[blackwasp]

Do you agree that things are really getting out of hand on Indian roads? I've been noticing this especially since the last 2 years. There are way too many rule breakers. Heck, drive for just a km or two and one will see several road rules being ignored.

I think the situation is truly going from bad to worse, and stringent enforcement is the need of the hour. Remember how cops cracked down on drunk driving (related thread)? How the strict speed limit enforcement has everyone on the Bandra-Worli Sea Link driving <80 kmph? Or how the e-challan system magically had cars respecting even zebra crossings (related thread)?

I took a short spin in my car which has a dashcam and added a 'ting' sound for every offender that I could spot. This is in a short drive of ~15 minutes. Here is the shortened version with just the offenders (See the full video here).

I start off on a 1-way. See how many are going the wrong way!

https://youtu.be/uNJicqWPs2U

As you can see, there are lots of helmet-less riders, some triple seat offenders, signal jumpers, parking where there is none and some even on the wrong side of the road!

What is happening? When will the authorities crack down? We need strict enforcement + stiff penalties. Driving during regular hours is frankly no longer fun. It's only enjoyable early mornings, late nights and on the highway.

[GTO]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[saket77]

I haven't traveled much last quarter, but I can tell you about my city certainly.

The new MV rules were strictly enforced in Ranchi last year. Huge fines were slapped on offenders and one page of local dailies were devoted towards reporting these (which helped spread the awareness & fear as well). The traffic situation improved by leaps and bounds. It was hard to see anyone riding on the wrong side of the road, riding without a helmet, cars incorrectly parked, everyone wore seatbelts and all. In fact, a lot of vehicles did went off road- probably they didn't have complete papers. The traffic flow became so smooth that I was enjoying driving in city after a couple of decades probably.

Then the upcoming elections and the state Govt. gave relaxation of 2-3 months for people to get all papers in order. Elections gone by, the MV rules are probably back in force; but the enforcement is now lackluster. 2-wheelers riding on the wrong side is the most common traffic offence you can see here now. Many even ride on the footpath giving no safe place to walk for us mortals!

So about your question in the last line: Stiff fines are already there, it is the enforcement that is sorely missing- I can surely tell.

Regards,
Saket

[srvm]

Originally Posted by blackwasp

.....
....
I took a short spin in my car which has a dashcam and added a 'ting' sound for every offender that I could spot. This is in a short drive of ~15 minutes. Here is the shortened version with just the offenders (See the full video here).

I start off on a 1-way. See how many are going the wrong way!
.....

As you can see, there are lots of helmet-less riders, some triple seat offenders, signal jumpers, parking where there is none and some even on the wrong side of the road!

What is happening? When will the authorities crack down? We need strict enforcement + stiff penalties. Driving during regular hours is frankly no longer fun. It's only enjoyable early mornings, late nights and on the highway.

Dear blackwasp,
If the violations seen in your 2 minute video made you start this thread, then I seriously wish you never have to drive on Bangalore roads, EVER.
Your blood will boil over and you'll lose your composure in just a matter of minute.
Honestly, I'll happily swap the idiotic drivers in your video with the nuts we have here on Bangalore roads

If I were to make a dashcam video on Bangalore traffic, there will be no need for a shortened version. No need for cuts. You'll see offenders every frame

[NPV]

When the new MV act came into force few months ago, things were trending positively, but now a few months later, it's the same or even worse, you have all kinds of violations happening all over the city in Bangalore, I guess many other cities in our country are similar .

Most common here are helmet-less riders and one way rule breakers. Lots of 2 wheelers now do both together (no helmet, riding on wrong side and zooming past others, endangering the law abiding motorists on the correct side). It's also common to see red light being honoured only when cops are around, even cameras don't act as deterrent for these determined traffic violators .

Despite traffic cops being diligent on picking up vehicles from No parking zones (they now make a killing both when charging the full fine + towing charge or settling for 75% of the amount as a bribe), it continues. Sadly, very few learn their lessons from such experiences.

