[chinkara]

Today, in front of Qutab Minar.
Brown Innova on the right lane.
Madam on the front left seat buying something from a street vendor.

Signal turns green. Cars behind (including myself) start honking. Madam is haggling. Why let riff raff honking get in the way of a good bargain? The vehicle starts moving - vendor moves with it on the left - blocking two lanes. Madam continues to haggle.
Signal turns amber. Madam feels the urgency and pays the cash. As signal turns red and cars from Press Enclave road starts coming in, the Innova zooms through, making the lead cars from Press Enclave Road screech to a halt.

Minimum 30 cars that could have crossed the signal impeded. Made 2 cars travelling in green signal emergency brake.

I asked the cop (I was first in the queue then): Unko roka kyon nahi? (Why didn't you stop him)
He replied: Aise chala rahe the, agar main rokne ki koshish karta to mere upar se hi chala dete. (If I tried to stop hi he would have driven over me)

[Vinotys]

@chinkara, That just describes the pathetic road sense of people.I happened to drop my sister's daughter in her school.It was heavily raining and I couldn't see a thing due to the frost forming inside my M800. The road was perpendicular to me and I signaled the oncoming traffic to let me go, a gentlemen stopped his car and signaled me to cross the road.I drove very slowly, honking, turned right, there comes a auto rickshaw moron, who didnt had any clue why the car stopped and decided to over take it in its right side, hit me onto my right bumper corner.

The bumper and right side head lights went into pieces and I just stopped the car, engaged handbrakes, completely forgot that my M800 was right in the middle of the road. Got out of the car, obviously furious. Within 5 seconds, people starting honking and had to park my car onto the road side. But the auto guy escaped.

[suresh_gs]

Originally Posted by Vinotys

@chinkara, That just describes the pathetic road sense of people.I happened to drop my sister's daughter in her school.It was heavily raining and I couldn't see a thing due to the frost forming inside my M800. The road was perpendicular to me and I signaled the oncoming traffic to let me go, a gentlemen stopped his car and signaled me to cross the road.I drove very slowly, honking, turned right, there comes a auto rickshaw moron, who didnt had any clue why the car stopped and decided to over take it in its right side, hit me onto my right bumper corner.

The bumper and right side head lights went into pieces and I just stopped the car, engaged handbrakes, completely forgot that my M800 was right in the middle of the road. Got out of the car, obviously furious. Within 5 seconds, people starting honking and had to park my car onto the road side. But the auto guy escaped.

Feel sad to hear this for no fault of yours. This is the same situation in bangalore as well (infact much worse here). Whenever i drive my car and if i have to wait at a signal, i generally stop the car so as to not leave any gap for the moronic 2 wheelers or the auto drivers to squeeze in. It does not work out very often but i have been successful at times.

[Vinotys]

@Suresh_gs, well it's my brother in law's M800 and the repair bill came upto 24k. I paid it even though he resisted to eat up my guilt.

[rjstyles69]

Here's what a good friend of mine had to go through : https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...e=1&permPage=1

The best part is that the cops at Mahadevpura police Station even refused to take a written complaint.

[Vinotys]

Your friend shouldn't have rolled down the windows or is it already rolled down? Apart from teaching a lesson to that goon on the spot, I wonder what can be done to entirely avoid this kind of harassment?

If I face this situation, I would have prepared for a worst case scenario since majority of cab drivers are goons. (No offense here, just personal opinion.)

[SS-Traveller]

Driver behaviour, I believe, is entirely predictable, whether bad or good. And some days I get into a frame of mind to test my theory. The bad drivers far outnumber the good ones, and that is no surprise, given the woeful lack of driver training and education across the country today.

Today was one such day, when I was testing my theory. I was just feeling a little... umm... charitable?... towards other road users today, and here's what happened. The car I was driving was my Swift. Behaviour of other drivers when interacting with me and my car changes, of course, when I take out the Scorpio, but that is another story for another day. This afternoon we were on a quick shopping trip to Sarojini Nagar for the SWMBO (she who must be obeyed), followed by picking up our daughter from school. Three incidents in a space of 2 hours need a proper report on the forum, so here goes a long post!

