[Surya_bh00]

Yesterday, I drove from Pune to Bangalore and it has been sometime since I have been on the highways. My observations,

1. Speed limits are a joke - Both the parties, Road users and NHAI/Traffic Police are to be blamed. For one, the speed limits change so quickly that there is no point in even placing those sign boards. On the part of drivers, the limits look like a target to exceed!! I have seen, irrespective of the car size or capability, large number of drivers are way past 100 Kmph speed.

2. The whole stretch between Pune to Hubli is stewn with trucks - some moving at a snail pace and some trying to over take them leave almost no space for the other drivers. With very clear sign boards saying that trucks should keep to the extreme left lane, they don't and I can understand why they cannot! Most of them are overloaded beyond their capability and they are dragging themselves leaving others to find someway to overtake.

3. At some place, it is even worst that people are standing on the highway trying to find transport. It is a pity that they have to risk their life to catch a ride!

Overall it is quite depressing to drive witnessing how drivers abuse, violate every rule in the book and have no concern for safety of others forget about themselves.

[sumukha]

I totally agree.Had the similar experience yesterday. Driving on Bengaluru Mysore highway in my BMW 730 ld, following strictly the 100-80-60 Kms speed limit looked so foolish when even smaller vehicles like Maruti zipped fast doing 120+. Some even looked back at me while overtaking and grinning. No one was maintaining lane discipline. No signal while changing the lane.

[shankar.balan]

Just a mere step away from Anarchy.
Im pretty sure the truck drivers cannot read the signs saying keep left.
Also they can’t keep left because there is always someone or something blocking the way.

What to do. I think in India at least we just have to live with it. We are a notoriously indisciplined lot. Coupled with a wonderful sense of ‘entitlement’.
No way things are going to change in a hurry here.

[GTE]

Things will only improve if the parasites are made to drive in their own cars without escorts to shoo away the aam aadmi.

[BrakeDancer]

I see examples of this every day, albeit in the city limits where I drive. Seeing people lost in their phones while driving with the other hand is a pretty common sight for me. Some of them also tend to have a particular affinity for the right most lane, which is supposed to be the passing lane, while they are busy blabbering away on their phones holding up traffic behind them. A truly entitled lot. This is getting to be a very common sight on our roads, and that's very worrying.

Then there's the other kind who believe they are in a real world Need For Speed, where they'll bob and weave as they please, cutting through traffic at will and changing lanes without any signal at all. Some geniuses will signal and turn simultaneously. I want to briefly stop and tell them that you're supposed to signal first and then make your move, so that I know you're going to do that, but who has the time. Sometimes you've just got to be thankful they aren't spitting onto the roads or shoving their kids from the sunroof top as they drive.

Trucks are a different kind of menace. It's like the road rules are the opposite to them. Recently I had an incident where a fully laden truck on my left took a right turn, needing me to brake suddenly within inches of that trucks turn. I truly thought the front side of my car was done for that day.

[prad]

Originally Posted by Surya_bh00

Yesterday, I drove from Pune to Bangalore and it has been sometime since I have been on the highways. My observations,

1. Speed limits are a joke - Both the parties, Road users and NHAI/Traffic Police are to be blamed. For one, the speed limits change so quickly that there is no point in even placing those sign boards. On the part of drivers, the limits look like a target to exceed!! I have seen, irrespective of the car size or capability, large number of drivers are way past 100 Kmph speed.

2. The whole stretch between Pune to Hubli is stewn with trucks - some moving at a snail pace and some trying to over take them leave almost no space for the other drivers. With very clear sign boards saying that trucks should keep to the extreme left lane, they don't and I can understand why they cannot! Most of them are overloaded beyond their capability and they are dragging themselves leaving others to find someway to overtake.

3. At some place, it is even worst that people are standing on the highway trying to find transport. It is a pity that they have to risk their life to catch a ride!

Overall it is quite depressing to drive witnessing how drivers abuse, violate every rule in the book and have no concern for safety of others forget about themselves.

The left most lane is full of unexpected obstacles - people merging in, people just parked and standing, potholes, construction debris, and slow moving vehicles including bikes and mobikes! This is also the lane that disappears every now and then when you encounter a narrow bridge. So no one can blame the trucks for avoiding this lane.

