[ad75]

this morning on my way to office, i was on the bridge between malar hospital and andhra mahila sabha, im on the right lane next to the the median.

i see this verna on my irvm who is honking and trying to squeeze in between my car and an auto which is to my left. he found some space and tried going through and while at it the verna touched my car somewhere on the left side, i heard a mild thud. this guy backs off i also try to go as close to the median to let this moron go.

this guy overtakes from the left and blocks me and of course the whole traffic behind me and came to a stop in front of my car, thereby creating a jam on the bridge, he walks out ( i realise he is surely a driver with the dressing and the subsequent language used) looks at the number plate ( my car being KA regd, he found a foreigner in his country to punce upon),comes to me and gives me a lecture on how i should drive and that i should have given him space to overtake since he was honking and blah blah..

thats all i could hear properly as there was incessant honking from cars behind me. I regret having missed the some parts of the lecture/sermon from this enlightened individual, who i guess has got the right of way and has authority from the president of india to do so.

I did tell him that my car doesnt have the capability to drive over the median to give him space to overtake since he was honking. he pretended as if he has not heard it.

I wish him many more kms of blissfull driving in his country, notwithstanding the effort he makes to educate others, by blocking them and creating a traffic jam, on the "proper" way to drive

sorry for the long rant, couldnt resist.

[pypkmsrikanth]

Did anything happen during my absence in this thread or is it any off forum incident which has meant aargee not wanting to log into this thread again.

[rajushank84]

Originally Posted by ad75

this morning on my way to office, i was on the bridge between malar hospital and andhra mahila sabha, im on the right lane next to the the median.
...
sorry for the long rant, couldnt resist.

@ad75, thats very unfortunate. Thats how things seem to be around here. I think the drivers on the road are of two types - commercial and non-commercial. The commercial drivers cause most of the problems on the road, they ignore (or dont know) the real road rules, and seem to have formed a set of their own rules within their community. Some of these rules below:

1. Signals are only for losers and private vehicle owners
2. A self-respecting driver should never drive in a straight line. He should weave among traffic and overtake every object he sees.
3. It is sin for a commercial driver to drive behind a private vehicle. It is an insult to the whole community. If any commercial driver finds another committing this sin, he should hurl abuses at this guy.
4. Any commercial driver is entitled to overtake any private vehicle at any given time.
5. Lanes are a myth.
6. If you honk, a private vehicle owner should make way.
7. You should not be more than three inches from the vehicle in front of you. If the loser gets scared at your getting so close, he doesn't deserve to be in front of you, and he has to make way.
8. Whether you are turning left, turning right, going straight, whatever - YOU always have the right of way. If you believe otherwise, you are an idiot and holding up traffic with your idiocy.
9. The mantra of commercial driving is "Scare the other guy". Get close to him, accelerate and stop inches from him, get scarily close to the side of his vehicle, make sudden moves etc in such a way that he just gets scared and gives way to you. That is called "good driving".
10. If a private car driver doesn't get scared by your antics, then he is an IT professional. Hit him and make him pay.

Above all, here is the golden rule: "Don't let some educated morons bring "western culture" into our driving. Our Indian culture way of driving is valuable, has been handed down generation after generations, and it is correct because our forefathers did it."

And never forget the golden vision: "It shall come to pass that no educated person has the guts to drive - or even walk - on the road. Only commercial drivers can dare to undertake a feat like that. We shall achieve that at all costs to the owners of the vehicles we drive and the vehicles we hit."

There are other commandments like "Thou shalt never change engine oil", "thou shalt steal fuel whenever thou art able to do so" etc, but those are extra. They don't come under "driving rules" category.

[ad75]

Originally Posted by rajushank84

Some of these rules :

your post pretty much sums up the state of affairs here.

i havnt found too much of a difference between commercial and non commercial drivers, most are equally bad.

the headlight flash and the horn is assumed to have a role of a magic wand which will make the traffic in front of their vehicles disappear.

during my daily travel of 9kms each side from and to office, i rarely find the need to honk, unless some pedestrian,biker, auto or any vehicle needs to be cautioned. but most drivers here have their hand on the horn button constantly honking away.

i dont think bullying other road users would have any advantage in the overall travel time to their destinations at max 2-5 mins.

