[Accent Martin]

Today, while driving to office, while waiting at a signal I saw that the driver of an adjacent car was having his breakfast from a tiffin box in his hand.. I assumed he would be keeping that away while driving (didn't check though to verify)

would he be termed as a bad driver? or was he just poor in time management?

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by vibbs

Hi,

Here you go. This is what you are supposed to follow on Mumbai-Pune expressway and I believe on all roads with more than three lanes in one direction. The left most lane is always for Trucks and buses.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/c...w/23678208.cms

Thanks to those who have corrected me about this rule, and apologies to those with whom I argued.

I don't agree with it ...but that doesn't make it any less of a rule.

[josejoseph]

Originally Posted by Accent Martin

would he be termed as a bad driver? or was he just poor in time management?

I can't say he's a bad driver but I'd say he's best utilizing his valuable time. Instead of sitting idle in traffic jams & red signals, he's utilizing his time for non-productive tasks.

[Stiggy]

Originally Posted by Accent Martin

Today, while driving to office, while waiting at a signal I saw that the driver of an adjacent car was having his breakfast from a tiffin box in his hand.. I assumed he would be keeping that away while driving (didn't check though to verify)

would he be termed as a bad driver? or was he just poor in time management?

Originally Posted by josejoseph

I can't say he's a bad driver but I'd say he's best utilizing his valuable time. Instead of sitting idle in traffic jams & red signals, he's utilizing his time for non-productive tasks.

In all fairness, when I'm stuck in a rush hour traffic jam, you're very likely to find me sipping on some coffee.

[Accent Martin]

Originally Posted by Stiggy

In all fairness, when I'm stuck in a rush hour traffic jam, you're very likely to find me sipping on some coffee.

Originally Posted by josejoseph

I can't say he's a bad driver but I'd say he's best utilizing his valuable time. Instead of sitting idle in traffic jams & red signals, he's utilizing his time for non-productive tasks.

I hear both of you. ok so, lets say we replace that tiffin and coffee with a mobile phone texting! he looks at the signal, then at the phone and he is still at the signal. Now, will that driver be called a bad driver?

[Stiggy]

Originally Posted by Accent Martin

I hear both of you. ok so, lets say we replace that tiffin and coffee with a mobile phone texting! he looks at the signal, then at the phone and he is still at the signal. Now, will that driver be called a bad driver?

At a signal, yeah, perhaps. Even so, I've done it before. That is, taken 5-10 seconds while stationary to reply to a text message.

I wind up doing all of this in B2B traffic though, not so much an empty or scarcely populated signal.

[sudev]

Originally Posted by Accent Martin

would he be termed as a bad driver? or was he just poor in time management?

Many times I eat lunch in form of slices of parathas driving between appointments across Delhi like this. I'd say excellent time management utilizing time at signals ranging from 90 to 180 seconds. Better than texting or glancing through emails.

[500ContyCruiser]

Originally Posted by Accent Martin

I hear both of you. ok so, lets say we replace that tiffin and coffee with a mobile phone texting! he looks at the signal, then at the phone and he is still at the signal. Now, will that driver be called a bad driver?

Even I do with operating mobile or eat something while at signal. Few of the signals in Bangalore have timer. When I see the timer is around 150 seconds (for that matter anything above 40 seconds), I switch off engine and check mobile or change playlist on my ipod or eat something. At least it helps in me not stare at other people (which I have seen some people doing it; especially if there is a lady nearby) or being curious of when the signal turns green.
Also, anyways there are people around to tell (by honking) the moment signal turns green or it's about to change

I would encourage them install or fix timers at all signals. So that at least people can switch off engine and probably save some fuel.

Also after dark it helps in switching off lights, which I think is not necessary for stationary vehicle.

[theredliner]

Had bad experiences today while returning from office on ORR around Banaswadi area.

First incident, there was bumper to bumper traffic and surprisingly, people had all stuck to their lanes. I was riding(on my motorbike) behind a car within the lane(without splitting). Then comes an idiot in an Omni behind me who had already split the existing actual 3 lanes into 4. Then he got infuriated to see a biker(me) stick to the lane and not split. He starts honking violently and started shouting and showing various abusive hand signs asking me to split lanes and make way for him. I signaled him back showing that there was no place to go and asked him to have patience. Then he used the space between me and the car next to me and drove very rashly, filtering through the space between multiple cars in front of me. He almost scratched many cars and somehow still managed to get ahead. May be he didn't care about any scratches since he was driving an old beaten up Omni.

Second and more serious incident, this time involving a lowlife retard with an attitude problem who thinks he is very intelligent, in a silver Alto with reg no. KA 02 MC 94 (mods, please remove if posting the reg no. is inappropriate).

