[svsantosh]

My colleague left India with a Indian DL and a IDL, but no clue about driving. Applied for IDL just because company asked him to.

Lands in USA, and for 5 years - LEARNT ABC's of cars and driving with wife, and last few years a Infant in baby seat...

He comes backs to India, last 12 months has been nothing short of hell for me!! We car pool and I am sorry to say all the USA things about road manners and driving is left deep cold at bottom of the Atlantic!

-- Honking for 20-30 Seconds behind a car/auto/bike who comes out in front of us till that dude goes deaf

-- Swearing, straightening the arm and verbally abusing from inside a Closed AC Car

-- Always on high beam after 6PM! Sheesh, I was the one who got the 55/60 upgraded to 90/100

-- Weave thru traffic, and blame others for not giving way

-- Tail gate driving

-- Playing chicken

-- Pull along the 'guy who err'd' and lower my (shot gun) glass, and throw some abuses with a out streched arm cross my jaw (I wasnt so embarrassed even on my mandatory hernia check (for new job) if you know what it is)

-- Park like an ass

-- Know it is a dangerous intersection, still drop a gear and open the turbo to pass it before getting blocked by side road traffic (i close my eyes for the air bag, tilt my head on right sholder for a left side TBone)

All this has resulted in front bumper and rear bumper replacement, rear left quarter panel repaint, God knows what more in future!

Funny thing is, last 3 months saw this 'person' revisit USA for few weeks each, each time drove like a darling and came back in 1 - piece without accidents, tickets, dead pedestrians...

I asked how? - He said "People drive better in USA"

[aaggoswami]

Had a couple of instances today :

1) Was coming from office. On one main road, a white i20 is reversing. I could anticipate that my way would be blocked. So did slow down as I was doing just 40. But then, it kept on reversing even though there was enough space to take the car out. The car was also very slow and as usual on a busy road, next to a cut in divider, there was a mini traffic jam like situation. Lost my temper and started honking. No response.
Eventually, the reverse lights were off and the car, very safely with a lot of margin from other parked cars ( sort of parallel parking was done ), the car joined main road. I managed to overtake with little space available, and I saw a lady with mobile. She was talking on mobile. Lost my temper, got in front of her and braked. Instant honking followed, but my angry look I gave in my RVM was probably seen by her. She again took a left turn and I left with screeching wheels of Baleno.

2)Further on, I cooled off, started music system and was listening to old songs on 92.7FM ( BIG FM ). Spotted a crane doing some stuff and blocking right lane. No divider here. So I slowed down and as my lane was clear, proceeded in 2nd gear. As soon as the crane was on my left, a white UVA sail coming from opposite direction tried to push me sideways by partially blocking my way. I did not heed to the behavior and continued straight ahead, almost brushing my ORVM with his, resulting into me stopping my car in my lane. Meanwhile, the white Sail UVA had also slowed down and a big fat guy driving the car gave me a menacing look. He stopped for a moment and then proceeded ahead. There was barely enough space for him to pass through and almost brushed his car with my rear end.

Lost my temper and wanted to take reverse. But I controlled my anger and moved on with old slow songs.

In both scenario, I could not understand why people are so arrogant now a days. Talking on mobile phones and not thinking of others ? Blocking main road as one is busy to reverse with excessive margins in judgement and still talking on phone ? And then honking when you have to stop ?
Is it not arrogance ?
In second case, it was only matter of seconds before I pass through, but still the arrogance to drive head on into opposite lane and blocking other's way to force your way through ?

I must admit that once what was an enjoyable and refreshing experience is not horrible, frustrating stressful experience. Yes, driving is no longer fun, its very very stressful. A gap of barely an inch and you have front wheel of bike slotted into it. Slow down and be prepared to hear a lot of horns and few angry expressions.

Its said that " Roads indicate culture of the nation ". The behavior of users show what actually the society and nation are upto.

[amitoj]

Originally Posted by svsantosh

He comes backs to India, last 12 months has been nothing short of hell for me!! We car pool and I am sorry to say all the USA things about road manners and driving is left deep cold at bottom of the Atlantic!

<snip>

I asked how? - He said "People drive better in USA"

the last line almost made my coffee come out my nose!!

I dont think we need Freud here to see that he is channeling his anger from somewhere else onto the road.

[aajohn]

This happened on Varathur Road on my morning drive to Whitefield.

