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-   -   Bad Drivers - How do you spot 'em (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/road-safety/3580-bad-drivers-how-do-you-spot-em-315.html)

Wouldn't it be even wiser to simply not overtake from the left? You would see a vehicle in front only after half your car has moved into that lane anyway.

Of course, its another thing when someone's hogging the RH lane and refusing to budge.

You answered for me :D

Unfortunately RH lane is the new left with tractors, trucks etc hogging it. Also some drivers have an illusion of safe driving on the right side at very slow speeds. No amount of dipping or honking will make them shift lanes.Guess this is due to the extreme left lane being dangerous due to wrong side traffic, stalled vehicles etc and no driving sense.

That's the Hubli - Dharwad bypass that was constructed before the four laning of NH4. The contract was given on some Build - Operate - Transfer scheme for a fixed period to a private firm which collects toll for this road. I believe due to legal hurdles four laning was not done for this stretch.

One of my business associates lost his life on this road last month. He had his wife, MIL and two kids travelling with him in his Dzire. He crashed head on with a lorry when he was trying to overtake a multi axle trailer. He died on the spot while the passengers survived with injuries. Apparently a case of misjudged overtaking. The accident took place at night around 10pm.

The four laning has now started and you can see the other two lanes being built in the distance on your left (when going towards Bangalore). It would be a big relief when these lanes open for traffic!

Very sad to hear that. Unsurprisingly you can expect a lot of such incidents because long distance drivers after driving through 2-3 lanes suddenly get restricted to a single lane. Some of them lose their cool and start overtaking indiscriminately leading to such accidents.

Chop three words off...

A person following like that is probably driving too close too. All kinds of things can go wrong. A decision to overtake must be ours, and ours alone, not that of the guy in front.

When in doubt, just don't. What is it with this fervour to be always one car in front? Patience is not just "a virtue," it also saves lives :)

Rant time~

Time 11.20pm
Location : Ibblur -Outer Ring Road Junction towards Bellandur

The road is a 4 way junction and I have to take a left turn at the cross roads.
Bang in front of the junction, I have a maverick in a Tata Vista, High Beam et al, coming down the wrong way and blocking my path. Inspite of me dipping my headlight, he continues to remain on High.

First I politely ask him to lower the beam.
His response : Boss, I am coming down the wrong way and thats why I am on the high beam.
me ::Shockked: Boss, do you realize that you are actually blinding the oncoming traffic with your headlight??
Him : No, because I am coming down the wrong way, I should be on the high beam. thats the rule! :Frustrati

Tried Thad's approach. Failed miserably. This guy was surely highly educated.

Finally, after 13 hour slog at office, I really have lost my marbles:
me : I really wonder who the xxxxx (apologies) gave you a license!

and drive off.

The gargantuan stupidity of losing my sanity over being preachy. I have surely lost it. Someone please provide me the address to the closest mental assylum.

Encountered a bad driver today in the US on my way to work - Just goes to show there are such characters everywhere -
I was driving on a 2 lanes each side undivided city road which has a posted speed limit of 45 mph, which means traffic generally moves at 50 to 55 mph. Because it is undivided, people from the by lanes and houses on each side can cut across traffic and take a left turn onto the other side of the road. Normally you wait for the traffic to clear on both sides of the road. I was driving on the left lane and there was a car about 2-3 seconds ahead of me in the right lane. I saw a lady driving a BMW X6 emerging out of a road on the side, and creep into the right lane only to see the car that was ahead of me on the right. That car had to brake and go around the x6 to avoid hitting it. I expected the x6 to reverse and let the traffic clear and take the left turn she wanted to take. However what happened next really surprised me, she decided to take the left turn even though I was going to have to come to a near complete stop to let her go. I had to slow down, from 50 mph to 5 mph to avoid a total side impact on a big BMW. Honked to let her know my displeasure and went on. I almost wonder if she was even looking at the left side traffic at all.
It is unexpected behavior here, whereas I wouldn't be surprised by this in India. I thank my lucky stars and my constant scanning ahead nature of driving that saved a very bad crash today. I have attached an illustration of what happened.

^^ That was close!
You were lucky that there was no one following you too closely either!

Not trying to profile the genders but as far as my observation and experience goes, driving is one of the skills in which men do tend to display a marginally better aptitude (and better attitude too, if I may add) than women.

