[paragsachania]

Absolutely impatient driving behavior:

This happened yesterday morning when I was on my way to drop my kid to school. From the dashcam clip, it is obvious that the driver of the Seltos is exhibiting extreme levels of impatience coupled with traits of a rash and negligent driver caring 2 hoots about whatever other vehicles are indicating with the sole intent to overtake one and all no matter what.

https://youtu.be/UTai1Soh5vo

Regularly checking the mirrors always helps one identify such elements on our road. This one was no different. The way the Seltos overtook the Nexon, I was sure that he will for sure do the next obvious thing - Take a left turn at the T junction by driving parallel to the traffic that is assessing traffic before turning left. You can very well see that he did that too!

I was in no mood to act like a saint for this rogue. He may have never learnt a lesson but for sure he may realise that at times you just cannot get away with whatever you please. He didnt even spare the school bus that was planning to turn right at the railway underpass.

[sumeethaldankar]

Originally Posted by paragsachania

I was in no mood to act like a saint for this rogue. He may have never learnt a lesson but for sure he may realise that at times you just cannot get away with whatever you please. He didnt even spare the school bus that was planning to turn right at the railway underpass.

You're bound to come across an endless parade of these road warriors. To keep my cool when faced with such daredevils, I like to play a little mental game. I pretend the reckless driver is actually an ambulance speedster on a mission to save lives. As for those zippy two-wheelers, in my imagination, they're the dedicated kidney couriers, determined to deliver life-saving organs to the hospital in record time . It's my way of finding humor in the chaos of the road.

[Small Bot]

Originally Posted by sumeethaldankar

You're bound to come across an endless parade of these road warriors. To keep my cool when faced with such daredevils, I like to play a little mental game.

I usually follow an excellent bit of advice given to me by a cab driver. I try to pretend I'm a buffalo on the road, immune to everything happening around me. No response to griefers and ragers, just keep myself safe, follow the rules and lanes, and ignore all the honking and abuse and glaring lights in the mirrors.

For comedic effect, you can try mooing too. Helps to put your mind in a better place. Repeat after me: Moooo.

[GTO]

Thanks for sharing, Parag! Moving your post out to a new thread. A new thread means 100X the views & 100X the visibility in search engines, including Google. Will add to homepage next week .

@ BHPians, if you should spot any good post in an existing thread that deserves its own new thread, please report the post and we'll move it out for greater visibility.

Thank you!

-------------------------------

My strategies to keep it cool:

- Drive a tough car. 95% of problems with idiots around you are solved. When I'm driving the 530d or Superb around Bombay (especially the haphazard suburbs), everyone + their dog + their uncle cuts me. No one gives me right of way. When I'm driving the tough Thar, 95% of all problems are solved. The same people + their dogs + cats + their uncles + aunties all give way. No one messes with tough cars. Driving the Thar in the city is a completely stress-free experience; driving the 530d in traffic is crazy because the level of craziness has gone up with Ubers, Olas, food delivery scooters, Rickshaws & an overall increasing number of vehicles on the road.

Within the city, it's now fun to drive only very early in the morning, late at night, or off-peak hours on weekends (e.g. first half of Sundays).

- Meditate. Will increase your patience levels 10 times over. I hardly ever lose my temper now, compared to very frequently earlier. Strongly recommend the Calm App on iOS / Android. It will change your life personally, professionally & on the road.

- Play some good music, stay well-mannered on the road and fill your mind up with positive or productive thoughts. I do my best thinking when I'm behind the wheel.

[Rajeevraj]

In general I have always been a sedate driver . Now a days, more than ever, I just let everyone go. With the kind of road rages seen over trivial matters and the absolute lack of driving sense, I feel it is better to just let these folks do what they want. It will catch up with them at some point. Everyone seems to be stressed and in a hurry and in a mode that 'Rules are for others'. Now a days you cannot even judge by the car or the person inside as to what pent up frustration they are coming on the road with. Don't want to be at the receiving end of it.

The one that really irritates me is on the highways when someone wants to overtake me but does not have enough relative speed or performance to execute it and wants me to make way so that he/she can go in front. This irritates me, If you want to overtake, you plan and overtake. Don't expect me to give way for you just because you want to go. In such cases I mostly just play dumb and act as if I don't see the car behind.