Expressways avoid most of this, but as they say, old habits die hard and truckers avoid the left lane...

The speed limits are a joke - and Mr Nitin Gadkari is trying to fix it by making limits that are more reasonable and installing traffic management systems along busy routes.

Sign boards are pretty poor, consistently across the country... Needs significant improvement on the older roads and even the latest of roads (like the Nagpur Mumbai Mahamarg) have reasonable room for improvement.

One thing that is for sure is that things are better today than it was 20 years ago (excluding the volume of vehicles and subsequent jams...)

[antz.bin]

Roads these days are vastly better than they were 10 years back and if everyone decides to stick to the speed limits, there is no need for *higher powered variants* of cars being sold in the country.

I drive a 100BHP hatchback and wherever I go, I really cannot use its sub-10-second 0-100 prowess anywhere without getting my co-passengers sh*t scared. It does 120 with ease and returns great economy anywhere in the 80-120 speed range. I find no reason to upgrade to 150BHP VW/Skodas or 160 BHP Hyundai/KIAs when there exists 110-120 bhp options which will not have so much unused capacity (and I can get my cheap thrills on my 40BHP motorcycle).

So far as traffic is concerned within the city, there is really nothing we can do apart from using public transport wherever it exists. On the highways, we can choose to travel at times when the traffic is lower and plan our journeys accordingly. If you don't want traffic to bother you even on an 800km drive day, start your day so that you can complete 350-400 of those before you even stop for breakfast. Spend the rush hour time enjoying your breakfast and then continue when offices have started work. The added benefit, Interceptors don't seem to be too active between 4-9 AM. The other low traffic time slot (especially in peak summers) is 11 AM to 3 PM. Everyone avoids heat. Mobikes, truckers, and even the police. The Aircon is your friend here. 5 hours in the morning and 4 in the afternoon at an average speed of 75 is ~650km. That is a LOT of distance covered till late lunch time. It is half the distance from Mumbai to Delhi without even touching the new, yet to be fully operational, expressway.

It's really not that hard to stick to the speed limits and still make consistent and fast progress if you have figured out how to avoid traffic. The key is to know exactly the error in your car's speedo. It is usually ~10kmph at 80kmph and if you stick to 80 on the speedo, you could have been going ~10kmph (or ~14%) faster without any consequences. Some people are better at it than others. I am yet to get a speeding fine till date (touch wood) even though I have *driven* in 15 states + UTs till date whereas my big brother gets fined literally every time he drives 200km from Nashik to Pune and back .

P.S.: All of this assumes that your highway usage is similar to my own (pleasure). If you use the highways for business, I am afraid, but you are screwed.

[fiat_tarun]

I think this is the normal on most of our regular highways which we have to accept while trying to do our bit by following the rules as best we can.

I can empathise with the truck drivers in that they cannot easily keep to the left and stay there as there are too many obstructions that come up as others have mentioned - 2 wheelers, parked vehicles, non road legal vehicles like tractors, harvesters, etc.

The solution is access controlled expressways and I think we are slowly getting there. Once the infrastructure is in place, I think we can expect things to get better over time. Of course strict enforcement is also needed in our 'chalta hai' society.

[IamNikhil]

The biggest joke on our highways actually are those speed limit boards. I have seen speed limit boards of 40 and 80 placed virtually within 100 metres; humanly not possible to quickly reduce speed like that in fear of a camera!

It's 2023 but still, the sarkari babus and their political masters are imposing "road safety" rules which are antiquated to say the least. I am all for following speed limits, provided there is necessary infrastructure to make the ride feel more comfortable and safe overall. Currently, all the "road safety" measures are aimed at extorting the common public, while the VIPs speed away to glory with their large convoys and hooting sirens. I am not against paying toll, provided the operator actually maintains the stretch of road they are supposed to charge the toll for. Atleast in Maharashtra, this is absolutely an anti-thesis: the more the toll, the worse the road.

Personally also believe that on major stretches where the speed limit is still stuck at 80, it should be increased to 100 atleast.

Mr. Gadkari is definitely implementing a more logical system of traffic management across major highways, but there's still a long way to go.

[RM Motorsports]

Speed Limit Notification for Greater Mumbai w.e.f 13 December 2023. 40 kmph while ascending and descending the flyovers is just RIDICULOUS !!