[Thad E Ginathom]

Overtaking on the left...

In my mind, when overtaking on the left, you get what comes. In an instance like this, the traffic in front is not giving any alternative except going to the left, and this is often the case, but when we do, we should make as sure as we can (headlights, horn) that the drover of the other vehicle knows we are there.

Added to which, the other guy should not change lanes without looking --- left or right.

[Yieldway17]

Originally Posted by hrk997

That's exactly what a careless truck driver would say, and I'm sure when a truck driver cuts you off while you're doing 120, you're hardly going to blame yourself. According to the truck driver's logic, you were driving "too fast".

Wow, that's some kind of passionate defense for these erratic behaviors and insane speeding from these superbikers.

On regular cars driving at 100-120kmph and truck drivers calling them fast, those truck drivers drive way under the speed limit, so they don't have a ground to stand on and blame the cars.

Road speed limit is the difference between these general speeding cars and these super bikers. Yes, ideally everyone drives the speed limit but 20-40kmph above the speed limit is wildly different from someone doing 2-3x the speed limit. How do you even think these both are equivalent?

I don't see this negative attitude towards super cars, although they're likely to be going much faster than these bikes.

People equally hate supercars driving insane speeds too, I'm not sure where you see people here supporting that. Check some threads on supercar accidents here.

So I suggest that instead of spewing hate at super bikes, one ought to see how many times they themselves cross the limits in a car that's close to 200 bhp i.e. your entry level German engine, and if they still feel the urge to improve road safety, then do something to improve legislation and driving awareness for the majority, not the minority.

It's not zero sum. Just because majority breaking laws doesn't mean minorities breaking laws even grandiosely should get away. That's really a weak logic.

Only thing I can agree on what you said is that people should improve their driving etiquette, no disagreements on that front.

[pixantz]

Originally Posted by hrk997

India is the country with the highest number of road accidents in the world, and I'm confident that the majority of them do not involve super bikes or super cars, the problem lies elsewhere.

Well that's a very right statistic/observation.

I don't know if this occurred to anyone, but if you think of it, in normal circumstances your average truck driver or super-bike/car driver is driving with much more responsibility, judgement, attention, concentration and risk of error than your normal tbhpians who are stuck with the more common kind of daal-chawal mode of transport - the car. The truck driver because he has multiple the times weight and incredible momentum to handle while the "super" riders have speed to handle. Except for the occasional dimwit you might come across who has no responsibility but this species is rare because the super-cars/bikes are themselves rare in India. Maybe that's why they tend to get more attention.

Normally a person always tends to get annoyed with another person driving another kind of vehicle. A biker frowns at a car driver, the car driver is vexed at the sight of bikers, superbikers think all the other pesky people are in slow motion, truckers think all the others are kids with their puny toys with no idea how to drive sanely, and the pilots in their cockpits may be looking down on the whole lot of them and thinking, "poor ants".

I think sometimes we should take a moment to try to imagine what it must take to be in the other drivers seat. It's interesting.

[BenjiRoss]

While travelling from Vellore to Chennai, I hate the Hyundai staff buses near Sriperambudur. They always turn into the highway with scant regard for oncoming traffic, hardly use indicators to turn and probably never use their rearview mirrors either. I have seen them literally force cars to move out of their lane or brake sharply while they switch lanes. Here is a mild example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEFWBDuaX4E

[Rajesh K R]

Originally Posted by AlphaKilo

BIG OT: So, you mean to say that the women was ugly?

I think this has nothing to do with the car or the person rather this meance is a regular habit! It is even irritaiting when bikes are parked like this and if moved, the owner's ego is so badly hurt.

You are right. i had to move an Activa physically as it was blocking my parking slot at my office. Later on, a lady who was the owner of the activa came out and purposefully dashed her bike to my car resulting in couple of scratches. The guard at the ATM opposite side saw that from far, but when he shouted at her, the lady drove away.

[locusjag]

Originally Posted by BenjiRoss

While travelling from Vellore to Chennai, I hate the Hyundai staff buses near Sriperambudur. They always turn into the highway with scant regard for oncoming traffic, hardly use indicators to turn and probably never use their rearview mirrors either. I have seen them literally force cars to move out of their lane or brake sharply while they switch lanes.

It's possible in many cases to vehicles' lane changes such as the one your footage shows; there was a slow truck up ahead in the Hyundai staff bus' lane. That in itself would be my cue to let off the accelerator and wait for the bus to swing onto my lane. But to get to this point, one must maintain a large distance from where one can predict such behavior, from afar. You did well by maintaining a good distance from the bus in this case.

[Nalin1]

Yes agree! All about anticipating every moving thing's movement on our roads.

That does not mean the bus should expect the driver behind to anticipate and switch lanes without a care! He should do what he is supposed to do anyway.
It does not end there. Check out in the ORVM if the driver behind has reacted to his indicator blinking and taken his/her foot off the throttle.

That is why I like to use this signature-

"Physically drive your vehicle, mentally drive everybody's!"

I don't want to literally drive everybody's vehicle !

[paragsachania]

If you guys are seriously discussing how these Staff Buses are to be driven, I invite you during one of the weekday evenings to Bangalore and drive on the stretch of NICE road along the same time when these buses ferrying sophisticated Techies inside are hooked to their phones or taking a nap.

They are rash in general but they are also extremely rash each time they are rash .