[SS-Traveller]

Originally Posted by paragsachania

I was in no mood to act like a saint for this rogue.

Much as we all would like to be calm & cool, it is only human nature to try to block idiots who are rash, impatient, inconvenience us, or break rules.

Originally Posted by GTO

My strategies to keep it cool:
- Meditate.

Tough to do that with one's eyes open! Yet, over the years, I've learnt to stay out of the way of these menaces on our roads, not block or chase them, never make eye contact, and behave as if I am a geriatric driver who learnt to drive yesterday and am extremely careful of not damaging my car. My strategy is simply a prayer: Please God, do not let anyone damage my car and/or injure/kill me, and do not let me damage any other car and/or injure/kill him - in short, मरो मत और मारो मत| They can all go kill someone else and/or die elsewhere, I don't really want to know!

Originally Posted by GTO

- Drive a tough car. ... When I'm driving the tough Thar, 95% of all problems are solved.

Indeed, a large SUV with metal bumpers seems to discipline many wayward drivers, riders, and pedestrians - until someone comes along with a bigger car and even bigger bumpers - and maybe even a bigger daddy whom I don't know! I know what you mean, and here's what I used to do with an SUV with steel bumpers!

https://youtu.be/R_w-5B5ta70

https://youtu.be/TWG6L2ZSnm4

But at the end of the day, that's a job for the government agencies to take care of. My job while driving is to stay safe from these madmen, and not waste my time or spike my blood pressure in any kind of confrontation, even if it takes me 5-10 more minutes to reach my destination. Confrontations waste a lot more time, and maybe I feel I have less and less of it to waste.

[GTO]

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller

Tough to do that with one's eyes open!

10 - 15 minutes of daily meditation keeps one calmer throughout the day (not just when you are meditating). I didn't mean meditating while driving, although when you think you're going to lose your temper (say, due to another idiot on the road), deep breathing & 30-seconds of patience helps to control the outburst too.

Indeed, a large SUV with metal bumpers seems to discipline many wayward drivers, riders, and pedestrians

Didn't mean my Thar specifically. Any big UV automatically disciplines those around you & it directly influences how they behave with you. Bolero, Fortuner, Scorpio and all. Try driving an Endeavour in traffic and then, the same patch in an E-Class the next day.

[electric_eel]

Originally Posted by Small Bot

I try to pretend I'm a buffalo on the road, immune to everything happening around me.

That is probably the best advice I have got and besides Mooing pop in a chewing-gum
and pretend you are chewing cud. I am a big fan of the buffalo, you know they are strong and can get the best of SUVs with a simple head butt. But they do not give a damn and pretend as if the world does not exists. Talk about "road presence", I do not know who
can beat that.

[Comrade]

I used to easily get agitated or ticked-off by rash drivers but these days, I am trying to practice patience and just let them go! I keep reminding myself a popular Telugu saying. “వాడి పాపాన వాడే పోతాడు“ which loosely translates to “your sins will eventually find you”. I have stopped being that vigilante who takes the onus of correcting (rather punishing) wrong drivers.

But somedays, I do get frustrated. Especially at the two wheelers and the auto-rickshaws who try to squeeze the nano-meter gap between bumpers! I curse at them inside my head! I call them out as insects (especially cockroaches), trying to squeeze anywhere and everywhere, and the responsibility is on the cars not to trample them!

[shancz]

Agree with the views expressed and even more, coming from someone who recently did a trip with 3 senior citizens on the roads of Jharkhand, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh in a 2016 wagonR. But surprisingly the most number of irritants that we're discussing happen to me in the cities.

So the "butch looks, road presence" works in the city and the mechanical benefits of a large and heavy SUV work on the highways.
Why are we even thinking of anything other than SUVs ?

Now I see the logic in Thar for city use along with the surging sales of the Scorpio family

[N.A.GTC]

A side-note: I know the urge to block such people is real. But we need to avoid it as much as we can - not only because it could lead to dangerous road-rage situations, but also because the other person might be in a genuine emergency. You never know.

Yes, it often feels that the other person does not have any emergency, but on the off chance that there is a real and eminent emergency, do you want to carry the moral responsibility of that?