It was a two lane road and I was in the right lane moving at around 30KM/hr. Out of the blue, an i20 cuts into my lane (no indicators) and I had to maneuver the XUV onto the side median foothpath to avoid collision. I decide to move on, this guy comes zooming by from the left, shouts some crap from inside his car and zooms off. Got irritated and went on to follow the guy revving up the XUV, but then better sense got hold of me and decided he wasn't worth pursuing. He decides to hog the entire road, and does the same lane cutting again with out any indication. Road hogging continued till he took a left from the Shell Bunk and I moved straight.

Lesson learnt - if someone wants to hog the road, be patient and let them move ahead, they will get tired. Never engage with such folks, it only adds to 'ego' ours and theirs.

[pramodkumar]

This thread is turning into one of those AA meetings, guys there is no point fighting on roads and finally confessing here to lighten your chest, a little less ego can get you all out of these situation and keep your blood from boiling, everytime i get pissed on the road due to some moron all i do is think, if i drive like the moron i just confronted to vent my anger off i stand a neat chance of ruining someone elses day, " an eye for an eye will make the whole world blind " M K Gandhi.

Pramod

[swiftnfurious]

What with i20s featuring in many of the recent posts??

Some of my learnings over time:

1. With more miles under your belt, your maturity goes up too - may be this has to do with aging as well.

2. AVOID instances if you have parents / members of fairer sex with you - that puts you on the back foot. If there is a problem, you will NOT only have to save you, but them also.

3. In a 4 wheeler, whenever I play softer songs / melodies, I remain more composed than while playing heavy songs. The car's pace & aggression is also directly related to these songs.

4. If there is space to give way, do it. NO point in stopping the moron from a deserving whack (from someone else).

5. Keep the windows rolled up - You do NOT get to hear what other throw at you; when you want to abuse someone, takes some time to lower window and by the time the guy is mostly gone. Saves you from an altercation.

[2500cc]

Mods: Am sure this isn't road rage, but something similar, please feel free to delete the post if inappropriate.

Man challaned for ‘dangerously’ overtaking Robert Vadra’s car
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/c...w/28611678.cms

[gearedup]

After several incidents of road rage while driving 2 wheelers, I had vowed never to get irritated by a 2 wheeler while driving a car. Am glad that I have been able to maintain my cool. Am confident that those who have driven a 2 wheeler for atleast 5 years in Bangalore will agree with me.

Though the 2 wheelers may scratch your door, bumper, damage your ORVM; in the city traffic - I feel that the roads are just not kind to the 2 wheelers and hence it is important to respect the little space they occupy.

No offence intended, but have seen many car drivers getting irritated with 2 wheelers, but I feel they may not have spent time in heavy traffic in a 2 wheeler.

(As mentioned in my introduction, a 2 wheeler has had a head-on with me, discolouring my bumper, damaging the parking light etc, but I only managed to request the chap to choose a simpler way of buying a ticket to hell )

[V12Doc]

Have had a lot of such incidents with me because I get real pissed off when people start messing around even when i cooperating with traffic. I am always nice, use low beam and go with the flow. So one day I am going through a narrow lane and swift dzire comes from the other side. we both cant squeeze so i tell them to back up because backing up a safari isnt real easy and seeing you cant go back a narrow lane with cars parked and they dont so we both try to squeeze through and I tell them to go a bit to their size because I am already hitting the plants on the other side trying to coperate and the other driver start getting hyper even with some space to go to their side and I end up getting angry and trade some paint with them. I end up with taking the dzire's bumper along with my car and they shouting on the top of their voices because they were being all rowdy.

[raj_5004]

Sometimes a smile or a sorry is all that is needed to avert a potential road rage situation-

• Was driving my Civic, at about 40-50 kmph. I was in the right lane and the 2 lane road becomes narrow ahead, into a single lane. There was an auto in the left lane. I honked much in advance, almost overtook him and was getting ahead when this chap accelerates hard and cuts in front of me. He comes too close and I had to brake hard to avoid impact. I just show a "question mark" gesture as why he accelerated and did this when we both could have comfortably passed if he had let me overtake. Instead of a calm answer, he starts shouting expletives saying its my mistake. The calm situation suddenly turns into a road rage and both parties start shouting expletives at each other. I was furious because the guy did a mistake of speaking indecently when all I did was show him a polite gesture for cutting in front of my car.
• Chauffeur was driving the XUV. We were waiting at a signal. Suddenly an old man in a scooter tries to squeeze through the small gap between my car and the one in front. Chauffeur gives a small tap on the horn because he is scared that the guy may scrape the bumper in his urgency. By the way, there is another car on the left, so the guy has nowhere to go and he is standing perpendicular to the flow of the traffic in front of my car, blocking us! Meanwhile, traffic in front of us starts moving, but we cannot move yet because this guy is right in front of us. Since, the left lane has not yet started moving, he is also blocked. By the way, his intention is to cut across traffic (perpendicularly!) and take the road which turns left! Again, the chauffeur gives a small tap on the horn. This guy gets furious and starts showering abuses! Both the chauffeur and me (in the front seat) are smiling at him and requesting him to move his scooter a bit ahead so that we can proceed. But inspite of blocking our way, he starts showering abuses on why we honked. By then, both of us lost our calm (and decency) and started giving it back to him!