[callvvijay]

Originally Posted by ad75

during my daily travel of 9kms each side from and to office, i rarely find the need to honk, unless some pedestrian,biker, auto or any vehicle needs to be cautioned. but most drivers here have their hand on the horn button constantly honking away.

i dont think bullying other road users would have any advantage in the overall travel time to their destinations at max 2-5 mins.

@ad75: Very much true... I feel most of the people think that its a combination of horn and the throttle that moves the vehicle in the forward direction

I have had multiple instances when people seeing a red turn into green from .5 to .75km away the signal start honking... Jeez... Are you nuts??

[manim]

Just finished a long drive to Chennai and Tiruvannamalai from Tuticorin.
1,350 kms in five days.
Driving experience in Chennai was smooth.
Mainly went to shopping malls and Birla Planetariam where parking space was not a problem.
Parking fees in Express-avenue mall was very expensive though.
Used google-maps extensively.

[ElantraGT]

Oh thats great mani. Did you use the Tuticourin -Madurai road or did you go through Tuticourin -Thirunelveli-Madurai road? Last week I was at Tuticourin. I did a Chennai -madurai-Tirunelveli-Nagercoil-Kanyakumari-Thiruchendoor-Tuticourin-madurai-chennai trip in 3 days.

[manim]

Originally Posted by ElantraGT

Did you use the Tuticourin -Madurai road or did you go through Tuticourin -Thirunelveli-Madurai road?

Tirunelveli was not on my path.
The only place the road was not finished was the arrupukottai bye-pass.

[ElantraGT]

Originally Posted by manim

Tirunelveli was not on my path.
The only place the road was not finished was the arrupukottai bye-pass.

Yes I didnt see any diversion board and I ended up taking the old road and had to take my Elantra on a 4X4 trail for 20 meters. if hyundai had seen what I did to the car they would have branded it a 4x4 and compared it with Scorpio 4X4.

Fun apart, the vehicle infront of me (innova) and behind me (407 van) also didnt notice the unfinished part and they ended up driving like me. After I took the detour, i halted to see if there is any damage to my front bumper and I noticed that 80% of the vehicles ended up coming in that route and only the usual local vehicles took the diversion to the opposite side.

[getsriram]

Hey guys,

Anyone got stuck in the Morning traffic at Mount Road?

[supremeBaleno]

I saw unusually high traffic on Cenotaph road till IIT flyover on both sides of the road at 11:30AM - not sure why. Parked the car, had a tea-break and took off after 15mins when traffic had eased off a bit.

Just after the SRP tools junction on OMR, as usual there were the stupid barricades, making motorists contort their cars through them. Instead of 1 on each side of the road, there was another laid flat on the ground (or it fell down), resulting in not much space for motorists. Stopped the car after putting on the hazard lights, moved the fallen barricade to the side and drove on. Thought of removing the 2 standing barricades too a la jeevmenon, but did not want an interaction with any cops.

I always think one day, I should rent a truck, drive around the whole city, picking up all these barricades and dumping them far away from the city. Such a nuisance they are.

[Jai3033]

Originally Posted by getsriram

Hey guys,

Anyone got stuck in the Morning traffic at Mount Road?

Ah dont remind me of it. It took me 30 mins from SIET college to Nandanam junction so cancelled my trip to Guindy and returned back via Chamiers road.

[getsriram]

There was a road rokho staged by youth hostel people on Mount Road today. Reason: Their hostel is not good in terms of facilities. Wish I could stage one saying my salary is not good, my area has power cut, water logging etc.

For the sake of 100 youths, 1000s went through the ordeal
As a result, traffic was blocked from Nandanam Signal and de-routed via. kotturpuram to Cancer Institute. Wondering what if somebody had to go to Kathipara would have gone through today...

The road barrigates are trade of the city. I think there is a tie-up between them and ambulance guys to boost their business

[DWind]

Atleast in OMR the barricades do the job *in the night*. But it is in the mornings, when the constable who is supposed to remove them does not as he reports to work only at 9, then it becomes a problem. Since there are many IT companies who would volunteer for any CSR work, the CCTP can authorise a barricade near to their office to be put up every night and promptly removed the next day morning.

[callvvijay]

Originally Posted by getsriram

Anyone got stuck in the Morning traffic at Mount Road?

Know what??? I am a very happy person today. I used the MRTS today to travel from Velachery to Mylapore and it took just half an hour for me to reach my office. My colleague who comes from Manapakkam had to ride?? his bike for 2 hours to reach office and he is damn angry now....

And my manager called up to enquire about these stuff and said he is not coming to office.