I remember reading - probably on this website itself - about 8-10 years ago that someone's kid had hurt himself real bad and was bleeding profusely. He got the kid in the car and went towards the hospital as fast as possible, but someone started blocking his way. Probably the driver of the car in front also made some gesture. Our guy had to lift his kid up a bit to show to that guy the emergency.

Something similar, though much grave, was also posted on Reddit and keeps being referred to regularly: https://www.reddit.com/r/AdviceAnima...vxv/?context=3

Just quoting the last part of that post, though I recommend reading the entire thing:

Your best bet is to get out of the way if you can. While the driver behind you may just be an ****, it may also be someone with a medical emergency; a partner in labour, a child having a diabetic attack, or a tree surgeon bleeding to death. In any case, letting them past you doesn't affect you in any way and may save a life. These scenarios aren't likely, but they also aren't impossible. It ultimately comes down to how you decide to process the situation. If you want to operate on the default mode of assuming you're right and everyone else is wrong, you're going to have a terrible time functioning in society. Lines, traffic, call centers, and dealing with big business or government will always seem tedious to you. On the other hand, if you can view the world from a more understanding perspective you'll be able to relax and stop being such a dick. Have a good life!

Drive Safe!

[starlord]

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller

Much as we all would like to be calm & cool, it is only human nature to try to block idiots who are rash, impatient, inconvenience us, or break rules...

Funny as hell. I wish I had metal bumpers too, thick 5 mm ones with scratches and rust on top. However, these attitude on their sleeve drivers are best avoided. It’s not worth the effort in trying to teach them a lesson.

[swiftnfurious]

For me, I see a massive difference in my driving style / patience with the genre of music I play while driving. Soft music makes me stop bothering what others are doing around, I drive slower and keeps me cool 95% of the time. With bass heavy / fast tracks, I drive faster and tries to pick a fight with someone who drives bad and tries to cut me off etc.

My observation is most of the new gen wanna be "SUV" drivers are the ones who think they own the road - especially with Creta / Seltos drivers, and the S-Presso occasionally joining the club as well.

Edit : While riding my CBR / Versys, there are these young ones in their Dios / smaller bikes who want to show off their riding skills - what I try to do is to accelerate quick (conditions permitting) to keep a distance + indicating what my bike is capable of. In most cases, the guys drop it there. For others who try to do it again, I slow down and let them have their victory. They usually lose interest after this.

In any case, I don't make an eye contact with such riders, it's a simple "I don't care who you are" attitude I give them - helps take care of such issues to a large extent.

[Rajain]

The message of safe driving is absolutely essential. Though I would say, not at the cost of life or some situation. I have come across multiple situations when people get aggressive even there is no space.

So many of us drive across the country and the one thing I start doing when I enter another state is that I notice how bumper scrapped/dented and/or lights broken the local car/SUVs are. This is a good indicator that people are hot tempered. This hot tempered means they will not hold back in scrapping past my car and will not hesitate in putting the blame on me/gathering some locals and making a scene.

Driving a big SUV absolutely helps. People, including the Uber/OLA breakneck speed guys generally keep some distance.

That said, there are no easy ways if there is a vehicle who is rash, will no stick to the lane and try to squeeze into every 2 inches of space that is visible/available. Sometimes the trade of is, let go - no problem, I would like to reach my destination with a smile. When I see some two wheeler with a mobile phone, I honk and keep a long press - at least he / she realises other drivers on the road are annoyed with that - and hopefully the person on the other side of his/her phone hangs up. This is particularly true for two wheelers. Imagine trying to hold a phone and have a conversation and guiding the two wheeler with one hand.

Close to a tractor, I keep my distance. Tractors, while slow, are not able to brake in a second and if they do, the wheels lock up. And remember there is no argument with a farmer (or a water tanker for that matter).

With a White Scorpio or a Fortuner, I keep some distance. Majority of these are politicians.

So, my approach is some basic profiling with some local knowledge combined with common sense.

[electric_eel]

Originally Posted by Small Bot

For comedic effect, you can try mooing too. Helps to put your mind in a better place. Repeat after me: Moooo.

Just found this on the internet.

https://heartranjan.wordpress.com/20...o-the-buffalo/

I am sure you will like it and it seems there are many more fans of the Indian water buffalo that I had assumed.