Meanwhile, yesterday another auto cut in front of me in my Civic. He did not bother to check his RVM and took a turn. As soon as we moved ahead, he looked at us and said "sorry". We were pleased and said "its okay" and moved on. He again caught up with us in traffic a few metres ahead. He again said sorry. By this time, my bother said cheers and gave him a thumbs up. Sometimes, a sorry is all that is needed.

[aajohn]

Originally Posted by raj_5004

Sometimes, a sorry is all that is needed.

Absolutely agree to this.

This happened to me last Friday -

Was coming down Varathur road ( Bangalore) around 6:30 in the evening at 60 Km/Hr ( its a fairly straight stretch of road ). Around 100 meters away from me , could see a biker trying to cut into the main road. I flashed the head lights twice and honked, both of which he saw and heard. When I was less than 50 meters away, he decided to cut and I had to slam the brakes as he was right in front of me. Luckily, he was able to pull back to the gap where he had come in from.

I lowered the window down to give a mouth full, but before I could start, he started apologizing. Just told him to take care while driving and that he could die while doing stuff like that! Didn't see any point in hurling abuses to the guy.

[fine69]

Originally Posted by gearedup

Though the 2 wheelers may scratch your door, bumper, damage your ORVM; in the city traffic - I feel that the roads are just not kind to the 2 wheelers and hence it is important to respect the little space they occupy.

Us car drivers also use the same road, I don't understand your point here.

How can scratching a car ever be ok? Just because someone is on a 2-wheeler doesn't give him any right to cut in front of me or scratch my ORVM because he wants to be at least 5 feet ahead of the zebra crossing while I'm at least 2 feet behind the zebra crossing on the stop line.

I don't know about others but in my experience most of the 2-wheeler riders drive like crazy, cut in front of bigger vehicles doing speeds higher than them, scratch ORVMs without even looking at the damage they have done (let alone saying sorry) and so much other stupid things.

And I have used a 2-wheeler but never had the guts to scratch someone's ORVM or accelerate like crazy on an intersection even when a car is coming on to me and he'd definitely have to brake hard if I make a move.

I would also go on to say that most of the car drivers drive like crazy too, given us t-bhpians standard, but I could never say that I'd be okay with 2-wheelers breaking rules and creating havoc on the road just because they don't have a roof on their head when it rains or can't turn on the AC when its hot.

Just because someone's had a very bad childhood doesn't give them the right to steal or commit crime. While people might sympathize with them or understand where they are coming from but it would never be alright to do such things, same is the case with any vehicle on the road!

I'm all for being responsible having a bigger vehicle on the road but that doesn't mean that all responsibility is on me and the 2-wheeler can be totally carefree pulling off idiotic stunts on the road, damage my car or try to come under my car to compensate for the lack of roof on their vehicle.

[gearedup]

Originally Posted by fine69

Us car drivers also use the same road, I don't understand your point here.

Hi fine69,

I didn't mean to say that it okay for a 2wheeler to scratch the car. Whilst I do not disagree with whatever you say, The point still remains that even if you drive any high end car, 2 wheelers will continue to cause minor damages to you, and in the current traffic scenario (of atleast Bangalore) whether one would prefer to convert each such incident into a road rage, or move ahead - is left to personal choice.

Lemme quote you an incident in Newdelhi. Must say pretty broad roads there when compared to our tiny Bangalore. I just hired an auto near the Supreme Court traffic signal. The Auto was behind a Swift Dzire. A DTC bus came from behind, mis-braked - rammed into the rear of the auto who at that same time was about to start the auto since the signal just turned green. Result: The Auto rammed into the Dzire bumper. The Bus just backed up a little and sped away with the conductor laughing at us . The Dzire owner came to bash the Auto fella. Why? obviously he didn't have the guts to chase down the DTC bus. I managed to defend the Auto fella and then even the Dzire guy calmed down. After all there were just scratches on his bumper, whereas the Auto's bumper was badly dented.
Now during this entire fiasco lasting 5 minutes there was no traffic policeman but no holdup either simply because the road was broad. In Bangalore, by the end of 45 seconds the crowd behind would blast you to move your wreck out of the way! (with or without the help of the ever supporting bystanders)

