[akashnagrani]

Hi. Thanks for creating this really interesting thread. It is a shame though that we need a thread like this. I was reading the thread earlier evening and then I had to head out. I must have driven for 30 minutes in total during the evening and was able to spot a few idiots myself.

The signal jumpers: They believe that god has given them the car, so they rule the road. Signals mean nothing to them . When they jump, 10 more jump with them. It leaves the people joining the traffic from a slightly narrower road in a fix.

The blabber mouths: this is a habit peculiar to bikers, especially in Pune. A group of 2 or 3 bikers will occupy more than half of the road's width. Then they drive at a leisurely pace chatting away to glory. They surely have found a way to keep their mobile bills in check.

[Sheel]

A world like this exists as well. We can hope & maybe few us can try & do this small bit whenever & wherever we come across.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGEiA80ZL08

[Derezzed]

Originally Posted by dezrskb

Your post reminds me too of my experience in Orlando, USA -my first visit to USA. Similar to your experience, I too was crossing a road near a shopping mall. Our tendency as Indians is to stop and allow a car to go and then cross. I stopped without a concious effort on seeing a car approach. But the driver stopped well away from me and signaled me to cross.
Another pleasant surprise was all the taxi drivers were really coming to a complete stop at intersections (not only busy ones but also in deserted roads inside the hotel property as well) and giving a careful look either way before proceeding further. Here I guess only people learning driving will do that and will never practice same again once they learn driving on their own.

My first couple of days in USA also had me delighted about the concern for the pedestrians shown by drivers. As a newbie in an alien land I crossed the road couple of times without waiting for the traffic signal for pedestrians. Heck, I didn't even realize there was one till 2 weeks.

However getting a US driving license and then buying my own car made me realize the importance of these rules: especially pedestrians first and complete stop at intersections. Every driver has to be abide by these rules by law and it gradually becomes a part of your driving psyche. A you first approach is an unwritten rule (for some states it is written) designed to make life easier and prevent accidents.

The reverse happens in India.
In USA the headlight blinking of an oncoming car in an intersection means its our turn to go ahead and that car will make its move only after we do.
In India it means 'what the hell are you doing on my road, get out of my way immediately kiddo'

[sforsarang]

Two days back there was a queue jumping incident in my office campus by a biker where he/she decided to bypass all the four wheelers patiently waiting in a single line in the queue to enter in the campus post swipe-in. There was a huge mail chain that followed condemning this behavior but i was shocked to see my fellow co-workers supposedly (highly educated, literate and well-mannered folks) were coming up with ridiculous excuses like people coming in cars should be compassionate about bikers and allow them to bypass the queue because they roast in the hot sun where car passengers enjoy cool AC huhhh. I mean, actually I have no words to describe how I felt that moment. Simply asked them in sarcasm to feel free to jump signals as well, its better to get rear-ended, t-boned or head-on rather than 'burning' in this scorching heat and truckers, fast cars will be compassionate with your pitiful situation and put their machines to a screeching halt even if you jump the signals. What excuse, bikers roasting in 9-10 AM and 5-6 PM sun.... and hence cars should be sympathetic and accommodating their bypassing the queue, jumping lanes and taking shortcuts inside campus...

To me, people with such mindset are tomorrow's rule breakers... they are more dangerous.. now what kind of category shall I assign to these idiots?

[rajeev k]

Some more idiotic drivers or habits;

1.Bikers who try to overtake you on the left and honk to give him way, even if you have switched on the left indicator and started moving towards left to take the turn.
2.Drive with part of the car through the right of the road and always fully on the right side while negotiating blind right turns.
3.Increasing of the speed on seeing a car entering the road from a side road to pass before him even if he has to come to the extreme RHS of the road.
4. Increase of speed same as point 3 above but on seeing a pedestrian crossing the road even if the pedestrian is crossing through the zebra line.
5. Bikers and Auto-wallahs who proceed in the opposite direction contrary to the indicator which he himself has switched on.

Their tribe is ever increasing.

[ani_meher]

Originally Posted by sforsarang

... were coming up with ridiculous excuses like people coming in cars should be compassionate about bikers and allow them to bypass the queue because they roast in the hot sun where car passengers enjoy cool AC ...

What excuse, bikers roasting in 9-10 AM and 5-6 PM sun.... and hence cars should be sympathetic and accommodating their bypassing the queue, jumping lanes and taking shortcuts inside campus...

Sorry I must have missed the point, but what's wrong in the argument? I am a biker as well as a car person, and that statement is 100% true. In fact, whenever I am in car, I always make way for bikers/bicycles when it is too hot or raining, simply because they are much more exposed to the elements than car persons. Also, I believe that small vehicles should be respectful of bigger ones, and large vehicles should be caring for smaller ones.