Incident #1: In the narrow lane beside the Sarojini Nagar Market, with 3-wheelers parked on both sides of the road, I came up behind a Figo, who had hooked his left rear fender with the fender guard of a 3-wheeler. The driver got out and pushed the 3-wheeler a little, to free his car. The reason for his having pulled over to the left was a white Wagon-R, who refused to pull over to his left. I'd pulled over a little behind, with enough space to my right for the Wagon-R to pass, and told my wife that I am worried the guy might just not manage to take his car through.

That is precisely what happened. The Wagon-R driver came up to me, nose overlapping nose by a foot or so, and stopped. Honked. And honked. As other drivers and pedestrians waved at him in an attempt to guide him through, I sat there for a full 5 minutes, watching the fun. The man refused to budge. I knew the only option was for me to reverse (the Wagon-R driver would not have managed such a difficult task), but I had ample time to kill, and I had a theory to be tested. Finally SWMBO lost her patience, and asked me to reverse.

When I reverse, he'll come up right on my bumper and not let me shift into a free gate or slot. Just you watch... I told SWMBO. And lo and behold, the Wagon-R did exactly that! I reversed for a few metres, while he drove forward inches from my bumper. I stopped the car and opened the door. You're going to pick a fight with him? says SWMBO. Hell, NO!

I went up to the Wagon-R, and the super-fat asthmatic unshaven driver seemed a little apprehensive of my intention. Your bumper does not have a love affair with my bumper, so stop driving 4" away from it, and trying to plant a kiss, I tell him. Give me space to manoeuvre, and once I give you enough space, then and only then will you move your car! He didn't speak one word after that, nor move his car another inch, until I managed to slot in next to the kerb, leaving enough space for a Marcopolo bus to go through. And then he drove away, only after I waved at him to proceed. Point made: Most folks in this city don't understand how much space their own (and others') cars need to manoeuvre.

Incident #2: We still arrived at our daughter's school with 20-odd minutes to spare. Where I parked, there was no car ahead of mine. I reversed up to the car behind me, with a metre or so of gap between the 2 cars. A lady in a Honda Accord pulled in ahead of me, parked and walked away, with about 3 metres between her car and mine. Just to make it obvious that there wasn't enough space for another car to slot in, I rolled my car forward another metre to prevent someone from blocking me entirely with a badly parked car.

Along came another lady in a Rapid, stopped beside our car, and berated us. If you had parked properly, one more car could have been parked here. Now SWMBO doesn't like other people berating HWMO while he is acting pig-headed with his theories and safe driving rubbish. She asked me to reverse and make space for another car. I wasn't arguing, and backed up all the way to within 3" of the car behind me. That left just under 4 metres of space ahead of me - enough for a small car with a good driver to reverse and parallel park. Now watch if anyone can park there, I told SWMBO.

In the next 15 minutes, 3 cars tried. A Duster first. Backed in tail first, left the nose justting out, till a bus came along and couldn't pass. Poor fellow had to remove his car to let the DTC bus pass. An Indigo Manza next. And finally a Vento. The last chap tried to slot in about half-a-dozen times, and finally ended up double-parking right there, ahead of my car and blocking my way. Daughter had come, it was time for us to go, so SWMBO got out and told the driver sternly to remove his car (I refused to honk - it's a school zone, you see!). Point made: reversing and parallel-parking is a trick not many know in this city. Nor can most people assess how big a parking slot is, vis-a-vis their car.

Incident #3: About to enter the gate of my colony, I found a PB-01-reg yellow-plate Xylo taxi happily parked across the gate, the driver busy on the phone. A polite honk from a distance did not elicit any response. Quick way to remove him: horn continuously on, high beam on, car at a fast crawl aimed at driver's door. The driver turned around, saw me, thought I'd lost my brakes. Dropped the phone, wildly gesticulating at me to stop. Realised a little too late that I did have working brakes, and that he was blocking my way; started up the car sheepishly, and moved it forward. Point made: Blocking gates is a right, but sometimes it becomes a *fright*!

[dark.knight]

As far as how to spot 'em is concerned, for a shi.. er city like Bangalore its simple :

Look to your left - A Volvo/auto/car/2 wheeler will be desperately coming to the right for a little scratch and greet.

Look to your right - A Volvo/auto/car/2 wheeler will be desperately coming to the left for a little scratch and greet.

If you have sunroof/can get your head out of the window enough, look top - A few bikers will attempt wheelie jumps above your car & get ahead of the line 10 feet so they have a .2 second edge in reaching the destination.

