[PrasadS]

More of a rant than a post, but I'm finding myself getting really irritated and bitter instead of enjoying my drive and resorting to Moral Policing.

I'm currently from Navi Mumbai and will be soon shifting to Palaspe Phata Panvel(on the new JNPT highway) at the Goa-Alibaug junction.

As many of you know, Navi Mumbai is blessed with amazing 2-3 lane cemented highways, with almost no signals or speed breakers. Most of my driving is intercity and occasionally highways.
Whenever i drive from Vashi to Nerul, there are a lot of truckers hogging the 1st lane causing huge jams and small cars crisscrossing them. Even on the Dy Patil and Uran Phata bridge.

After shifting to Panvel, I'll be traveling almost 40kms back and forth on the amazingly made 4 Lane JNPT road. It's every car enthusiasts dream road, and i encourage everyone to drive on this Road atleast once. But guess what, even on such an amazing road Truckers are a huge nuisance. Completely empty 4 lanes and these dumdums still want to drive 1st lane. Occasionally you'll find the great wall of trailers with 4 trucks driving parallel to each other.

My problem: What i used to encounter occasionally, now is becoming an everyday scene. I have to literally take evasive maneuvers due to some of the scenarios these guys create on the road. Just yesterday i was pelted with stones by a truck carrying stones, driving rashly on the 1st lane on an empty road. I literally forced him to slow down and change lane by driving slowly in front of him on an empty road.
In Traffic condition, I'm okay with truck on various lanes, but they should leave the fast lane on COMPLETELY EMPTY ROADS.

Should i moral police and flag these trucks and indicate them to change lanes?
Should i let go of my irritation(which seems hard at this point), ignore it but leave other vulnerable drivers at their mercy?
Can i take steps and involve authorities and get some changes done? (Don't know how)
Should i just ignore it and once Airport is done and the new bridge is open, we can see some discipline?
Advice from fellow members appreciated.

[Small Bot]

I understand your situation and your frustrations.

That said, I personally don't think it's worthwhile fighting with an object that massive. I don't think you gain much by it. Rather you might put yourself at risk.

I don't have much experience with trucks or their drivers, but I assume most drivers use the fast lane mainly to maintain their speed on a clean lane. I'm not sure if most of them do it knowingly or not.

Whenever I come across such a situation, I try to just overtake from the left, ensuring that my horn and headlights work for their money. This is just to alert the driver that I'm coming through though, and not an attempt to make him drive correctly.

You could take a photo/video and alert traffic police, but I'm fairly sure they wouldn't give a damn as they have fatter and richer fish to catch and squeeze.

I'd just advise you to keep yourself safe at all times, that's all. Irrespective of whether the truck drivers are right or not, we run the risk of putting ourselves at harm if we try to take the policing business into our own hands.

[m8002?]

Very well said. Its not worth trying to force them to slow down or change lanes. An accident will be much worse for you than them.

Frankly, I dont find this much of an issue in the plains. One needs to follow them for a couple of minutes with a few honks and they usually make way. My pet peeve is in the ghat sections where they just hog all the lanes causing a huge pile up of vehicles behind.

[electric_eel]

Originally Posted by PrasadS

I literally forced him to slow down and change lane by driving slowly in front of him on an empty road.

Don't do this. You are putting yourself into a very dangerous situation. Brake checking in front of a load carrying truck is essentially luck checking akin to playing Russian roulette. What happens if there is a slight downward slope in that particular section of the high way? It is often difficult to figure out such things even on a bicycle (let alone in a car) and with the tempers high on both sides it can lead to really nasty situation.

[PrasadS]

Thank you for your concerns fellow members.
When i said i drive ahead of them, I'm like 4 truck lengths ahead of them maintaining a safe distance. Then i roll down my window and just hand signal them to move to 2nd lane.
3 out of 5 oblige. 2 idiots stay, so i just leave them be to their karma. Everything is politely done.

2 updates on the same route since my last post:
1: Yesterday afternoon saw a wagon R t-boned and standing sideways right in front of a trailer on the fast lane.
An ambulance was there, i hope no one was seriously injured and all were belted.

2: Today again pelted with stones despite staying 2 lanes away from speeding rubble carriers driving on fast lane
Infact a souvenir stone stayed with me near my wipers which i noticed when checking for windshield cracks.

My wife was asking for a 2 wheeler to travel to work on same route. I strictly put my foot down(maybe will get a small, safest EV for her as surprise, provided she learns to drive)
I pity the unprotected bikers bombarded with such debris.

Maybe I'll update the tread name to Uran-JNPT-Panvel highway(or something more accurate as I'm geographically challenged)as this is going to be one of the main highways out of Mumbai and towards airport soon. Since I'll soon live near the highway, would love to help out fellow members traversing this route.

[lamborghini]

Either learn to live with it, or constantly tweet and tag the traffic police (along with photos and location) about this menace.

Getting stressed and picking fights will only harm you in the long run.

[PrasadS]

Originally Posted by lamborghini

Either learn to live with it, or constantly tweet and tag the traffic police (along with photos and location) about this menace.

