[clevermax]

Originally Posted by vdi

I won't even dare to go out in the daytime with my car to the city due to this very reason. It's very scary and once a red killer almost tried to hit me on the south overbridge. Continues honking is something which is most irritating. Sometimes I feel like they have deployed someone just for honking. The only way out is having more RTC buses.

If I am sure that I can get away, I'll play with them - overtake them, slow down unnecessarily, and accelerate away to my escape -I make sure that they won't catch up and confront me again.

I have a grudge with these red buses in Cochin. Once we hit a pedestrian when dad was driving the car because a red bus overtook us in jam packed traffic and we had to swerve almost to the footpath.

[anoopap]

Hi,

It may be unfair just to blame Kerala private buses. I feel private buses in general are far more aggressive in meeting there deadlines compared to state bus. It may be due to pressure from public or govt rules.

There are parts in kerala where private buses are disciplined on road.

It also depends on how commuters and public in general react to their behavior.

When people find buses are in time, they wont complain any way, rite ? Hence buses will go faster.

[Daewood]

Not only the private buses even the state owned ones drive in a very rash manner. My ancestral home is in a place very close to kerala and hence lots of ksrtc buses ply here on the narrow NH47.
Once a speeding bus collided with a car and you know what the driver did.
He asked for a knife from a nearby small shop and made a cut in his tyre.
It seems that will help him as a case of tyre burst and loosing control.

guess this attitude of the drivers over there comes from their strong workers-union backup.

[Traxter]

Originally Posted by anoopap

Hi,

It also depends on how commuters and public in general react to their behavior.

When people find buses are in time, they wont complain any way, rite ? Hence buses will go faster.

Private buses are always dangerous, causing accidents in many places. Actually even in a developed place like Hongkong where rules are strictly enforced...actually last few years they are forced to have giant display showing speed like a queue number in Banks, in the passenger area! So that passengers can complain if certain speed is exceeded. This was after numerous accidents, hits and so on...even then there are complaints. Because there are smart ways to be aggressive without over speeding.

I agree...public have role to play. Today's passenger is tomorrow's cyclist or scooterist or pedestrian..the driver's own child may be riding the streets or walking....if they shout and make noise, it adds to pressure and changes behaviour.

[poloman]

I am from Thrissur and have travelled more than a lakh kilometers in my school and college days in the most busy private bus route(Thrissur-Calicut) in Kerala. Still I had a safe commute through out that period. The driving skills of these drivers are unparalleled.But sadly they foget that they are driving on public roads partly due to the tight scheduling.They show scant respect to other vehicles on road and do crazy maneuvers. The best thing one can do is get out of their way at the very sight of these monsters. But surprisingly accidents involving these buses in Thrissur district are comparitively less.

[Chipz]

Originally Posted by Traxter

wonder if any Keralite bhp folks have any comments

Traxter.. you could not have found a better route for travel. The thrissur-kunnamkulam route is the busiest route in kerala. It has got a bus every 5 minutes, no wonder the drivers dont know about the brakes. But I must also appreciate the skills of these drivers. In my 10 years of travel through that route, I had just 2 accidents. One when an auto tried to squeeze between two stationary busses and was caught between them, and another when a tyre burst. And you might not be surprised to hear that most of these drivers have some goonda activities.

[vjabraham]

Welcome to Kerala, especially Kochi were private buses rule the road and they make the rules. I have lived in Kochi for more than 20 years and have been witnessing and experiencing first hand the menacing 'Red Killers' (the pvt. buses in the city are red in colour).
If you care for your safety and that of your car, please stay away from these rash and senseless (I am not writing anything more cause I don't want to face the wrath of the moderators) drivers! If you take them on, boy you are in trouble!
Well there have been many instances where I've lost my cool and took them on, but than I've realised if you react they wouldn't care the slightest bit as their vehicles are bigger than ours and would take revenge by just scraping theirs against ours. In fact the funny thing is, even if the bus driver is wrong you will find all the occupants in the bus hurling abuses at you and staring at you as if we are responsible. And if you think you can get support from the traffic cops, sorry mate! They are just not bothered. They will just ask you to get lost and stop blocking the road.

So what I do now is take a few deep breaths when I lose it. But then there are some times when the deep breaths don't help, those are the times I take them on without bothering about the consequences but thinking about sweet revenge!

[Traxter]

^^ I too lost my cool but luckily it was confined to cursing them.

For a stretch of about 3-5km I tried to deny space to one persistent idiot who wanted to overtake...that was because he was pressing his horrible hell-horn like crazy when there was just no way I could have given way for him, with traffic on both sides and he can see it more clearly than me, being at much higher position....that guy really tried to kiss by rear with his bus I have never seen a bigger image in my Rvm..

Finally I too came to same conclusion as you and just gave way, of course, with more curses...

[aargee]

Last October, my Son, around 2 yrs then & I travelled from Thrissur to Wadakkanchery, obviously by private bus. We'd to get down at Wadakkanchery main bus stop & since there was considerable crowd, I couldn't get down on time. No complaints; I asked them to stop in the next bus stop & the fun started. I'd a backpack & held my Son in one hand due to which I could spare only the one hand on the rails for balance. The bus braked so hard in the next bus stop (may be 80-0 in 5 seonds!!!) that I almost lost balance due to which my Son's head was hit in the seat's rails slightly & my he started crying. No point blaming, so I just got down without a fuss & the bus went away as usual.