They literally force every other vehicle, irrespective of the size to move away to maintain their momentum (100 Kmph easily) and if not, they will simply push you off. They overtake dangerously between 2 fully loaded trucks and care the least when it comes to acknowledging the fact that the truck is yet to complete its overtaking maneuver and will literally make the trucks brake badly or change lanes by closely passing next to them nearly knocking off the sideview mirrors!!

There is a reason behind this - These staff buses are driven by drivers who earlier were cabbies or at best drivers of Tempo Travelers and they have less than 0.01% knowledge of how to drive on highways. I encountered a series of these buses far away, 220 Km from Bangalore between Chikmagalur and Belur heading towards Sringeri (at least the banners in front said that) and they were driving exactly like how they do in Bangalore roads - Like maniacs and on a single carriageway. These buses belonged to "Megha Travels" which also is infamous for providing transport services for some famous IT companies in Bangalore.

So, the moral of the Story is that these staff bus drivers will remain rude anywhere you go.

In the end what do we get to hear from the staff inside these buses - Our driver is awesome due to whom we always reach home on time no matter how bad the traffic is...

[locusjag]

Originally Posted by Nalin1

Yes agree! All about anticipating every moving thing's movement on our roads.

That does not mean the bus should expect the driver behind to anticipate and switch lanes without a care! He should do what he is supposed to do anyway.
It does not end there. Check out in the ORVM if the driver behind has reacted to his indicator blinking and taken his/her foot off the throttle.

That is why I like to use this signature-

"Physically drive your vehicle, mentally drive everybody's!"

I don't want to literally drive everybody's vehicle !

If you see a ball bouncing onto the road, brake now and you shall see a child run after it.

If you see a gap present itself on the road, ease up now and you shall find all of our nation's drivers rush to plug themselves there.

If you see lush green grass on the median, move away to the slow lane and you shall be greeted by a thankful cow.

And so on and so forth... That's how the game called surviving Indian roads is played.

Do note that I spoke of Indian motorists in the same breath as naive children and cows. In fact the vast majority of our motorists may have far worse mental faculties than both of them!

[deathwalkr]

What do you have to say to this guy?!

https://youtu.be/D1Wmgg-bloA

[BenjiRoss]

The actual method for changing lanes on the highway is to indicate, do a mirror / shoulder check and wait for a clear lane before switching lanes. Indian drivers are too impatient and indisciplined to do this. The belief is that if I start my lane change before the next person overtakes me, I have the right of way.

For every highway overtake I assume that the bloke in the nearby lane will turn into mine. So I honk before I start the overtake, honk when I'm in his blind spot and breathe a sigh of relief when I complete the overtake. The bloke can change lanes at any time during this time EVEN if there is no vehicle in front of him. Hard fact of driving in India.
This is what most of you have mentioned in different ways now and also earlier in this thread (and the accidents thread and the near miss thread).
Here's another example on the same day:

https://youtu.be/papz9cBa7W0

Originally Posted by locusjag

It's possible in many cases to vehicles' lane changes such as the one your footage shows; there was a slow truck up ahead in the Hyundai staff bus' lane. That in itself would be my cue to let off the accelerator and wait for the bus to swing onto my lane. But to get to this point, one must maintain a large distance from where one can predict such behavior, from afar. You did well by maintaining a good distance from the bus in this case.

Originally Posted by Nalin1

Yes agree! All about anticipating every moving thing's movement on our roads.

That does not mean the bus should expect the driver behind to anticipate and switch lanes without a care! He should do what he is supposed to do anyway.
It does not end there. Check out in the ORVM if the driver behind has reacted to his indicator blinking and taken his/her foot off the throttle.

That is why I like to use this signature-

"Physically drive your vehicle, mentally drive everybody's!"

I don't want to literally drive everybody's vehicle !

Originally Posted by paragsachania

They literally force every other vehicle, irrespective of the size to move away to maintain their momentum (100 Kmph easily) and if not, they will simply push you off. They overtake dangerously between 2 fully loaded trucks and care the least when it comes to acknowledging the fact that the truck is yet to complete its overtaking maneuver and will literally make the trucks brake badly or change lanes by closely passing next to them nearly knocking off the sideview mirrors!!

Originally Posted by locusjag

If you see a ball bouncing onto the road, brake now and you shall see a child run after it.

If you see a gap present itself on the road, ease up now and you shall find all of our nation's drivers rush to plug themselves there.

If you see lush green grass on the median, move away to the slow lane and you shall be greeted by a thankful cow.

And so on and so forth... That's how the game called surviving Indian roads is played.

Do note that I spoke of Indian motorists in the same breath as naive children and cows. In fact the vast majority of our motorists may have far worse mental faculties than both of them!

[BigBrad]

Originally Posted by BenjiRoss

The actual method for changing lanes on the highway is to indicate, do a mirror / shoulder check and wait for a clear lane before switching lanes.

Shouldn't it be like mirror / shoulder check first followed by indicate if the path is clear and then start changing lane? Just trying to understand the right method.

[blackasta]

Couple of incidents which are worth mentioning in this forum, as such I see innumerable bad drivers everyday.

Instance # 1

Overtaking from left and then taking an u turn

https://youtu.be/IJ7xyTQlQ40

Instance # 2

Not paying attention on road & not keeping a safe distance - result is a small accident.

https://youtu.be/fM4g-teAyj8

[india008]

Road or no road, it doesn't matter to this guy.

https://youtu.be/E72KcSVOezQ

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by BigBrad

Shouldn't it be like mirror / shoulder check first followed by indicate if the path is clear and then start changing lane? Just trying to understand the right method.

The British driving-school mantra is Mirror, Signal, Manoeuvre.