In Pune, every mall, multiplex etc has seperate queues for cars and bikes, because cars take bit time for checking, whereas bikes' queue is moving fast.

Extrapolating the statement to say that this will lead to further law-breaking is not correct again. At signals, mostly bikes will be much further than cars crawling speeds. This is because bikes have small footprint, so they can squeeze through tight gaps, but are constantly exposed to elements. Cars have comfortable seating, at the cost of a large footprint and thus getting stuck at such junctions. Simple as that.

[Manzone799]

A dangerous habit that i have observed frequently in biker's:
There are lot of people who wear the "pseudo-helmet" (the one without the jaw-covering). These are dangerous and cannot be put under the category of protective coverings. I saw a fine example of the dangers posed by this helmet recently. Last day, It was raining heavily in Bangalore during the evening office hours. I saw this guy with this "pseudo-helmet" coming in a Honda Unicorn. He was holding his left hand as visor to avoid rain hitting his face thereby obstructing his own view. He was also driving the bike with one hand. He didn't go far before he rear ended an auto which he couldn't see through his "hand-visor". He fell on the road, luckily he was not hurt badly. He had to settle down till the rain had drained out. But friends, this is an extremely bad option whether raining or not - first, the "pseudo-helmet" secondly driving the bike with one hand used as a visor and thirdly driving the bike in rain. All are recipes for a fatal accident.

[sforsarang]

Hmmmm just to simplify my point, imagine waiting in the shopping mall (groceries) queue with your full-on trolley, and persons coming with one or two items in their hands jumping queue ahead of you, one after another. If there are two separate queues, it makes perfect sense. If there aren't then ALL irrespective of the size of their vehicles, are supposed to follow the queue. About squeezing through tight gaps is another story as it has many times led to heart-wrenching scratches on my old car. I wouldn't endorse that either. As far as large vehicles caring for small ones, smaller ones should also then start caring for larger ones in the queue as they burn more fuel (and thereby more wallet) which is economically and environmentally not good right?

Jokes apart, underlying point is, if the infrastructure doesn't support separate treatment to bikes, cars etc. then it is EVERYONE's duty to follow the queue. Queues are there for specific purpose.

[ani_meher]

The mall analogy is not correct for two reasons.
1. For quite many malls, there are seperate counters for 'less than 5' or 'less than 10' items checkout.
2. If there is no such separate counter, yet the elements faced by all the waiting members face are same, all have equal access to creature comfort, hence waiting in that case is ok. However, when it comes to waiting in sun/rain, it gets pretty uncomfortable very fast, especially when you are on bike and you see some cars take their own sweet time to complete all the security dance sequence.

I am of the opinion that even if system doesn't make any special efforts to give privilege to anyone, we should be mindful of those who may be suffering more than us. But to each his own I guess.

[saket77]

Originally Posted by Derezzed

My first couple of days in USA also had me delighted about the concern for the pedestrians shown by drivers. As a newbie in an alien land I crossed the road couple of times without waiting for the traffic signal for pedestrians. Heck, I didn't even realize there was one till 2 weeks.

I had a similar pleasant experience during my visit to Bhutan. First of all, I would like to shower my praises to the local people who are much more considerate & patient while driving. During my entire visit, I did not see any vehicle rashly driven in the city, honking at someone to overtake, hard braking, etc. All cars in the city moved in a single line, maintaining a constant speed. No honking, no overtaking.

However, we could see some rashly driven vehicles honking to get way on the narrow highway from Pheuntsholing to Thimphu. No wonder, they were Indian cars & taxis.

Once, in Thimphu, I had to cross the road, and I just planned to wait at a zebra crossing (there was no traffic signal) so that the oncoming vehicles may pass. To my greatest surprise, the oncoming cars stopped completely to give me passage! I was amazed at this kind of gesture & consideration as we, Indians are not used to this. I smiled at the drivers and they smiled back.


Regards,
Saket

[sforsarang]

You made a very good point and I completely echo you on that. 'Some cars take their own sweet time to complete all the security dance sequence'. Absolutely, very common occurrence. I mean, we know the drills and yet some of us, will first approach the barrier, then slowly take their bags from rear seats, find out where the id card is, if not found, open the laptop and take from the slot (for remote access purpose sometimes we have to insert), and then swipe, what more, instead of putting back temporarily in some cubby hole in the car or passenger seat, they will again keep it back in the bag, place the bag in the rear seat and move on lazily, without bothering about people waiting behind them. Same goes at the malls. People know it takes 40 bucks still first they will approach the gate, then try to find out where they have placed the parking receipt (at all places, in glove box, in ladies purse, in own wallet), then once it is found, other search for exact change which wouldnt be there in most cases, hand over 500 or 1000 rs note. rest of the delay will be then covered by the cashier at the gate.

