[arunphilip]

Originally Posted by Kumar R

You can see the rest of the vehicles (including a surprisingly patient mini-truck) queued up in my ORVM.

Wishful thinking, alongside unicorns and rainbows, but...

... what if the cops pulled over that mini-truck and gave him a spot reward of Rs. 1000 or so, for following traffic rules? And institute a programme of random spot rewards?

Yeah, yeah, I know it won't work - what with targets for fines, misuse of rewards, etc. But one can hope.

[Raghav_K]

While talking about bad drivers, what about bad pedestrians?

Spotted many people jogging and cycling, towards oncoming traffic, in the leftmost lane of the Chennai Bypass, near the road's Tambaram end, at around 6.30am.

What do these people think? All it takes is a sleepy driver!!!

[KiloAlpha]

Given that a large proportion of drivers on our roads can be classified as bad, and the massive prevalence of violation of basic rules (driving on the correct side of the road, respecting traffic signals), I think if we can collect Rs. 100 from 80% of these violators, this country can abolish direct taxation!!

[ajaypjayaraj]

Originally Posted by KiloAlpha

Given that a large proportion of drivers on our roads can be classified as bad, and the massive prevalence of violation of basic rules (driving on the correct side of the road, respecting traffic signals), I think if we can collect Rs. 100 from 80% of these violators, this country can abolish direct taxation!!

Infact, a thread for "Spotted a good driver" would be something worth looking forward to, as that is not a very common sight on our roads. Spotting a bad driver is almost as easy as spotting a driver itself.

Spotting a good bus driver (especially on Kerala roads where roads are treated like their race tracks), a good rickshaw rider (usually rides like bumper cars), a good biker, including good pedestrians (a lot of 'em walk on the roads as if it's their private yard), etc. would be rarest followed by the rest of the motorists.

Edit: Just got the following info from a link in the 'accidents in India' thread - "India has the highest number of road accidents globally, with 138,000 recorded in 2012, the latest year for which official government figures are available." Would be a task to spot more good drivers than bad drivers, though drivers are not the only ones contributing to this world record.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by Raghav_K

While talking about bad drivers, what about bad pedestrians?

Spotted many people jogging and cycling, towards oncoming traffic, in the leftmost lane of the Chennai Bypass, near the road's Tambaram end, at around 6.30am.

What do these people think? All it takes is a sleepy driver!!!

Monday, late afternoon, OMR, heading towards Madhya Kailash: three guys, walking abreast, in the left lane of the main carriageway, taking most of the lane. Suicidal! And incredibly dumb stupid, considering that there is a perfectly safe (and probably relatively pleasant to walk on) service road.

Sadly, though, not at all an isolated incident.

[bblost]

This car belongs to a horrible driver in my office. I have always seen this car parked in wrong locations or very awkwardly.

Today I happened to park next to it and this is the condition of the key slot.

Promptly moved my car away from this poor orphan.

[KiloAlpha]

Originally Posted by bblost

...
Today I happened to park next to it and this is the condition of the key slot.

Promptly moved my car away from this poor orphan.

Evidence of a drunk man trying (and failing) to insert the key into the keyhole?

[bblost]

Originally Posted by KiloAlpha

Evidence of a drunk man trying (and failing) to insert the key into the keyhole?

As far as I know, the driver is a teetotaler.

Just a very careless person who treats the car in a horrible way. No wonder it carries on to the behavior on the roads and parking lots.

[Bigzero]

Originally Posted by bblost

Just a very careless person who treats the car in a horrible way. No wonder it carries on to the behavior on the roads and parking lots.

I beg to differ here.. I think it varies from person to person.

I for one dont care much for the scratches on the exterior of my car, but the mechanicals and the interior cleanliness of the car are something that I always keep in good shape. And I can confidently say that I treat the car well on the road, and drive rather sanely too.

Incidentally my driver door handle has a few scratches too, I realized much later that its because I open the car with the key bunch ( it has my house keys too ) in the same hand. So, careless , yes , but not necessarily a careless driver.

[Chetan_Rao]

Originally Posted by bblost

Attachment 1292121

This car belongs to a horrible driver in my office. I have always seen this car parked in wrong locations or very awkwardly.

Today I happened to park next to it and this is the condition of the key slot.

Promptly moved my car away from this poor orphan.

I'd rented a parking spot in a building close to my place (my own building doesn't have enough parking space), and the guy assigned the spot next to me seems a long-lost brother of this guy. An entire stretch on my car's left rear door is full of small dot-sized dents from where this idiot's carelessly opened doors slammed into my car. I spoke to him once or twice, then gave up and rented a parking spot in another building.

Needless to say, his own car was so badly kept it was impossible to tell it wasn't junk if I hadn't seen it move.

[eyesice]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

There is everything wrong with that. The fact that it is normal does not make it right. Motorbike as family transport is one of the national problems.

That's nothing. Today morning I saw a man and his wife on a bike at Tidel park signal. He was patting his kid who was apparently sleeping on the motorbike's fuel tank.

When the signal turned green, he just took off 'balancing' the sleeping kid between his legs.

[::CMS::]

Originally Posted by eyesice

He was patting his kid who was apparently sleeping on the motorbike's fuel tank.

When the signal turned green, he just took off 'balancing' the sleeping kid between his legs.e

May be a coincidence, it has a double meaning too...

[eyesice]

Originally Posted by ::CMS::

May be a coincidence, it has a double meaning too...

Never thought about that while typing! Maybe he uses the 'kid' to give him some additional balance while riding.

On a serious note, why dont we have two wheelers that have more than 2 seats?

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by eyesice

On a serious note, why dont we have two wheelers that have more than 2 seats?

Do you remember motor-bike+side-car? Whatever happened to those? Did they exist in India?

[sachinpk]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Do you remember motor-bike+side-car? Whatever happened to those? Did they exist in India?

An acquaintance of mine (in Bangalore) has such a setup. In full working condition. In Bangalore around six months back there was a rally conducted for Road Safety *. This gentleman had brought his Java bike which had a side car. So to answer your question - they did exist in India, and perhaps continue to exist in very less numbers these days . This chap who I mentioned have even taken this vehicle for road trips in Leh-Ladakh sector.

* The rules of this rally was different for what we have for normal car rallies. Here focus was on controlled driving/defensive driving.