This time, I was riding in the right lane around 45 km/h overtaking the slow moving traffic in the center lane. This retard in the Alto was stuck behind a truck and decided to swerve to the right lane without any care and had a close call with the Indicab who was in front of me and this idiot went back to his lane after the close call. Presuming that the idiot would try the same again, I gave two gentle honks to alert him of my presence. This idiot just switched on his right indicator and swerved right again, this time very close to me. I honked again to make my presence felt and had already slowed down to around 35. In spite of this, the idiot cut very close in front of me very dangerously. That prompted me to brake hard and at the same time, I press and held the horn for about 4-5 seconds. This infuriated the idiot. When I overtook him after a while, he started abusing me and showed some hand signals. I gave back some hand signal like "What did you just do man?" and went forward.
This guy after some 10-15 seconds comes behind (where I had slowed down due to the traffic) and he keeps on holding his horn. Then he splits the lane, comes next to me and starts shouting in some language(probably Telugu). Then I told back to him (in Kannada, I don't know the language which he was using) to check his surroundings before he changes the lanes. This imbecile now switches to Kannada, starts name calling, starts using foul language and starts saying that he had switched on his indicator and that gives him the right to swerve. This made me lose patience and I gave back his foul language to him(which I now regret) to first learn the basics of checking surroundings before cutting the lanes and stop trying to act clever with his half baked knowledge. Then, he continues his foul language and starts telling me about some new rule that he framed in his pea sized brain that honking is banned post 6PM and that I should not have honked. I started laughing at him and told him to get some education instead of making himself look like a fool by talking more and more like a retard and I proceeded since the traffic started moving.

I had never abused anyone with foul language face to face till date(traffic or not) and I really regret that I stooped to his level today. I was really infuriated because of the way he cut dangerously in spite of warning and if I had not slowed down, he'd have knocked me down and I would have been lying on the road, ready to be moved over by some cabby coming from behind at a high speed.

I really wish that I had a helmet cam, so that I could have recorded the whole incident and could have posted that on YouTube for everyone to see the face that surrounded that rotten pea sized brain. Well, I'm gonna buy that and start using soon.

Please excuse me for the long post and the name calling.

[dZired]

A whatsapp forward, but apt for this thread.

[alavandar]

Couple of days back one of my relatives died in an accident in Bangalore (aged about 37). He was on his yamaha with a pillion male and stopped to attend a cell phone call. Removed the helmet, took the call, pocketed the cell and did the gravest error...put on the helmet and did not strap it since he was not far off from home. Night time and not much of traffic and it is one of the smaller roads. Tried to over take an auto rik, rammed into a parked car and was thrown away. The helmet flew off and he had a head injury on his hind head. Within a reasonable time reached the hospital but died after about 20 minutes. The pillion got away with minor injuries. (As I heard from his friends who accompanied the body to Thanjavur).

He is a very sober person and a sober driver but two mistakes, overtaking an auto rik who was in no mood to give way and unstrapped helmet cost his life.

Very very sad and very very much avoidable.

[ravradha]

Originally Posted by alavandar

Couple of days back one of my relatives died in an accident in Bangalore (aged about 37). .......

Very very sad and very very much avoidable.

Sorry about that.

Yesterday while driving back to my house, on the Chrompet-Thoraipakkam 200 feet road, I stopped at the Vel's signal.

It was about 8 pm and no one was stopping at the signal. Atleast 10 cars and 10 bikes crossed the 'red' signal. The scorpio (Yellow board) behind me kept on honking non-stop for about a minute. I moved only on green.

After 50 meters, he rashly overtook me and threw profanities!

I was

The problem is not with him, but the larger society. What to do to change this?

[meetbadri]

Originally Posted by ravradha

Sorry about that.

he rashly overtook me and threw profanities!

The problem is not with him, but the larger society. What to do to change this?

We can’t do much on this. Replying to these people is just a waste of time and patience. We should only concentrate on our driving and follow the traffic rules properly. We can only change the society by changing ourselves.

[racer_m]

Originally Posted by ravradha

Sorry about that.

Yesterday while driving back to my house, on the Chrompet-Thoraipakkam 200 feet road, I stopped at the Vel's signal.

It was about 8 pm and no one was stopping at the signal. Atleast 10 cars and 10 bikes crossed the 'red' signal. The scorpio (Yellow board) behind me kept on honking non-stop for about a minute. I moved only on green.

After 50 meters, he rashly overtook me and threw profanities!

I was

The problem is not with him, but the larger society. What to do to change this?

Here is a 2 step guide on the way I handle this situation when I dont budge for the Red Signal Honkers.

1. Keep a straight poker face and observe only the traffic and signal ahead of you. Windows up and good music do work wonders (do not respond/eye contact/acknowledge the presence of morons behind you)

2. Now that you do know you have pissed them off, slowly move on when its green and get cozy on the left side, allow them to overtake you and give them a wide berth. (again do not respond/eye contact/acknowledge the presence of morons)

With this you do not break any rules, you do not ruin you mood, you do not give the fools a chance to do anything.

Note: please be aware if the honking,etc is due to an emergency vehicle

[ghodlur]

+1 to racer_m.

I have been experiencing this behavior day in day out every day. On an average about 10+ vehicles ignore the stop signal prompting the vehicles behind the genuinely rules following crowd to start honking desperately. Sometime the vehicles in front yield to this pressure but have seen if the vehicles in front dont budge the honking stops but this instigates rash driving or revenge driving when the signal turns green. The latter part is most worrying since this period has seen maximum accidents.

The worst part is that well educated (assume that person in suit/ties are) and those in high end luxury cars (read BMWs/Mercs) too indulge in this behavior. Sad state of affairs on the road with every progressing day. Dont know when Acchee din will come on the streets.