[vnidta]

Originally Posted by IronH4WK

Had half a mind to get down and whack this fella

What would you do to these fellas then? (if you ignore the thought on that multi-grain roti)

Fella - 1

Fellas - 2

We find all sorts of people on our roads today...

[JohnyBoy]

A whatsapp forwarded photo. An actual photo from a Kerala road.
Shows many 'bad' things we see everyday.



1. All there is few metres of road.
2. A lorry occupying the wrong side while overtaking the vehicles.
3. A bus trying to overtake that lorry. He has lights on too!!
4. In the opposite side, 2 guys in a bike without helmet.
5. And a girl crossing the road without any concern.

[tharian]

Originally Posted by JohnyBoy

A whatsapp forwarded photo. An actual photo from a Kerala road.
Shows many 'bad' things we see everyday.


3. A bus trying to overtake that lorry. He has lights on too!!

This cannot be classified as 'bad' any more! These are normal driving habits on Kerala roads.
Private buses with headlights on?
They have ambulance status there minus the siren and flashing lights.

I am sure if we put some of these drivers on a race track, we'll have another Finland in Kerala.

[motorsan]

I wouldn't consider the private bus menace in Kerala a laughing matter. Just yesterday, a young women lost her life, mowed down by a private bus while crossing the road using zebra line. This happened in Puthanathani, on NH17.

When Rishiraj Singh was transport commissioner of Kerala a while back, he had successfully reined in the recklessness of private buses. But seems things are back to square one now.

[lamborghini]

Originally Posted by JohnyBoy

A whatsapp forwarded photo. An actual photo from a Kerala road.
Shows many 'bad' things we see everyday.

2. A lorry occupying the wrong side while overtaking the vehicles.
3. A bus trying to overtake that lorry. He has lights on too!!

The Lorry actually seems to be doing not much wrong - assuming he can complete the manoeuvre without being a hindrance to the bikers.
There is a dotted line separating both the lanes meaning he can go on the other lane (side in this case) to overtake provided it's clear and he can do it without hindering other users.

Private bus guy though is just being a bully! Sadly, it's the state in majority of the country. Just returned from a road trip to Hyderabad, and the biggest risk on the roads were these private and public passenger buses - who pushed others off the road, overtook recklessly, and just didn't give a hoot. Note - this is the situation when we were in a Pajero. I can only pity the drivers of smaller vehicles.

While it is only a matter of time before those drivers are beaten up and the buses vandalized - I would not like to be witness to the reason behind the mob fury.

[tharian]

Originally Posted by motorsan

I wouldn't consider the private bus menace in Kerala a laughing matter.

It isn't .
I thought my post had some amount of sarcasm in it.

It was never a laughing matter since I remember travelling on the highways there since the 80's and the case was the same.

It was just a matter of time that Rishiraj Singh moved out and it was too good to be true that what he did stuck.

When I started doing trips on Kerala highways, I used to be all kicked when I see these buses fish -tailing away on every overtake , now I try to stay away as much as possible.

[guunbuu]

OT. JohnyBoy, first thought that came to my mind on reading your description is this C&H strip

[john.gt]

Had the unfortunate luck of meeting a very bad driver. I was going into a small S curve near Harvest School (Bangalore) and a cabbie (KA29B 1338) was cutting across lanes. I know this road well so always take the curve at the extreme left and slow. I saw this guy cutting across the lanes and brought my car to a halt.
I made the mistake of asking him with a smile, what he was doing. He didn't seem to like it and scraped my car with his. This ticked me off and I came out of the car. He stopped for a second and scurried away.

Fortunately only the bottom of the back bumper had a minor scratch. And fortunately for him, my dash cam was not on, else could've have put a face to the driver.

After the incident, instead of seething with anger, my thought was, why would he do this to his car. On checking the RTO site, the car was less than 6 months old and he was ready to use it as a battering ram. God bless him!

[IronH4WK]

I believe this is a Cisco bus. Driving on the wrong side of the road to cross the signal. Spotted at HSR BDA complex signal, 08:50ish.





Couldn't get the number at the back to call in traffic violations. Can anybody in Cisco bring this to the attention of appropriate authorities?

[deathwalkr]

That signboard hanging there is a wasted effort looks like :(

In Kerala, i find that the private buses on road get worse as we go up from south to north. Little bit of generalizing here i know but just my opinion

Headlights, Honking, Smashing their hands on the bus door., it's all standard behavior out here in god's own country.