Yeah but honestly, I have been a biker until recently, and belong to a place which always tops the mercury in India (Nagpur), and never ever did I feel any discomfort due to sun, rains etc. especially morning 9-10 sun and evening 5-6 sun !!! Somehow the argument for environmental factors for bikers is hard to digest for me. Even if I attempt to sympathize, I would fail as it's worthiness as compared to civic sense and safety will keep on playing on my mind. As you said, to each it's own.

[naveen.raju]

Couple of things I have noted:

1) Was waiting for my wife outside a mall here. Since she had some urgent work, I had to spend some solid 45mins - 1 hour in the car. My car was parked on the road few metres from the mall. Saw 3 govt cars(in a gap of 30 mins and not together) with sirens blaring and lights flashing. People initially thought it was an emergency, but I was shocked when I saw them entering the mall. People might do this in case they are late for the movie but this mall didnt have any movie screens. Probably last minute grocery shopping for dinner?

2) Ambulances with sirens blaring for no apparent reason. A common sight here but caught one driver red handed. For a some 3-4 kms, this ambulance kept the sirens blaring on a congested road. Not even a cycle could pass through and this guy kept honking on top of the sirens. My dad just turned back and noticed that the ambulance was empty. He got down and asked the details and the reason for the sirens. He said he was on his way to the hospital for some emergency. My dad asked for the details but he didnt share. Then on revealing my dad being a doctor, and asking the details of the ambulance owner and the license, he admitted that he was on his way home. My dad reported this to the IMA and the service provider got what they deserved.

[Manzone799]

Originally Posted by naveen.raju

Couple of things I have noted:
My dad just turned back and noticed that the ambulance was empty. He got down and asked the details and the reason for the sirens. He said he was on his way to the hospital for some emergency. My dad asked for the details but he didnt share. Then on revealing my dad being a doctor, and asking the details of the ambulance owner and the license, he admitted that he was on his way home. My dad reported this to the IMA and the service provider got what they deserved.

Hats off to your Dad for the bold action. Most of the people would have blatantly given way to the Ambulance. I have seen some Govt. vehicles doing the same. Just the driver with the siren for no apparent reason. The thing is nobody questions these big shots. Great to see a doctor take a step towards nabbing such insane drivers!

[naveen.raju]

Originally Posted by Manzone799

Hats off to your Dad for the bold action. Most of the people would have blatantly given way to the Ambulance. I have seen some Govt. vehicles doing the same. Just the driver with the siren for no apparent reason. The thing is nobody questions these big shots. Great to see a doctor take a step towards nabbing such insane drivers!

True. I see atleast one govt official violating the rules daily. Since people dont questions them, they take this for granted. They should lead by example and am sure the common people will do the same.

Few more morons:
1. Speeding behind an ambulance. Have seen many close calls. Cars give way for the ambulance and suddenly they jump behind the ambulance. On doing so I have seen many close calls where the car jumping onto the lane narrowly missing the cars already speeding behind the ambulance.

2. Service station technicians testing the customer cars before handing over. Well, I couldnt figure out what was happening when I saw few cars being ripped on the highways. This includes red lining and handbrake turns , yes handbrake turns on the NH. Unfortunately I used to service my previous car from the same service station where I saw these morons ripping the cars like this. After doing the service, I told the entire incident to the service manager. He inquired with few technicians and finally got hold of the guy who did these stunts. He casually admitted that the customer had reported handbrake problems and he was testing it. Ya right, doing 40kmph and engaging handbrake while taking a turn is indeed a good way to test the handbrake and luckily he will be able to test the roof strength in the future. I was totally disappointed with the reply and gave this as my reason for the poor feedback after doing my service.

More to come.

[pratyush6]

Originally Posted by dezrskb

Your post reminds me too of my experience in Orlando, USA -my first visit to USA. Similar to your experience, I too was crossing a road near a shopping mall. Our tendency as Indians is to stop and allow a car to go and then cross. I stopped without a concious effort on seeing a car approach. But the driver stopped well away from me and signaled me to cross.

Happened to me in Brisbane (my first visit to a foreign land). I was literally taken aback, not surprised, taken aback! We have all read give way to pedestrians on a zebra crossing. How many of us really follow it?

For a change I walked peacefully on the roads in Australia knowing I wont be run over by a maniac biker or a car driver hurrying to office or even better a tempo traveler going on the wrong side if the road!