[aargee]

Originally Posted by blackwasp

I took a short spin in my car which has a dashcam and added a 'ting' sound for every offender that I could spot. This is in a short drive of ~15 minutes

Boss, this is nothing!! Absolutely nothing!!

If I mount a GoPro to my helmet one day on morning hours to drop my children to school, the video will have a one big TTTTTTiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnggg!!

Such is the number of offences!! For every second there will be, not one, atleast 2 offences that can be spotted

All the Parents giving wonderful lessons to their little ones/future drivers & riders on how to drive & ride on Indian roads better

[Rajeevraj]

I think there is no doubt that it is going from bad to worse. Especially in cities like Bangalore where the infrastructure is no where close to handling the volume of traffic. The measures taken to improve traffic flow like one ways, additional lights, median closures etc.. all just result in more and more violations. It has become so bad that some of the gross violations- example riding on the foot path, has become more a norm than an exception.

Like the idea of the beep. As mentioned above it will just be one continuous beep in most places in Bangalore. Better idea- just do some random pitch and length variations and you get a nice song at the end of it

[Rahul_]

Originally Posted by saket77

The new MV rules were strictly enforced in Ranchi last year. Huge fines were slapped on offenders and one page of local dailies were devoted towards reporting these (which helped spread the awareness & fear as well). The traffic situation improved by leaps and bounds. It was hard to see anyone riding on the wrong side of the road, riding without a helmet, cars incorrectly parked, everyone wore seatbelts and all. In fact, a lot of vehicles did went off road- probably they didn't have complete papers. The traffic flow became so smooth that I was enjoying driving in city after a couple of decades probably.


So about your question in the last line: Stiff fines are already there, it is the enforcement that is sorely missing- I can surely tell.

Regards,
Saket

My dad who works at Bokaro and keeps visiting Ranchi regularly for work/airport exclaimed at the very same thing a week back on his recent visit to Bengaluru. He was surprised to see so many offenders(wrong sided drivers) and more so the number of helmet-less riders here at Bengaluru. He said how come situation is still bad here post new MV rules implementation since he had seen it improving elsewhere.

[shamanth]

Originally Posted by Rahul_

He was surprised to see so many offenders(wrong sided drivers) and more so the number of helmet-less riders here at Bengaluru. He said how come situation is still bad here post new MV rules implementation since he had seen it improving elsewhere.

The Stupid Govt in Karnataka reduced the fines to half, following Gujarat example. And we were seeing some sanity after new MV act, then after relaxing the rules, all hell broke loose and violation increased several folds.

And Traffic police in Bangalore who are just helmet-less catchers, they wont enforce anything, even if you are riding in one-way, but if you ride without helmet they pounce on you. BTP should stop worrying about helmet-less riders and enforce far more dangerous violations to bring in some sanity.

[porsche_guy]

Good thread

Your observation is absolutely spot on. I think the problem mainly boils down to the fact that infrastructure and public services haven't been able to catch up with the rapid economic growth that's happened in the last 5-6 years.

Not just metros, even medium sized cities like mine are just way too scary to drive in. All kinds of idiots here including helmet-less riders, triple seaters and various other offences.

At the risk of going too political, the government itself is not clear on its policies. When the new MV act was established, they reduced the fines and made helmet-less riding and triple seating legal. And now they're saying there was no such exemption at all!

Even the traffic police is so lax in its attitude. They must be fining like 10 people in a week to put up pictures on their social media and that's it! Even the e-challans are not issued by them despite clearly a lot of offenders.

Just to give you an idea of the situation, a few hours back, I was at an intersection where there was some work going on, so naturally there was more traffic than usual. The police were trying their best to contain the traffic as much as possible but people were ruthlessly honking and one guy even came forward to fight with the cops! Such is the respect(disrespect rather) towards the rules!

Cheers!