If anyone thinks they should teach these guys a lesson, just put them onhold for 10-15 minutes & they'll come down. But IMO, not worth it. As the saying goes - They are like this only!!!

[Alter_Ego]

I know many would not want to smack me up but I always loved kochi and trissur just because of its buses.I loved the thrill and roller coasting rides of the buses there.And there have been times when there was no conductor to close and open the doors(yeah as far as i remember the long route buses do have doors,the Aluva-Munnar route) as he would be buzy giving the tickets and I would volunteer to pitch in to open and close the doors for passengers to get it.And the lol factor would be I could not speak malayalam.
As a bachelor it is fun but I understand for family guys it would be horror to watch their loved ones in panic.

Disclaimer : My family owns a fleet of private busses in Trissur and Cochin.
The S.N transports and puthenparambil buses belong to our family
But still even if we din't own any even then I would have loved the racing buses of kerala.

Now I miss getting to ride in them as I seldom visit kerala.

P.S. The infamous redline and blueline bus drivers from delhi were sent to kerala to get trained in kerala to learn how to drive can be fast yet ensure safety of passengers

[glomus123]

Private buses are, at the most of the cases, doing the same, trying to threaten us with the horn and coming very near like. Similarly there are at least two routes in Coimbatore, the Coimbatore - Tirupur and Coimbatore - Mettupalayam routes.

Originally Posted by vdi

Sometimes I feel like they have deployed someone just for honking. The only way out is having more RTC buses.

Have seen piano switches to turn on the horn in a bus in Coimbatore - Tirupur route. May be many other buses have the same facility!!!

[jaisha8]

Once we were returning from Tirupur and on the hilly terrains of Palakkad I noticed a private bus approaching at high speed continuously blowing horn and overtaking all the vehicles (Also attaching a picture that I managed to take, though not very clear). As there was LPG tanker coming from opposite direction it squeezed behind us and was still blowing the horn. For a moment I thought his horn must be having problem, but then I noticed the driver had his hand on his air horn and was deliberately blowing the horn for us to move aside and allow him to pass. We were in our Tavera and our driver was a professional taxi driver. He also didn’t give him side till the road the road was clear and it was hilly area and bad roads due to heavy rains. After 5 minutes he overtook us and just stopped in front of us to pick up some passengers and then we crossed him again. Again he was back of us as usual blowing his horn continuously and our driver allowed him to go. After going some distance at the next bus stop he stopped again to pick passengers and we had to overtaken him. He repeated the same thing couple more time as if he was enjoying this and we all were getting irritated by his attitude. I just blew my gasket and wanted to stop in front of him and give him something to remember, but my family was there and my father told me to be calm. Then I thought the best way is to give him a taste of his own medicine. At the next stop when he stopped, I advised my driver not to overtake him and stop behind him. I had 2 powerful BOSCH horns fitted in my Tavera and asked my driver to blow the horn. We noticed that he was waving his hand for us to overtake him. He started again and when he gained speed I told my driver to follow him closely and now blow our horn continuously. We could have easily overtaken him as the roads were empty and he was giving us signal to pass, but we kept following him blowing our BOSCH horn. When he stopped we again stopped behind him and kept blowing the horn intermittently, definitely the passengers in the bus were getting irritated now. After some time, he slowed down and put his head out and asked us to pass. We passed him near Vadakanchery and till Trichur though he was just behind us he never blew horn and never overtook us. When we were turning to our road, I gave him a thumbs-up sign with my hand and the bus conductor and he smiled back. Sometimes it is best to give them a taste of their own medicine to make them quite and I succeeded in it. Our driver very much liked this idea and said that he would do like this if anyone bothers him in future.

[Iluvcars]

@jaisha8: Is the bus in the picture that is on the wrong side (unless the road is a one-way) the one you've written about? If yes, pardon my ignorance, it looks like a TNSTC bus (from the long).

[supremeBaleno]

Hilarious description, tsk.

And yeah, private-buses are a pain in Kerala. Well, add tipper-trucks with PS to the chaos. Scary.

But again, I see this behaviour in Chennai with the IT-company buses and college buses too - honking continously, coming too close behind your car for comfort, driving you off the road etc. Did these transport companies employ drivers from Kerala ?

Not even talking about our Govt buses - they are in a league of their own. :-(

[d*_*b]

Each time I visit Kerala I wonder why nobody is working towards regulating the driving of bus drivers. Driving in Kerala is like putting your life at risk every time you choose to get out of your house! It is a 100% brush with death kind of situation.

In my 1 month trip here I have heard the following accidents:
1. A bus knocked a guy off his bike. The bus driver then took off faster than he was driving before. He then crashed into a vehicle/auto which ended up in 8 people dying. This was not the first accident involving the same bus it seems. The people from the area (Tanur) got agitated and burnt the bus down. The driver got away then, but I don't know if he got arrested.
2. A lady walking down the road got dragged by a bus and got under the tyre, but the driver kept going for a few more meters. The woman's body was in half and some of her remains had to be scraped off the road
3. Some horrible accident took place 10 years ago. A bus did not allow a jeep to over take. Finally the bus collided with the jeep killing the passengers and went up in flames.

There is some timing issue and if a bus is seen beyond its time in an area the cops fine them. The driving is atrocious and needs to be changed as soon as possible.

How can this problem be addressed?