If at all possible, open the door and look below - A few bikers will do skidding techniques that puts stunt drivers to shame as they successfully skid under and get ahead 10 feet so that they have a .2 second edge in reaching the destination.

Also watch out for the entertaining road spit competition between autos and cabs. Be ahead or behind them, just not on the SIDE.

Kudos to the Indian RTO as a whole for hand-picking some of the most vacuous, doltish, puerile, dense & asinine drivers this side of the planet. How not to spot them is the most difficult task.

Signed, another frustrated motorist.

[Vinotys]

Originally Posted by dark.knight

As far as how to spot 'em is concerned, for a shi.. er city like Bangalore its simple :
=========
Signed, another frustrated motorist.

I just had a laugh of my life time.

Have you noticed, some guys drive bike like they do some kind of salsa or samba dance?? their body will shake in every angle.

[JoseVijay]

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller

Incident #3: About to enter the gate of my colony, I found a PB-01-reg yellow-plate Xylo taxi happily parked across the gate, the driver busy on the phone. A polite honk from a distance did not elicit any response. Quick way to remove him: horn continuously on, high beam on, car at a fast crawl aimed at driver's door. The driver turned around, saw me, thought I'd lost my brakes. Dropped the phone, wildly gesticulating at me to stop. Realised a little too late that I did have working brakes, and that he was blocking my way; started up the car sheepishly, and moved it forward. Point made: Blocking gates is a right, but sometimes it becomes a *fright*!

Sir, what a way to share your experience? I read the other two incidents very seriously and when I started reading the third one, I was literally on the floor like this.

[Chetan_Rao]

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller

Incident #1.......

Something I've been noticing for a long time now. A lot of people aren't actually driving badly intentionally, they truly have no idea if the gap in traffic/parking space they're trying to get into is actually big enough for their ride.

Funny as long as you or your ride are not at the receiving end of their stupidity.

[vijaymishra]

Wasted 30 mins to get my car out from the parking for a simple reason that one Moron decided to block my exit by parking his car in middle of the road right behind mine. I was taken aback after I saw the sticker in the rear of the car which said "Driven by Team-BHP"

I had to make some noise to get the watchmen make some announcement in the restaurant and finally the gentlemen arrives with no apology, no shame to move the car away.

Location :- Tamarind Restaurant, Banaswadi, Bangalore
Time :- 07:30 PM to 08:00 PM
Experience :- Frustrating


One TBHP Car blocked by another.

[JoseVijay]

Originally Posted by vijaymishra

I was taken aback after I saw the sticker in the rear of the car which said "Driven by Team-BHP"

One TBHP Car blocked by another.

That's a shame! You should have asked him if he was really a Bhpian in the first place. If he was not, should have asked him to remove the sticker for being an irresponsible driver.

[vijaymishra]

Originally Posted by JoseVijay

That's a shame! You should have asked him if he was really a Bhpian in the first place. If he was not, should have asked him to remove the sticker for being an irresponsible driver.

He was completely unapologetic and did not replied to any of my questions, including Whether he was a TBHPian. Sat in the car and drove away.
Feel sad about people like him who show disrespectful attitude.

[Mahesh Prasad]

Spotted one last Sunday at a wedding function. By the time we reached the venue, the parking on the premises was full. So the watchman indicated that I park my vehicle outside the premises on adjacent property. It was just a small space enough to park 2 cars without blocking the gate of the said property. One SUV was already parked near to the gate facing the compound wall. So I pulled up the adjacent spot.

After attending the function, I come to pick my car and see a brand new Alto 800 parked perpendicularly behind my car and the SUV. It had completely blocked the SUV and a good part of my vehicle. I was really shocked at the way this guy had parked the car and the watchman was nowhere to be seen. Since I had parked beside an SUV, I had a few extra inches of space. With me and my FIL moving some concrete hollow blocks which had been placed there for some construction purpose, I was able to wiggle my Swift out of the place. But the SUV had no chance.

I was super irritated, and I'm not proud of what I did next. I took out a tissue from my car and wrote: "Learn to Park first a******". There was a image someone had forwarded me about a guy in the same situation who left the same note with an contraceptive device and an additional line to what I wrote - "Please don't reproduce". I refrained myself from adding the last sentence.