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-   -   Will ya stop that!! Passenger habits that you hate! (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/street-experiences/34194-will-ya-stop-passenger-habits-you-hate-10.html)

Nothing irritates or distracts me more than some of my nervous uncles in the passenger seat.

Uncle no 1 - always keep on telling to drive slowly, keep distance from the car in front, about pot holes in front, stops me for a break constantly to relax his nerves. At times he even tells to drop him there and that he will come by the next bus, if I am driving this way. No, I don't drive rash, but he is a guy who always yells out advice. :Frustrati

Uncle no 2 - he is the best of the lot. He wont advise, but read on. Even in light traffic, and the car in front is far away, but stationary, I get distracted by his right foot moving towards the front suddenly. Guess what? He is braking on his own from the passenger seat. Poor him. Neither does he utter a word, nor do I ask. :uncontrol

The horn thing.

When they ask/advise/command to blow the horn at every opportunity. And followed by advises like, 'even if an accident happens, you can claim that you did your best by blowing the horn'.

Wife - when advising me to keep an eye on the road when my attention gets distracted by the PYTs on the road. I should know the traffic rules - one should use the RVMs and ORVMs - but with source of distraction visible in mirrors - wife thinks I should drive like a horse with blinkers.

A man should be allowed to drive in peace. :D

I have been driving for more than a decade and covered over 100,000 kms in many parts of India. In this small experience i have came across many varied co-passengers. I do believe they do play a major role in driving. Let me share my own experiences. There are good co-passengers, bad co passengers and very bad co-passengers.

Lets me start with the good Co-passengers-

1) In case of a maneuver in a narrow space they will help you out by seeing the space left in his side or he will help you while reversing in a tight space.

2) They talk less so you can concentrate on driving.

3) If you miss something they will politely point you out what you missed.

4) In case of a break down or an accident or any sort of emergencies they will help you.

5) However tired they may be, they wont sleep while you drive.

6) They will always keep the music volume in a decent level so it wont disturb you will driving.

7) If i over speed he will warn me to calm down and drive safe.

If a co-passenger has all the above positives then you can trust him eyes closed to go for a drive any time and any where.

Now let me talk about the bad and real bad co-passengers or co driver-Its best to avoid such kind of a person. In case of an accident they do play a major role.

1) The one who thinks himself to be the best driver- They will constantly interfere you while you drive. Like they will say- there's a gap in left move from there or go right , go left, overtake the car, slow down, go fast bla bla bla. Generally the person who himself know how to drive and thinks himself to be one of the best driver is this kind of a co passenger. In one word i feel them disturbing and distracting.

Eg- i was going through an intersection and i saw a Sumo coming. I decided to accelerate and move out before the Sumo comes. I accelerate and suddenly my co passenger shouts 'brake brake brake' at least for a second i leave my foot off the accelerator pedal and then i again re judge the situation and comes out of it. In this fast decision 1 sec delay can be disastrous due to these kind of co passengers. I was lucky i got back my composure and avoided the accident.

Remedy- I ask them to shut up and seat quietly while i drive or send them to the rear seat.

2) The influential guy- They wont wear a seat belt. They will ask you to jump the red signal. For not wearing the seat belts or jumping the signal they will give weird reasons! I have hard reasons like 'if the police catches i have high contacts, you don't worry!!!':Shockked: What will you do with the contacts if you die in a crash???

Remedy- Ignore them and ask them to seat quietly.

3)The over enthusiast co passengers- The most common among young guys. Suppose am cursing at 100 on the highway and a car overtakes me! His immediate reaction will be increase the speed and get past him! I understand he is immature enough to differentiate between common roads and a race tracks but i have seen this inspiring many drivers.

Remedy- Explain him the risk involved. He is unaware of the road safety.

4)The IT geek or the DJ- Constantly they will keep on fiddling with the music player, or the AC setting knobs or other gadgets you have in your cars dashboard. It simply irritates me and distracts while driving. I never use the knobs of the head unit of the music system i always use the remote. But have seen co passengers merrily using the knobs of the head unit in a care free manner!

Remedy- Ask them politely not to touch anything on the dashboard. If he needs some thing he should do it with proper care without constantly fiddling with it. Set your favorite music and continue with it.

5) The smokers and the alcoholics - If some one smokes inside my car it really gets me irritated. Be it my co- driver or rear seat passenger. So smoking is a big no inside my car. Once my friends planned to have a drink in the rear seat of my car while on the highways and i objected it. The result was i lost few friends. But do i really need those kind of friends? The answer is a big NO.

Remedy- Warn them once if they do not listed they might find a different mode of transport.

6)The party guy- These are the guys who think the cars to be a mini disco and plays the music real loud. This definitely distracts the driver. At least i feel distracted.

Remedy- Simply ask him to lower the volume or you deny from driving.

7) The distracting guy- The most dangerous co-passenger. While you drive at good speeds they will try to show you other things in the surroundings which are useless things like a hoarding or another modded car etc etc. This distraction can cause severe accidents.

Remedy- What ever any one may say never take your eyes off the road.

