[Glass]

Originally Posted by phamilyman

Glass,

Why don't you don a couple of glasses of the good stuff - I mean water, and just re-read your original post. What it reeks of (unlike the res tof your regular sensible posts) is arrogance combined with aggression. I replied in kind, others have been kinder. And the perspective is all there.

I take your point, though you should have been there to 'perceive' if they were really polite.

And will I apologize to yankies whose with erect middle fingers - and who care neither for the oldies nor the little kids? -no way - I am happy to be arrogant and aggressive with them. But then, this post is not about their road manners and I did not share this info in the first post - so I will relent.
cheers:

[lohithrao]

guess its a difficult situation, i feel water not getting cleared of the road or bad drainage is the culprit...or potholes

[gd1418]

You bet. I too get that uncontrollable itch to drive around aimlessly when its rains. During my school/college days riding the bullet during rains was one hell of a passion. The droplets falling on your face gave an exhilarating experience..

Originally Posted by bblost

My family certainly thinks I am a fool.
It starts raining and I get the itch to start riding in the Rain.

Kya karen control nahi hota.

[maddy42]

I remember this experience where i was drenched in the rain by this hero on a sierra. I only wish he drove around slowly as i was going for a movie and he gave me a shower from the dirty water on the raod. Cursed him to my hearts content but had to just move on. Realised one thing is to be careful when you see water on the road. everyone should take care of it. Two wheelers included

[deadguy25]

Has anyone experienced the flip side of it? I am sure some of us would have!

I almost always slow down when I drive in rain/wet road with water puddle to avoid splashing water on pedestrians/2-wheelers. Most of the times I have got yelled at from 2/3-wheeler guys for doing this! I do not do it if there is heavy traffic or rain!

I do not react when they yell at me, but at times tend to stop them in the middle of the road and put them in their place.

To quote a a real life example: A girl (who I think should be around my age or maybe a tinge older) once said "what is your problem to drive a bit faster?" I replied: " why dont you stand alongside the puddle and let me demonstrate what would happen if I did what you say?" She did not answer but was glaring at me, I terminated the conversation with "If I splashed water on you, you would probably be the latest cover model for Playboy"! - I told her that because it was extremely stupid of her to ignore pedestrians and just drive around splashing water when she could've gone slow as it had stopped raining!!

At times people do not look at a situation from a different perspective.

When on the highway I love to splash water on either side ensuring nobody is affected. I love the slight drift when you take turns in huge puddles on highways.

[shankar.balan]

Man How right you are.

I know how horrible and miserable it feels when you are innocuously crossing a road or waiting to cross and some idiot goes by in a car and splashes dirty road side water onto your clean clothes.

Consequently when I am driving I invariably slow down almost to a crawl when hitting patches of water if there are pedestrians or two wheelers nearby.

I think it is the responsibility of all 4 wheeled motorists to remember the less fortunate pedestrians as well as the 2 wheeled motorists, while driving on rain splashed/ wet/ potholed/ puddly roads.

Some people are just too callous to even bother, like that girl you have mentioned.

Possibly it could also stem from her having recently arrived in life/ recently acquired a vehicle/ recent exposure to a car/ driving, without the benefit of having learned proper etiquette first!

Originally Posted by deadguy25

Has anyone experienced the flip side of it? I am sure some of us would have!

I almost always slow down when I drive in rain/wet road with water puddle to avoid splashing water on pedestrians/2-wheelers. Most of the times I have got yelled at from 2/3-wheeler guys for doing this! I do not do it if there is heavy traffic or rain!

I do not react when they yell at me, but at times tend to stop them in the middle of the road and put them in their place.

To quote a a real life example: A girl (who I think should be around my age or maybe a tinge older) once said "what is your problem to drive a bit faster?" I replied: " why dont you stand alongside the puddle and let me demonstrate what would happen if I did what you say?" She did not answer but was glaring at me, I terminated the conversation with "If I splashed water on you, you would probably be the latest cover model for Playboy"! - I told her that because it was extremely stupid of her to ignore pedestrians and just drive around splashing water when she could've gone slow as it had stopped raining!!

At times people do not look at a situation from a different perspective.

