Team-BHP - Should one follow traffic rules/lights at the cost of getting abused

Hi,

How Bangalore has changed in the last 6 years since I started living here. I work in one of the 100000 software companies and am among those people who follows traffic-rules almost all the times. A few times I have been forced to jump signals when the bus / lorry coming behind wouldn't slow down when signal is about to turn red from yellow and forced me to jump signal to save my life.

In the past 3-4 years I have been shouted at and even abused so many times for STOPPING AT RED or Not going when the signal is red. The sad part is it is not just the auto /cab / bus drivers who do this but also the well educated and higly paid IT Professionals in their costly cars not caring for their and others safety. I have ignored many of these but few times I get so angry at people who behave so stupidly and shout at them.

I sometimes feel if it is really worth following rules at the risk of your own life. So far have managed to do what I feel is the correct thing by stopping at signals and following the rules.

Thiyags

YES !! I ride a bike and in spite of it, I get great pleasure in waiting for the signal to turn green before moving. People honk, yell and abuse but I honestly dont care. The more agitated they get, the happier it makes me.

Sometimes, if some moron is honking and making too much of a fuss, my bike magically "stalls" and it takes me 30 secs to get it started again and I zoom away and that person is stuck for another 2 mins at that signal. Strange coincidences :lol:

Please continue to follow traffic signals. If you have a car, listen to some music and enjoy yourself. I dont have any music while riding my bike and I still remain calm. Just roll up your windows and ignore those idiots.

lol i ensure i wait few secs more than required if somebody honks or says something ;)

Just today morning i didnt take the LT turn at Sony world since its not a free left from Ind Ngr side, a Qualis guy was honking and eventually he got bored, i had to increase the ICE volume a lil bit more.

At the end of the day you pay road tax and follow rule, its upto you. No need to even respond to such impatient imbeciles.

Quote:

Originally Posted by thiyags22 (Post 819081)

In the past 3-4 years I have been shouted at and even abused so many times for STOPPING AT RED or Not going when the signal is red. The sad part is it is not just the auto /cab / bus drivers who do this but also the well educated and higly paid IT Professionals in their costly cars not caring for their and others safety. I have ignored many of these but few times I get so angry at people who behave so stupidly and shout at them.

It happens quite frequently. But do not change your ways.
Gandhigiri works :)

Last week at the IRR signal, I was happy to see an auto guy stopping for the signal to go green, while other "educated" folks in "costly" cars zipped past him while the signal was on Red.

Unfortunately, I couldn't wait to tell "thanks" to him. Me and my wife both wanted to do that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by khan_sultan (Post 819238)

What I have observed is that if the signal is about to go red and you stop (assuming that you are in front), it in a strange way puts some kind of social pressure on people behind/along side you -- have observed this countless number of time.

True, exactly the same thing happens here in Pune. They all wait for some 'brave' Pied Piper to jump the signal and follw him like a bunch of blind rats.

What is more annoyinh is that once the signal turns green, the idiots don't give way, and thats when I my jeep comes in handy. I have scraped some cars this way. :D

@Thiyags22

this is a very healthy tendency to follow the traffic rules and there is nothing wrong about it.

Only thing wrong is that people around us are losing it and thus leading to lot of accidents.

Have felt the same many times here in Noida,but i wud say never buzz to such pressures,just avoid such morons and if there is something more,then get out of their way and let them go to hell

drive safe

This happens a lot on the ring roads at nights. Stupid cab/lorry drivers honking away to glory on seeing an empty road under a red signal. I make it a point to stand my ground till the signal turns green. But at times I do get a little scared about getting a nudge from the rear. I came across this instance where a qualis guy kept honking continously. I put my head out of the window and indicated to him that the signal was red. He still kept honking. Finally out of frustration, I got out of the car and went and caught hold of that guys collar and told him that the next time he honks my wheel spanner will be having a short visit with his face :D . The timer still read 84 seconds, and I was sure he wouldn't stop honking either till the light went green or I jumped the signal.

The scene is no better with educated people either. From my experience its the uncles driving in the Scorpio's who seem to be in the most hurry.

Though a lot of us believe in following the rules, one cannot help but break them at times out of pure concern for your own safety caused by those who have no respect for the law.

Yes, this surely is an irritant in Chennai also. I usually dont bother even if there is honking from rear if I am stopped at a red signal. Sometimes, I just lower the windows and point to the red signal.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mclaren1885

But at times I do get a little scared about getting a nudge from the rear.