Case in point, my daily commutes to the kid's school. I've been chauffeuring my twins to and from school every day for the past 4 years. Each day I witness literally dozens of driving and parking offenses on the approach to the school, at the school's drop lines and in the parking lot - some blatantly deliberate, some out of sheer ignorance, some out of negligence. 99 times out of 100 the offender is a lady. (May God burn my hair if I were lying). For instance, I can understand someone parking right under a "No Parking No standing No stopping" sign once a while in an emergency, but if I see a certain lady in a Yukon nonchalantly park her American elephant under the "No Parking No standing No stopping" sign e-v-e-r-y afternoon just because it is (20 yards) closer to the school door than the designated parking lot, and that too at the expense of causing inconvenience to others around her, then the tiny vein in my forehead has a valid reason to throb.

Speed limit signs, stop signs, no parking markings, lane markings, zebra crossings and such visual directives have a purpose beyond serving as windshield screensavers, someone should tell these wonderful ladies :)


I have half a mind to divert my exasperation at this complete disregard for the art-and-science of driving into something more constructive. Perhaps I should do a daily photoblog about these wonderful ladies (and the odd gent too) at the school, and publish it on the School's web site itself with the hope that some day these offenders will find themselves featured online and will then at least try to mend their habits out of guilt/realization. Or perhaps start a 'today's special' daily photo feature here for everyone's entertainment :)

With men the saying goes "the bigger the truck, the smaller the <you know what>". With women, I am convinced that the bigger the SUV the smaller the brains driving it.


That was my rant of the day. Now I feel lighter. I'll now resume my quest for the elusive woman who can actually negotiate a four way stop without confusing the other three drivers. I have 6 four-way stops on my way to the school each way, and I know what I'm talking about

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^^^ You are generalizing here, i wouldn't go as far. I have seen many men drivers do the same and in terms of percentage i believe women driver are much saner on the road.

In my house (I usually never say this to her), keeping physical abilities apart, i believe my wife drives better than me. Much more calmer, Durghatana se Der bhali motto (Better late than never), whereas i can sleep when she takes the wheels, but she finds it tough to sleep when i am at the wheels.

Absolutely! I've often wondered why people put their and other passengers lives at risk by blindly trying (sometimes succeeding) to overtake the vehicle in front. I for one will never overtake the vehicle in front unless I've a clear line of sight; even if that means I've to be stuck behind a slow moving vehicle for a long time. Period.

Unfortunately, most people would not share the same logic.

Location: Meenakshi Temple - NICE Road juntion stretch
This guy was behind me from kalena agrahara in a bumper to bumper traffic(around 8:30 AM). He was very restless and was honking, flashing lights(not sure if it was due to tbhp sricker :)) and trying all kind of stunts to go ahead. He was honking even when the traffic was not moving. He also went off the road on the left side but got stuck there and finally when I was on the NICE Road junction he went on the other side of the divider to overtake me despite couple of cars and bus coming opp to him. I braked as I didn't want to take chance by accelerating and blocking him. It was a dangerous move I should say.

Again I saw this moron around 12:00 PM flashing lights and honking and the same behavior today as well. Looks like he uses the head light than his brain.

The govt lets private operators cover routes that aren't profitable to them(govt), and they(pvt) make it profitable by cutting corners. Most of the money collected from passengers is unaccounted for, they help evade taxes across borders and the drivers are coerced into doing as many trips as possible. Hence the annoying air horn, head lights and indiscipline. At certain junctions, you'll notice the cleaner handing money to a cop. 'Look the other way for a moment please'.

Does this qualify as bad driving?

A xylo cut me off but at least it was indicating and I had predicted just that, so I had already lifted off!
Another alto was continuously honking from behind, so I let it through!(No lane discipline at all!)

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

arun_josie, I very well understand the situation you have to go through as I'm also a constant victim of these people's reckless driving. There are a bunch of LKT's and other private buses which ply through that road, mainly to Anekal. These people drive their rattle boxes as if those are F1 cars. It's common for them to go off the road and try to overtake through the left side, especially on the stretch from Gottigere till Mantri Residency. And at every bus stop, they halt mostly in the middle so that the BMTC buses cannot pass them. It's high time that action be taken against these thugs.