[Newpunter]

When I moved to my current place around 4 years back, we had a normal 2 lane undivided road. Most people used to drive on their side of the road and follow traffic rules mostly. A couple of years back, the road was upgraded to a 4 lane road with a divider in between. This is when all the chaos started. Instead of taking a U turn which is barely 50m away, people drive on the wrong side of the road to save fuel worth 50m.

Earlier, if someone was driving on the wrong side, they used to switch on their hazard lights and drive (atleast admitting that they are doing something wrong and warning us). Recently, when I gestured to someone who was driving on the wrong side, asking why he was doing that, he stopped his vehicle and stared at me so intently that I got scared and continued silently on my way .

There was a time when it was just 2 wheelers who used to drive on the wrong side of the road. These days, everyone, including cars, buses and trucks drive on the wrong side and are not even apologetic about it. I think maybe it is time we just add one more lane to each side to accommodate wrong side driving .

[uditsharma01]

Well I travel around 60 kms daily in peak city traffic and I can tell you how many lawless people have their hands on the wheel. It's depressive to drive in such conditions.

What I observe on daily basis:

1. People popping up on to the highways/main roads out of no where literally. And they have the audacity to not even look behind if someone is coming. Such people are most annoying and boils my blood.

2. Absolutely no lane rule. Two-wheelers driving in the fastest lane and similarly four-wheelers forming 10 lanes on 4 lane road. Vehicles driving extremely close to each other and scratching simultaneously.

3. Auto drivers just pullover where ever the hell they want.

4. Oh! How can I forget those driving wrong side on the road. And so audaciously, they drive on the wrong side on the rightmost lane. They deserve special commemoration.

5. There are people not following the speed limit. Upper and lower. Both!

6. Reckless, impatient overtaking! People on the road are so impatient that they don't even wait to get the appropriate space.

I can go on and on to write down the behavior of drivers on Indian road but that won't help to bring any change. I think the issue lies at the grass root level.

In India, it is a cake walk to get driving license. Easily bribe babus and just from 500 you can get a license. Imagine such people driving on roads. In the countries like US, it is extremely difficult to get a DL.

Second, it's psychology of the people these days. Everyone's wearing their egos on their nose.

Be considerate, patient and law abiding. Let's help creating our roads "less depressive".

[kiku007]

Yes and that's bound to happen when human and vehicle population keeps increasing but the driving habits haven't changed for the good. You just notice more of the same old bad stuff.


Having said that, may I also note that over a period of time some of us mature and become better drivers. I won't do stuff on road now in India that was acceptable for me 15 years before. This makes the situation even more exasperating for people like us. We end up looking like idiots for being sensible and humane on the road. So that could also be a contributor.

[charanreddy]

Originally Posted by Newpunter

When I moved to my current place around 4 years back, we had a normal 2 lane undivided road. Most people used to drive on their side of the road and follow traffic rules mostly. A couple of years back, the road was upgraded to a 4 lane road with a divider in between. This is when all the chaos started. Instead of taking a U turn which is barely 50m away, people drive on the wrong side of the road to save fuel worth 50m.

Exactly what’s happening around my area as well. Do you stay near Sarjapura by any chance ?

Near the decathlon flyover on Sarjapur Road, even taxis and tempo travellers take the wrong way to a new tech park as it saves them some 100m, right before the traffic Constable who mans the junction

[Asish_VK]

Originally Posted by srvm

Dear blackwasp,
If the violations seen in your 2 minute video made you start this thread, then I seriously wish you never have to drive on Bangalore roads, EVER.
Your blood will boil over and you'll lose your composure in just a matter of minute.

+1000 To that

Traffic situation is so worse in Bangalore. Heck, it some times make you feel that you are doing something wrong by following rules.

Common violations are Signal jumping, One way riding (even trucks and buses drive the wrong way in peak hours too), Median Jumping even if there is a 'U' turn 50 meters ahead etc.

Somehow almost everyone uses helmet here, since police are showing some interest in catching them (Collecting legal fine or not, is another topic for discussion )

Its high time to modify the entire system.
Proper traffic / civic sense to be must be taught from schools and law enforcement has to be rigorous.