Same here. What if the stupid guy is drunk or just out for trouble and nudges the car ? Ofcourse we can fight with him, but the damage would be done, right ? Especially the Govt buses - they come so close behind you, honking and racing their engine loudly that stress levels go up.

And yes, here the so-called educated janta are the first to drive on inspite of a red signal.

Wow, thank god I am not alone. Have been facing this problem since I started driving about four years back.
One thing I am lucky in is that I ride a bike so its pretty easy to avoid the honking. When nearing the signal I always try to get towards the side of the road. If there is no right turn then at the right corner or at the extreme right for the straight lane. I usually have my turn signal on when i am heading towards these. And also when I am standing there the left signal turned on. So usually people jumping the red light just drive by avoiding getting stranded behind me.
Also when I am in the thick of things then i follow the people jumping the light and again head towards the corner and wait for the signal to turn green. And when there is excessive honking I first point towards the red light and then signal that he can always drive by me.

One question though do you people also stop behind the zebra crossings or on it. As that is another hassle in Pune where people tend to start nudging their vehicles onto the intersection even when the signal is red. Really irritating because its not like they want to race or anything. Later they end up driving 20kmph in the middle of the road and blocking everybody. Not to mention the cross traffic that they block at the intersection leading to mini jams and longer waits.

Glad to get that out of my system, phew.

Also its commendable that you follow the rules. Once I was coming back from Kothrud in Pune at 11PM when i stopped at a red light(dont ask me how, its Pune ;) ). Surprisingly other vehicles(from all sides), except the autowallahs, also started stopping. It was a shock to see people follow the rules just because one had stopped(or maybe they thought that there was a traffic cop nearby). Anyways it goes to show that you might just influence some one out there and making India a safer and a better place to drive.

Have had my (un)fair share of such incidents, being honked at, nudged form behind etc, but I am never gonna give up on my habit of stopping for a RED light.

Sometimes, if I can just move over to give space for the person honking behind me, I just do it so he can go past me.

Once I had a hard time with a taxi honking incessantly and I let him go out of frustration, only to see a hand raised out of the window holding a saline bottle (obviously someone inside was very sick and being taken to the hospital). That driver did not have the brains to either use his headlights or the hazard warning lights (he probably thought it was only to be used in intersections to indicate when you have to go straight :Frustrati).

Things are definitely different with the buses and lorries though. The more they honk, the more I make them suffer with the classical "Opps I stalled my car!" procedure.

Inner Ring Road is filled with such morons :Frustrati

The Cab guys and also the well educated people do this most of the times. I just increase the volume on my ICE. If the Idiot does not stop honking after that too, I get down and Make signs for him to Fly above my car and I really make it funny so that he is embarrassed and stops. I have got a lot of people laughing like that around me at signals and i too sit back inside and laugh. lol:

Happened quite a few times during my last trip to B'lore. People driving expensive cars go on honking,and give you the look as if you were at fault (for having stopped at a red light). Managed to give some of these morons a piece of my mind,but then realized that there'd be no end to it.

A sincere request to all BHPians-if at anytime you find some (autodriver,or regular car/bike commuter) following rules & being cautious on the road,please take an extra minute to either thank the guy/gal or atleast appreciate the act. There are a lot of people who do this,and it in turn helps to make atleast a fraction of difference to the traffic conditions. If the citizens doing good are appreciated,I'm sure they will do their part and make an effort to correct others,or themselves appreciate another responsible citizen on the streets.

This happens a lot to me too, but the only difference is i drive a bike. I commute to office in a bike and generally like to take driving with less tension and follow the traffic rules. But since i drive a bike people take advantage of it, no vehicle ever slow down when they enter a main road, i have to slow down for all those VIPs. If i follow a car in one of those long and tiring Banagalore traffic snarls, cars find it ammusing to just go left by 3 feet and come back right in front of me like they achived some thing great. When many see a bike diving ahead of them, they naturally assume that they are a slow lot and keep honking away to glory and then they do the overtaking. Many time my foot have been at risk, i have to act like i just stepped on hot plate to avoid falling. If its raining out there don't even ask, cars drive at their regular speeds(most don't really realize the risk) but due to saftey reasons, i have to slow down. The honks only get better.

Well I still drive with all the same way but following traffic rules for a bike user ever more difficult for the above reasons.