8) The sleep happy guy- In case of a night drive i have seen a guy who got into my car adjusted the seat to his comfort and slept! Slept for the whole night and got up in the morning as if he traveled in a sleeper class Volvo or a train.

Remedy- Keep him awake.

9)The mean guy- In case of an emergency or an accident or a break down they are of no help. They will simply keep quiet or keep on texting on his cell phone.

Remedy- Once you understand there nature dont take him in your car for the second time.

10)The pizza delivery boy!- They will be always in a hurry and always tell you to speed up.

Remedy- Ask them to get into a different mode of transport if he feel your speed to be low.

Accidents occur due to a drivers fault. But many times these happen due to a bad co- passenger. But after the accident no one blames the co-passenger all the blame will be on the driver. So if all the responsibility is on the driver its best not to interfere unless he is doing something wrong.

These are few points i can think as of now. I will request others to add up more valid points so we can be safe from these bad co-passengers.:)



Moderators- Please merge the thread if a similar kind of thread exist. I could find one but that was mainly on how we should be a reasonable co passenger.

Quite a relevant thread. I have been car pooling with few office colleagues but most of my colleagues fit into the Sleep happy guy or Mean guys coz they are always on their phone texting or listening to their own music. There's hardly any masti conversations, I have to literally wake them by starting a conversation. They contribute for the travel expenses doesnt mean that I have to chaffuer them.

But sometimes I feel the Sleep happy guys are the better atleast during day journey or short trips coz they dont disturb you with their blabber. This helps me concentrate better on the busy traffic roads.

PS: I hope my wife doesnt read this thread. :D

This thread brings back a lot of memories,mainly all the bad ones! Had a lot of "characters" with me in my car on my numerous trips. The one's that I hate-the people on No. 1 position. My remedy for them (at-least in my mind)lol:

I have a guy at my office in his late 30s or may be early 40s who will always cling to my car or bike everytime I return home. OK, no problem with that, but then he always keeps on saying on the signal : 'kaun dekh raha hai, chaliye na' or 'police wala nahi hai, badhaiye'. I literally don't reply to him and keep waiting as if I did not hear anything. I feel like banging his head, he gets that irritating. In fact, that is the reason why I try to avoid him picking.

On days I am on my bike, of course he is a pillion broke enough not to have a helmet on his head.

I do not mean to question your driving skills or start a flame war, but my initial reaction after this thread was "A poor workman always blames his tools"

All these happen to everyone, and they are nothing more than a minor irritant, and not a huge distraction as made out to be.

I would like to add one: The Name Shouter.

This person shouts your name at high pitch, when they realize something has gone wrong, and you haven't.

For example, once i did not see a unmarked speedbreaker some distance away, during a night drive. My co passenger did and all he did was shout "Raghav, Raghav, Raghav" at the top of the voice, which in addition to freak me out made me slow down a bit, and frantically look at the front, side and rear mirros, if anyone is about to ram into my car. I did cross the speedbreaker at a speed more than i would have, in normal circumstances.

Agreed it's more of a reflex response, but still..

P.S: After the drive i instructed him to never do that and at least shout what he saw like "Speed breaker,speed breaker", which would be more helpful.

It is a very valid point which you the OP have raised about the co-passengers. I've had my share of each of these people and have been irked to no end. Have told them every solution you've told they don't listen. They should be like richie4u has said be ejected with an ejector seat. lol: Wish I could've had something like that in my car. Nevertheless an excellent thread and rated 5 stars brother. You're threads always rock.

Cheers,
Subhra

I am not denying what you say. You can be a very good driver who do not get distracted by co- passengers. That's really an appreciable positive you have. :thumbs up

I don't want to blame others, i just shared what different kind of co-passengers i have been through and how they can be distracting. To be honest over the years i never had any incident due to these co-passengers, i always found a way out for me.

I shared this topic as among my friend circle or other cab drivers i have hard a lot of incidents like asking the driver to drive fast or when the driver feels sleepy telling him to be awake and cover few more kilometers so they can reach early. Though not with me but still with bad and non co-operative co- passengers accidents do happen. Every driver is not equally skillful or bears a strong personality to overcome the negative influence of there co-passengers.

That's the sole reason to create this thread. I hope i was able to clear the purpose of this thread. :)

I would like to add one more type -

- Who would keep praising the passing by cars and would constantly try to find faults in your car, Even though they have never driven a car themselves, don't know driving and would keep commenting on your car which you love to core.

- Iska pick up kam hai bhai...
- Avg nahi deti yaar..
- looks mein piche hai...
- Galat car leli yaar tune, isme xyz nahi hai
- Isme XYZ nahi hai with a big strange expression.
- to add insult to injury, they would give some stupid example of XYZ person having X car.

I think more than distractions (unless you have a pretty lady as a co-passenger:D), they are irritants and cause annoyance.

Beautiful thread this!!! You have summed it up very very well.

People who have good driving experience can all connect with every point you have mentioned. Have experienced almost all of the good, bad and very good that you have mentioned.