As mentioned by you, driving a bigger vehicle has proportionate responsibilities, Please correct me, but I only keep one thing in mind 'In heavy traffic even if by mistake I apply the same amount of wrong done by a 2wheeler in scratching the door, that guy/gal could be up in heaven/hell, whereas I would be in you know where'

Is there a perfect solution for this? we fellow bhpains can discuss here, but on road in any given moment a vast majority of the 2 wheelers would not think with our mindset. We must remember that India is still a country of great unequalities & I do happen to know some jerks who cause minor damage to parked cars intentionally, just because they derive sadistic pleasure out of it.

Even today, for any accident b/w a 2 & 4 wheeler, it is the 4 wheeler who is looked at with initial suspicion. On the contrary, in my first head-on with a 2wheeler, the crowd was angry with me since I didn't demand any compensation from the Yamaha biker , & to top it he was the local mini-rowdy with his GF.

[fine69]

@gearedup: If you were only referring to not get worked up then I'm with you. In fact I've had my share of some very extreme road rage incidents, which involved breaking noses, knocking a tooth out, throwing car keys off a flyover, tearing clothes and getting clothes torn, done enough damage (both car & human), woke up enough mornings with pain in jaw/hand/leg and last but not the least, almost shitting my pants for a shot that was fired in the air and not on me.

However, for the past couple of years I'm a different person on the road. I thank those incidents for I'm a better and far wise driver than what I used to be. In fact I've helped more than 10 accident victims in Delhi itself in the last 2 years and in one case even gone to court as a witness (though the experience of being a witness was something that I would never ever advise to even my sworn enemies).

I've posted this a couple of times earlier also that every single dent/scratch on my car, in my 4 years of ownership, has been when it was peacefully parked in either the office or a market parking. Some dents were such that I had to get the fender dented and painted again for absolutely no fault of mine (there's a thread on this here).

For now I'm a very calm person on the road, a biker scratches the ORVM, I do nothing, another one bangs their front tyre on my rear bumper, I do nothing. Not too long ago a sleepy driver rammed my car at about 20 kmph when I was keeping still on a red light. I continued sitting in the car but since the driver got down I also did. I casually inspected the damage and asked the Sardar ji (who was in his 40s) to keep an eye out. I could make out that he was very sleepy and would've probably dozed off. He said nothing, no sorry no apologetic look, still I just went back to the car as if nothing happened.

I was very active on the car detailing thread but this 4 years of first hand car ownership has taught me that no matter how dear my car is to me, its just a piece of metal for 99% percent on the road so I don't worry about a lot of things. For all the idiots on the road, I drive defensively and am always mentally prepared to apologize irrespective of who's fault it would ever be or how much damage would be done to my car.

Family first, rest everything material is secondary, including my beloved car.

[gearedup]

Originally Posted by fine69

@gearedup: If you were only referring to not get worked up then I'm with you.

Absolutely, since most of the time it is hopeless/helpless situation.

In fact I've had my share of some very extreme road rage incidents, which involved breaking noses, knocking a tooth out, throwing car keys off a flyover, tearing clothes and getting clothes torn, done enough damage (both car & human), woke up enough mornings with pain in jaw/hand/leg and last but not the least, almost shitting my pants for a shot that was fired in the air and not on me.

We are on the opposite sides pardner, no touching ever done, touchwood but I realise that in India you gotta be prepared for everything.

However, for the past couple of years I'm a different person on the road. I thank those incidents for I'm a better and far wise driver than what I used to be. In fact I've helped more than 10 accident victims in Delhi itself in the last 2 years and in one case even gone to court as a witness (though the experience of being a witness was something that I would never ever advise to even my sworn enemies).

Being someone closely involved with the Judicial system of the country, I cannot agree more with you (shamefully though)

I've posted this a couple of times earlier also that every single dent/scratch on my car, in my 4 years of ownership, has been when it was peacefully parked in either the office or a market parking. Some dents were such that I had to get the fender dented and painted again for absolutely no fault of mine (there's a thread on this here).

I can feel the pain especially when this happens in a first hand ownership

no matter how dear my car is to me, its just a piece of metal for 99% percent on the road Family first, rest everything material is secondary, including my beloved car.

Absolutely that's the whole point.

Note from Support - Smiley usage restricted to 2 per post only. Please avoid using excessive smileys in your post.