO Hyperriding to quote a couple of them

Last night driving back form Bombay, came across a bunch on monkey in two BMW's.

The two cars were racing with each other, swerving in and out of traffic and bullying their way past cars. Thankfully this was just before the toll, so as i pulled up behind them, i got out my car and got the cops to pull them over. Obviously other drivers were annoyed with them ad within a few minutes there were a bunch of people shouting and screaming at them. Cops pulled them over. I had kids in the car so didn't wait around much longer.

Car was a BMW 320 D with number plate MH 02 MA (I think) 9300. If you know this car, please let them know that they can do this shit on a track but don't put other drivers at risk!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samir Taheer (Post 4389953)

Car was a BMW 320 D with number plate MH 02 MA (I think) 9300. If you know this car, please let them know that they can do this shit on a track but don't put other drivers at risk!

Difference between driving fast safely, and driving recklessly - we have a long way to move up from reckless to fast (and safe).

Good for taking the initiative, and good job on the cops part to help out.

I've done the same twice, once the cop didn't do much and the other time the cop gave the offender a firing (for cutting off cars at a check point) after which the driver gunned it.

The MH02MA series is quite old, guessing this was an E90?

Quote:

Originally Posted by lamborghini (Post 4390169)

The MH02MA series is quite old, guessing this was an E90?

Yes it was in fact i think it was a pre face-lift. It was a Black car with M Power stickers toward the bottom of the rear bumper.

I was half expecting the boys to catch up to me at some point, on the expressway (i was driving sedately and they were stopped at the Khalapur Toll Towards Pune), but didn't. So either they were reprimanded by the cops or choose to drive sensibly from then on.

And yes they cops reacted and stopped them immediately so well done to them.

The thing is, I have no problem with people driving fast on the expressway/highway, but being reckless and putting others lives at risk is not really acceptable.