[mmxylorider]

Encountered all kinds of bad drivers en route from Indore yesterday!
1. A driving school M800 being driven with family on board. No indications of any kind even when honked and flashed at for overtaking. Here is one person who is nurturing bad drivers
2. A family in some sedan in front of me. When honked for overtaking, he puts on left indicator. First thought, great! Signalling his intentions. 30 seconds later, he is still in same relative position. Honk and Flash this time - response is a hand coming out indicating me to overtake from left. While he was doing that, he kind of went periliously close to the divider as well. Needless to say, I zipped over real quick
3. Somewhere on NH3 - A tractor with 2 trailers parked on right lane. Driver nowhere in sight. Imagine this at nighttime.

[naveen.raju]

Originally Posted by DieselLover

Nice trick Naveen. I used to do this with Private buses running between Calicut and Thrissur. They honk like crazy and overtake from left and right with little or no consideration to others on road. I used to overtake them and stop right in front (at in incline if possible) then speed away

HAHAHA. I do this whenever I can, but only to bus drivers who drive recklessly and keep the fast lane without giving way for other vehicles. But no use. They keep doing the same always.

[gp_prakash]

OK, here is one - we all agree if both RVM's are closed you could probably take a safe guess that its a bad driver but I noticed one M800 driver who has to take the cake. Both RVM's folded AND windows are rolled up and here is the best part - the drivers side window had the black sun shade (the one's sold at traffic lights) stuck to it!!

Absolutely no idea what he did for changing lanes.. Even if he looked to his right he couldn't have seen anything. I guess he was completly relying on folks honking to warn him when he tried to change to the right lane. I tried to stay as far away as possible and overtake this chap as safely as possible.

[Torqy]

I got so used to all the mirrors (4 of them including the rear parking mirror) that i felt blind driving a friend's Santro with no Left Mirror. Every time i craned my neck to see if somebody is on my left, i prayed the guy in front doesn't stop.

-- Torqy

[rajeev k]

Originally Posted by naveen.raju

Here's one dude driving a C class with both mirrors folded.

This bloke may perhaps be of the view that ORVMs are costlier than the car itself. We find loads of them characters every day on our roads. God save his ORVM.

Originally Posted by IronH4WK

already the lane is narrow, to make it worse one aunty has gone and parked her car at the very entrance and gone shopping at Reliance! (Vidyaranyapura)
Attachment 542046

This santro appears to be parked properly. Perhaps I myself may be a bad driver.

[raghu.t.k]

Originally Posted by Dieseldunk

Well Raghu
may be we need to follow the adage of "While in Rome do as Romans do"

On a serious note compared to Hyderabad Chennai seems to be a bit better organized in that sense but Hyderabad seems to take the cake on this front. Infact I had a clip which showed hoe people cross roads in Hyderabad (will search and put it up) the very thought scares me to hell.
All the best and keep following whatever is the right thing to do as you have been doing.

rgds
DP

@DieselDunk, I quite agree that we need to be a roman in Rome, but trying to find out what these romans do.. is very difficult logic!! Apart from this, you have the bikes and share autos which defies all logic.

That said, even the chennai traffic is going bad.

Originally Posted by straightdrive

In Hyderabad, there is a practice, encouraged by the traffic cops, that at signals/intersections where there is no turning to the left (i.e you can either go straight or turn right), only the right turning traffic stops for the red signal. Because there is no left, the "free left" becomes a "free straight".

It is not correct but like I said, since the traffic cops allow it, many people think the red signal does not apply at all to traffic going straight at such an intersection. It looks like you stopped at such an intersection both times.

@straightdrive: You are correct, in both these cases there was no left turn and I was proceeding straight. But occasionally I have seen the cops stopping such vehicles and fining them as well.

[bharathreddyt]

Originally Posted by satish_appasani

Though they are not a hazard, old people driving Premier Padminis that are as old as the drivers in the center of the road at 20 KMPH thinking they are the safest drivers on the road.

haha! that was a good one. They don't even realize that they could avoid all the mess from the honkers around if they simply chose to drive at the left end of the road.