Getting stressed and picking fights will only harm you in the long run.

Completely agreed. I've made progress in just a couple of days infact. Thanks to my Indian adjustment wala genes

I just put my favourite rock music loud and just nod my head in dissatisfaction when i observe such incidents now. A few more days and i should achieve complete Zen mode.
Only the scratches due to stones on my precious ride makes me fume. Too late for ppf on my 7 yr old baby.

[Raghu M]

Forcing a heavy vehicle to slow down and change lanes is dangerous. You don't want to get into trouble. Remember, you are in a car. A damage or an accident during the altercation will leave you with a huge damage. Don't do it. How many people can you moral police? Will the same trucks pass by when you are driving? Follow them and then overtake when you get a chance. I understand the irritation but there is nothing much that can be done. Have a calm mind when you drive there, a soothing music (zen kind) while driving in those stretches helps.

[shankar.balan]

Originally Posted by PrasadS

I literally forced him to slow down and change lane by driving slowly in front of him on an empty road.
Advice from fellow members appreciated.

Absolutely bad idea. Very dangerous. Trucks drive at a certain pace. They need to be at a certain momentum. They are very heavy vehicles and hard to keep under control. They are always significantly over-loaded and definitely ‘maintenance-compromised’, especially in India, because the owners and fleet operators will always cut corners to save costs. Most probably the only maintenance these trucks see, is disaster maintenance. Their drivers are usually underpaid, over-worked and over-tired at most times.

Considering all of the above, it is not a good idea to engage dramatically with them, especially in the way you have described.

A smaller vehicle darting in and out of a cavalcade of trucks or trying to do some ‘vigilante-work’ to enforce lane-discipline the way you have described, is much more in danger than the trucks are. The dice are always going to be loaded in favour of the trucks.

The only sensible way out is to remain calm and keep reporting, ad nauseam, to the authorities. It will take a very very long time. It will take much more patience than most of us have. It will not show any tangible results for a very long time, probably will take even more time than any of us have.

But if more of us keep at it, some day, it will result in some positive result.

[--gKrish--]

Instead of getting into altercations on the road, pressure the MVD to act strictly on lane hoggers by posting pictures and videos of violations tagging them on X or Facebook.

For repeat offenders, in addition to fines, grounding the vehicle for a few days would help achieve better results.

While I agree with everyone advising not to police them, it is best that this behavior is put to an end. It is still unsafe if every other fast car has to slow down, switch lanes and overtake through the left. Letting them impede the fast lane is a waste of taxpayer money as it defeats the purpose of having multi-lane highways. Our highways are improving now and it is very important that the drivers learn to use them safely and properly.

[streetfighter]

Trucks driving on rightmost lane is a nusciance seen all over India, not just JNPT. I have experienced this on highways, expressways and all over.
Recently, on my way back from Gujarat to Mumbai, around Charoti, all the lanes were blocked by slow moving trucks. The traffic behind must have piled up for a km or so as the trucks didn't budge for over 15 mins. I was just behind the trucks and overtook at the first instance. I had to slow down on the first lane (albeit at a safe distance) and indicated the truck on first lane to shift to the other lanes, effectively opening up the first lane for the other vehicles behind. I understand it is not sane to do policing as that is not my job and it may be risky too, but sometimes situations are such that one has to take some action. Imagine the frustration of driving behind slow moving trucks for over 15 mins when the road ahead is completely empty.
Why do truck drivers do this? They regularly bribe and pay hafta which makes them privileged to break laws and immune to the system. I guess, we tax payers, do not get any privileges; all rules and regulations are made for us only. I feel this is an easy problem to solve but lacks will from our politicians, police and RTO !!

[PrasadS]

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

Absolutely bad idea. Very dangerous. Trucks drive at a certain pace. They need to be at a certain momentum. They are very heavy vehicles and hard to keep under control.

How i wrote it initially might give a completely different picture than what actually occured. My bad
I've mentioned in a different reply and will mention again for others who have not read my reply;
"When i said i drive ahead of them, I'm like 4 truck lengths ahead of them maintaining a safe distance matching their speed. Then i roll down my window and just hand signal them to move to 2nd lane."

Originally Posted by streetfighter

I was just behind the trucks and overtook at the first instance. I had to slow down on the first lane (albeit at a safe distance) and indicated the truck on first lane to shift to the other lanes, effectively opening up the first lane for the other vehicles behind. I understand it is not sane to do policing as that is not my job and it may be risky too, but sometimes situations are such that one has to take some action.

I sympathize with you. You reacted the same way i do, and we do it only when absolutely necessary.
I believe in the saying "It takes a village to raise a child". If responsible drivers in some way (in an absolutely safe manner) make atleast a small difference and guide a tired, non attention paying trucker etc away from the fast lane, we might save a probable collision or life somewhere.

Thanks to being Updated with almost all essentially necessary T-BHP threads, I'm a bit more wiser and act only if necessary.
Right now following the Dashcam thread so i start flagging to authorities and try to bring some changes like some members have pointed out above.