When on the highway I love to splash water on either side ensuring nobody is affected. I love the slight drift when you take turns in huge puddles on highways.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Who is responsible? The driver who does the splashing.

There may be various levels of unavoidability and accident, but, if your are walking with your friend and jump in a cow pat, whoc is responsible for spattering him with cow dung... the cow?

[supremeBaleno]

Yep, the driver doing the splashing is responsible. Along with the sleeping government departments who can't even ensure that roads are built properly with enough banking so that water flows to the sides and then into the drains. Chennai is supposed to be having storm water drains all around the city, but still a small shower and the roads are water-logged. I am glad it doesn't rain much around here.

On a side-note, I love driving (not riding) fast through water-logged roads, splashing water all around. Ofcourse without splashing on bikers/pedestrians, which means this wierd desire can be indulged in only when returning home really late from work.

[Rocky_Balboa]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

There may be various levels of unavoidability and accident, but, if your are walking with your friend and jump in a cow pat, whoc is responsible for spattering him with cow dung... the cow?

Awesome (cant type more than one word)

[Thad E Ginathom]

I thought the analogy a bit forced, but it was all I could come up with! Still, I like the mental picture!

As for Chennai: it's like England and snow. Every year it happens, and every year people are utterly unprepared for it! I think people have every right to be angry with governments who tell us, every January, "It won't happen next year," and, every October, "We're going to work on the storm drains," as if it wasn't already too late!

Something not to be forgotten is that how people drive in a flood (when it really is more than a puddle) can make the difference between adjacent properties remaining dry and being flooded by water from a muddy wave. Just because the SUV is high enough off the road to get through the water doesn't mean it should, oblivious.

[snaronikar]

OK many people are informing that it is driver's responsibility not to splash the water. Suppose, consider this scenario, near the Oklipuram underbridge wherein the water logging happens whenever it rains, pedistrains and even two wheelers tend to stand under the bridge (on a small footpath) to take shelter from rain. And if some body in 4 wheeler passes it often happens to splash some water on to both the sides of the car. This will certainly result in splashing of water on to the people standing there. Who is to blame in this case? If you ask me, it certainly is not the 4 wheeler driver, right? As this place is neither a shelter point nor a parking place for 2 wheelers and take shelter under the bridge...

[Thad E Ginathom]

I'd have to agree with whoever said that it isn't too bright an idea to stand by a puddle at the side of a road!

But it is still the car driver that does the splashing. If you know that people are there sheltering, yes, of course you should slow down. No question.

As I said before, this thread made me think more about how was driving in the rain on Sunday evening, and I noticed that it was not always possible to even see a patch of water on the road. So, accidents happen.

[Steeroid]

We can debate forever as to who is at fault, but one can only decide that based on a case-by-case basis. Obviously we do not have the capability to pick up each case of puddle splashing to decide who is at fault, nor are we exactly free of blame in some instances ourselves. Who are we to judge?

It is now high time to spash water on this thread and call it a day.

[normally_crazy]

Yesterday I was driving oops.. crawling in a crowded street in Powai. As usual the road was full of pot holes. There was an auto to my left just near my rear fender. A biker cuts me from the right and I take evasive action and steer a bit to the left - and I hit a pot hole full of water.

As i move ahead - the auto on the left overtakes me and I see a guy in a tie (looked like a bank executive) gesturing at me angrily. I slow down and roll down the passenger side window,

Me - What happened ?
He - What nonsense !
Me - What's wrong ?
He - Can't you drive properly ? Splashed water on my trouser !
Me - Listen I was trying not to hit the biker and I went into a pot hole.
He - so ?
Me - I am telling you that I didn't do it on purpose. And I am sorry about it.
He - Go ----------- yourself.

I just rolled the window up and drove on !

[kalpeshc]

As a regular pedestrian, it irks me only when the vehicle manages to get the small puddle making sure to splash the water, when it would have been very easy to swerve just slightly and avoid it (generally on empty roads). If you are a victim of splashing water in traffic, it's okay - nobody can avoid it. But if someone just doesn't care then its irritating.

This generally happens in my building compound. Generally when the cars/bikes leave for work from the parking lot and navigate through our internal road (under construction), they don't care about the pedestrians. And always, there is plenty of space to avoid the puddle and still go at the same speed absolutely safely (no cars following).