[noopster]

Today as I was approaching the Wakad flyover from Baner side, intending to turn left towards Hinjewadi, a white Baleno doing a fairly fast clip, emerged on the wrong side and then cut across in front of me to go under towards Mumbai. I honked and indicated to the traffic cop that the car was coming the wrong way at a busy intersection in rush hour. Imagine my frustration when the cop totally ignored me and allowed the Baleno to cut across in front of him without stopping him.
It just proves my hypothesis that I've nurtured for the past year or two now that in Pune (replace with your city of residence here) we turn a blind eye to the real causes of accidents, and focus instead on silly things like using hands-free while driving (why this is illegal is anyone's guess! I know folks who have been fined for this)

[Capitalson]

Originally Posted by gp_prakash

OK, here is one - we all agree if both RVM's are closed you could probably take a safe guess that its a bad driver but I noticed one M800 driver who has to take the cake. Both RVM's folded AND windows are rolled up and here is the best part - the drivers side window had the black sun shade (the one's sold at traffic lights) stuck to it!!

Absolutely no idea what he did for changing lanes.. Even if he looked to his right he couldn't have seen anything. I guess he was completly relying on folks honking to warn him when he tried to change to the right lane. I tried to stay as far away as possible and overtake this chap as safely as possible.

Hi gp prakash,

I saw a very similar guy in Delhi yesterday. M800, had only one ORVM -- Right side -- neatly folded, with the AC on had all the windows rolled up and sure the black sun shade stuck to it. Eery coincidence or was it the same guy!

[naveen.raju]

Here's another car with mirrors folded.

[Damu]

Originally Posted by Capitalson

Hi Damu,Thanks for your post and i sure liked it. Trip down the memory lane is always sweet. ...
And the traffic conditions, definitely there were no complaints but for the bad roads.

Thanks, Capitalson! Yes traffic was so less, it's a fast fading dream now!

Originally Posted by Capitalson

we had a factory in Madiwala till 1988, and i used to commute from Sulthanpalaya to Madiwala and back everyday. I really enjoyed the ride. No pollution. No dust. No noise. No smoke. Hey guys, if you wanna call me old school/old fashioned, then so be it.

Folks, please excuse this ,

Coincidence! I worked in a factory in Bommasandra Industrial Area 1984-1985. Route: Cooke Town to Bommasandra, 25 kms in about 40 minutes on the Jawa. (I used to leave home by 0715 hours to reach worksite at 0800 hrs).

Returning in the dark, however, was a nightmare. A single lane road, riding against blazing headlamps of outstation buses departing Bangalore. Often, buses would have as many as 6 headlamps, all on high beam. It was a torture.

Blazing headlamps are still a torture to road users, even more of a trouble now than it was 25 years ago, given the fact that headlamps are far more powerful today. Today, even scooter hi-beams are painful to the eyes.

I can never understand why people who unnecessarily use high beam do not realise this.

[Capitalson]

Originally Posted by alavandar

I want to share some of my experience with bad drivers:-
Scene 1: East Coast Road, returning from Puducherry (Pondicherry) with my wife, night around 9 o clock, cruising at good speed. One Tavera cabie overtook me in a hurry. I had given way. Then he was right in front of me, slowing down. I also slowed down. He further slowed down for no apparent reason, the road ahead is well clear. When we were at 30 kph, he switched on the right indicator, signaling me to overtake him (this is a non-standard signal, but is followed by many). I decided to over take and did so. Increased speed as per the traffic and road condition. This guy did not leave me and started tailing at close with high beam, honking etc. Again I gave him way, he went ahead of my car and slowed down blocking the way. Then again he gave me way to overtake him. After two three such times, I decide not to overtake when he signaled but kept following him. He started increasing the speed and I was following him. While on a bridge, he was signaling me to go ahead and over take. It is not my habit to overtake on bends and bridges and so I keep following him at a safe didtance. Suddenly his tail brake lights come on and on instinct, I slam on the brakes and stop. There was a loud noise and two drums were rolling down the road further hitting an oncoming car. What happened was that, the Tavera guy was so engrossed in intimidating me that he was not looking ahead. Too late when he saw a turn and road barrier at the end of the bridge. He rammed into the drums and stopped. It was a cab and the driver was about 23 or 24 years. There was a family in the car and the ladies were yelling. I wonder todate what was his intention. I also wonder why the occupants did not correct his behaviour and advised him to drive carefully.