With the passing of each day, more people are forgetting to use indicators, no one knows or cares about lanes, stopping on stop lines, allowing pedestrians to cross on zebra crossings, needless flashing and honking...we are just getting more and more chaotic if that would have been possible.

[srishiva]

Originally Posted by IronH4WK

I believe this is a Cisco bus. Driving on the wrong side of the road to cross the signal. Spotted at HSR BDA complex signal, 08:50ish.

Attachment 1501613

Attachment 1501614

Couldn't get the number at the back to call in traffic violations. Can anybody in Cisco bring this to the attention of appropriate authorities?

Need not be Cisco. Prestige Tech Park in front of Cisco has lots of these buses belonging to INFANTS. They have procured them newly.

[sachinpk]

Originally Posted by srishiva

Need not be Cisco. Prestige Tech Park in front of Cisco has lots of these buses belonging to INFANTS. They have procured them newly.

Do "INFANTS" have political clout? Their buses and maxi-cabs seems to be the ones which really care two hoots to the police. Each of their driver seems to have been clearly instructed to dis-obey every single traffic rule out here.

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by sachinpk

Do "INFANTS" have political clout? Their buses and maxi-cabs seems to be the ones which really care two hoots to the police. Each of their driver seems to have been clearly instructed to dis-obey every single traffic rule out here.

All of them have. Infant, Sathya Sai, SRS, Megha, what not. Especially with the current trend of companies having leased out their own buses from these travel providers, these fleet buses are the most horrible things to be driving on the streets. Even to some extent TT drivers are saner(some of them) but these buses just dont care for the traffic police or whoever.

Much bigger shame is the employees who sit or sleep inside these buses enjoying their air conditioned, air suspensioned roller coaster which will enable them to reach home faster.

Originally Posted by vnidta

What would you do to these fellas then? (if you ignore the thought on that multi-grain roti)

I usually find these freaks on a roll in my early morning drive. I drive as if they are not on the street. I wouldnt repent going to jail, totalling my car or injuring myself running on some of them. Once it led to an auto driver running onto the footpath since I was not willing to make way for him on a rather small road after JC road. Their logic is simple, when there is enough space for them to go, it doesnt matter if the road is a one way. This simple logic has screwed up Bangalore traffic. In many signals, this logic leads to people going in the wrong side and leaving just one vehicle width for the opposite lane. They will point the oncoming drivers to that space and tell them to go.

[Soumyajit9]

Originally Posted by audioholic

Much bigger shame is the employees who sit or sleep inside these buses enjoying their air conditioned, air suspensioned roller coaster which will enable them to reach home faster.

I would beg to give a little space to the IT Joes' at the end of the day.
I have been grumbling too about the sleeping employees, but then after a grueling 9 hour mental work (work load in service vs product companies debate is another topic), I believe they are good enough to sleep for 1 or 1.5 hours on the way back home.
Been there, done that. Honestly, after sitting in a chair for 9 hours, staring at a computer screen, without dozing off after breakfast or lunch is a daunting task as well. The only relief is the AC, compared to the heat outside.

What pisses me off are the Company Bus Drivers. They drop employees at say 9 AM. Go and park their buses and rest for the rest of the day (if they do part-time elsewhere, another debate), come in the evening with their buses, pick and drop employees. That is all they have to do. About 4 hours of driving split into two halves.

The 9 hours of stressed out day of IT Joes' vs 2 hrs in morning and evening each of drivers is quite debatable. I expect the drivers to have had a good afternoon nap and come with a fresh mind to ferry back employees.

TTs', Cabs' etc have to do multiple trips in a 14 hour shift. So their frustrated behaviour is kinda understandable.

EDIT: Oops, I thought I was posting on the Rants on Bangalore traffic thread

[DragonHawk]

Originally Posted by audioholic

Especially with the current trend of companies having leased out their own buses from these travel providers, these fleet buses are the most horrible things to be driving on the streets. Even to some extent TT drivers are saner(some of them) but these buses just dont care for the traffic police or whoever.

Much bigger shame is the employees who sit or sleep inside these buses enjoying their air conditioned, air suspensioned roller coaster which will enable them to reach home faster.

I believe all companies have some norms in place for the drivers of the cabs but I feel that only handful of companies take strict actions when it comes to complaint/feedback received to their desk.

I have been taking my office cab since many years now and the transport desk of my company is pretty serious when its comes to taking action on complaints and feedback it has received. When we had a tie up with SRS travels, warnings and change of driver was a usual affair. From last 3 years things have come down a bit after we switched to other vendors. So it all comes to the transport desk of individual companies and employees who take these buses to ensure drivers follow the norms and rules properly.