Scene 2: reserved for next posting

Hi All Team BHPians,

It's just that most of these cab drivers want to intimidate other owner-drivers and get a kick out of this. I want to share an incident that happened to me a few years back. I was returning from Kumbakonam to Trichy in my Ford 1.8 D. Along with me were my wife and a friend's kid girl. When we were near REC Trichy, i was horrified to see through my RVM a Alwyn Nissan truck and a Tata 407 racing against each other. It was around 3.00 p.m. and in total disregard to other's safety, these 2 trucks were madly racing with their headlights on full beam and honking their horns continuously. They were crowding on me from behind and there was no space on my left for me to pull over and make way for those 2 idiots.

Yet i managed to veer to the farthest left side possible and the alwyn nissan zipped past me first, very closely followed by the 407. The 407 was too damn close to my car that he hit my right side ORVM, smashed it to pieces and sped off behind the alwyn nissan. Can you believe that? Just a couple more INCHES, inches not feet, he would have slammed into me and probably killing me. I was thoroughly scared and literally shaking with anger too.

That was the last straw. I calmly asked my wife to take the kid and go have a cup of coffee in the nearest hotel and went after those 2 guys. Caught the 407 guy at the traffic signal in TVS tollgate. Tore open the driver side door, climbed into the cabin and beat the **** out of that guy. Then ran to my car, i had kept the engine running, and went after the alwyn nissan guy. Caught him too, at the railway junction bridge. There was traffic cop there and lot of vehicles waiting at the traffic signal. I didn't care and went to the driver's side, yanked his door open, pulled him out and beat him mercilessly. But on seeing the traffic cop (who was simply standing at his spot and watching us) he managed to pull himself free and ran to him. When the cop asked me what it was about i told him the whole story. But the alwyn nissan driver had the audacity to tell me to just file a complaint with the cop and let him go. This made me more furious. I picked up a big stone, smashed all the headlight lamps, tail lights, indicators and both the ORVMs and then asked the alwyn nissan driver to file a complaint against me. The traffic cop simply asked the truck driver to leave the place and he let me too to go.

Today, when i recall that incident, i am ashamed of my behavior. I am sorry that i too was reckless in my own way.

[Newpunter]

Originally Posted by Capitalson

But the alwyn nissan driver had the audacity to tell me to just file a complaint with the cop and let him go. This made me more furious. I picked up a big stone, smashed all the headlight lamps, tail lights, indicators and both the ORVMs and then asked the alwyn nissan driver to file a complaint against me.

Although I don't think what you did was right , this part made me laugh . I hope you are more calm now as road rage is not a good thing.

[gtonsing]

What I cant stand, no, make that, one of the many things I cant stand, happened yesteray evening as I was returning from work. This was on the ORR between Marthahalli and the More store (sorry cant spell the name of that place - Doddanakundi? or something like that). There was this santro driver, hugging two lanes. Yes, two lanes. The gap in the inner lane was too small for me to overtake, the middle lane had another autorickshaw on it as well, so no go there. The left lane was empty but there was a speeding volvo behind me (and I know better than take my chance with the Volvo drivers on that stretch). So for that entire stretch till the flyover construction infront of More Store, I had to follow the santro who was doing nothing more than 30-40kmph. Honking and flashing didnt help. When I finally passed him, I found he was talking on the phone all this time. Grrrr!!

This is sortof related so posting from MSN India site.
Six sins of Indian motoring including the ‘battling sperm syndrome'
Six sins of Indian motoring including the
1. Riding without helmets
2. Sitting side ways and transporting children on two-wheelers
3. Not using rear view mirrors
4. Not wearing seat belt
5. Children in the back seat
6. We Indians are always in a hurry

I liked the phrase "some how trying to get ahead of the car or bike ahead" So true!

[gtonsing]

Originally Posted by Capitalson

I picked up a big stone, smashed all the headlight lamps, tail lights, indicators and both the ORVMs and then asked the alwyn nissan driver to file a complaint against me. The traffic cop simply asked the truck driver to leave the place and he let me too to go.

Capitalson, can you pm me your car registration number so that if I see you in my RVM, I will immediately give you way?
Only kidding there.

I agree with Newpunter that even though I didnt think what you did was right, I cant deny it would have been sight to have seen you. Come to think of it, even I might have done the same thing, given the same circumstances.

I am not surprised at the traffic cop's attitude, unfortunately. And it would have been priceless to see the Nissan Truck driver's face as well as hear his complaint to his boss " arree, there was this crazy guy who came to my door at a traffic junction and picked up a huge stone and started breaking all the glass...and I didnt do anything to provoke him." LOL!!