[avisidhu]

Have encountered this a couple of times in Punjab. To the Volvos plying on our roads, other vehicles are simply invisible. This doesn't happen too often with the Govt buses though, it's only the privately run Volvos that are more of a nuisance.

Another addition to this list has to be the Scorpio. Don't know if it's something to do with the vehicle itself, or the profile of people driving one, but for some reason every time you see one in your rear view mirror you know that it's better to let it pass. Considering the massive body role it's a surprise to see Scrops being driven at speeds exceeding 100 kmph most of the times.

Banning is a solution yes, but I'm not sure how it can be implemented. There are simply too many vehicles plying the roads at speeds that have a vast variation, so not sure how a ban on tailgating can be practically enforced.

[Sunilrj]

Implementation should not be very difficult. Considering that the Police have a number that can be contacted, namely 100, a victim should be able to report the Registration Number of the Vehicle Tailgating them. The Police Suo Moto can also take action, if they come across instances of tailgating. When tailgating becomes a punishable offence, naturally it would be curbed

[aroonanand]

Originally Posted by Sunilrj

Very Often on Indian Roads we notice that the smaller vehicles ( The term is relative to the Vehicle bullying the vehicle Ahead - a Biker may be Tailgated by a Car, a Car by a Bus) are intimidated so badly that we tend to scramble out of the way of the Vehicle Behind and in the melee end up with fatal accidents.

we also notice that when there is a female driver be it in a car or a two wheeler, a male driver following her tends to tail gate. imagine the damage if the biker loses balance ?

In Cities where the Public Transport is Privatised, like in Mangalore, Tailgating is common and takes place on a day to day basis. use of shrill, rough and noisy vaccum horns and driving periliously close to the vehicle in front, intimidating the driver and ultimately forcing him to give way is common that people have accepted it as their day to day routine.

isnt it time that someone put an end to this practise and impressed upon the Government to make this a punishable offence under the MV Act ?

Well, I commute ~35 kms every day on Bangalore on my car and whilst I do agree that many vehicles tailgate with an intent to intimidate (typically a BMTC volvo behind a car or a call centre Tata Sumo behind another 4 wheeler or private buses as you said), in many cases one is forced to do this to get the vehicle ahead to move..Everyday I see slow moving autos / Tata Ace / other 3 wheelers occupying the right lane (meant for fast moving vehicles) and they simply do not budge if you honk.. The only way to get them to move is to tailgate and blast the horn.... Similarly 2 wheelers who seem to think they own the roads (and the footpaths, dividers and everything else) who will just not move... And if you honk, they give you a glare as if you have done something wrong... and how do you get them to move and give way - you floor the pedal and chase them... I was forced to do it this morning on the Intermediate Ring Road where a 2 wheeler was driving at 20 kmph on the right lane... When I honked, his response was to drive in the middle of the lane so that I cannot overtake... and tailgating for 30 secs with my hand on the horn did the trick - he moved !!

So while you have a point, tailgating can be made a punishable offence only when road manners are inculcated amongst everyone, lane discipline is first enforced and after this, if you see an unwarranted tailgating incident, punish the driver.

I believe that strict fining for lane discipline should be the first preference which will automatically reduce the need to tailgate on many occasions.

[KL01BE]

While I am convinced about the point raised by Sunilrj at the same time would like to second the point that any law in this regard is very hard to implement, as said by avisidhu.

Volvos have their engines placed in the back side and hence they produce very less noise on approach. While driving my two wheeler in the Highway, I have experienced many times that the Volvo simply comes behind you at a greater speed, blow their horn (which again is very loud) which makes you wobble and only by the grace of God you don't go under the wheel.

In Kerala, earlier, the State corporation owned buses were not having power steering. When it was newly introduced, many drivers had problems adjusting to the power steering. Even now, the driving school buses don't have power steering, as they would most probably be old buses restored to a drive-able condition. The new drivers who freshly join the fleet, again, have problems with adjusting to the power steering.

Needless to say, when one turns the steering even a little bit more than the required amount, the rear side sways more and comes in sharply in front of you, forcing us to brake hard.

KL01BE

[kiransri_bng]

+1 me on the point raised by you Aroonanand. As mentioned by you i have also been intimidated by Volvo BMTC buses. what i have noticed is they not only intimidate general public but also fellow non Volvo BMTC buses.

[skanchan95]

Originally Posted by Sunilrj

In Cities where the Public Transport is Privatised, like in Mangalore, Tailgating is common and takes place on a day to day basis. use of shrill, rough and noisy vaccum horns and driving periliously close to the vehicle in front, intimidating the driver and ultimately forcing him to give way is common that people have accepted it as their day to day routine.

Completely agree. Those crazy service/ express bus drivers have little respect for smaller vehicles and behave as if it is their pappa's road . I have been bullied by those nutjobs many times in Mangalore(honking and flashing headlights for no reason, when there is static traffic or no space for him to pass) and such bullying tactics have now become a part of driving in Mangalore.

There was one occasion when I was being followed aggressively by an express bus. At one point, traffic stopped and there was no way anyone could move, the moron still continued his honking his highly irritating and high pitched horns. I got so bugged that I down from the car and gave the driver an earful in Hindi. The bus driver started stammering and could not answer back in Hindi. By the time I was finished, traffic started to move and I made sure I did not let him pass. It probably wasn't the wisest thing to do and it was road rage, but I wanted to somehow get back at that foolish driver.

There probably is no way to curb such road bullying other than traffic cops becoming strict when they see such incidents of rash driving by those crazy drivers. The licenses of drivers who are caught driving rashly, must be suspended or cancelled. Heavy Fine( money earned during that trip must be imposed as fine) must be imposed also on the private bus operator. Operators whose buses are regular offenders, their buses must be impounded and their operator's license/Bus's RC books cancelled without chance for re-application.

[SS-Traveller]

Why is being tailgated so intimidating? Is it because you think the fellow behind will ram into you?

Next time you are tailgated, try this: slow down gradually in a crowded area, completely stop, and wait for 30 seconds. Ignore the shrill horns and flashing lights. Then drive off again.

No more tailgating. No one would have rammed you either. AND you will have conquered your fears.

[Sunilrj]

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller

Why is being tailgated so intimidating? Is it because you think the fellow behind will ram into you?

Next time you are tailgated, try this: slow down gradually in a crowded area, completely stop, and wait for 30 seconds. Ignore the shrill horns and flashing lights. Then drive off again.

No more tailgating. No one would have rammed you either. AND you will have conquered your fears.

Imagine you are tailgated on a one Lane Road and where there is no place on the shoulder of the road. or imagine this scenario, you are tailgated on the ghats where moving to the shoulder exposes you to a fall hundreds of feet below. or if you are a biker who will be just crushed and made mince meat even if you think of slowing down

take this another scenario. a woman is riding / driving. a tailgater appears in the scene and continues to tailgate even if she tries to let the tailgater pass ?


would you still stop ?

[avisidhu]

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller

Why is being tailgated so intimidating? Is it because you think the fellow behind will ram into you?

Next time you are tailgated, try this: slow down gradually in a crowded area, completely stop, and wait for 30 seconds. Ignore the shrill horns and flashing lights. Then drive off again.

I actually did this 2 days back! Stopped my car in the middle of the road and sat for 10 seconds, then came out and gave the truck wallah an earful.

But tell me, how many times can we continue to do that?
Besides, most of the times we are accompanied by females and/or family members, who will then scold us only for our behaviour. It seems the acceptance to someone flashing lights and blowing horn incessently behind you is quite high, I wish I could be that cool about such things.

But broadly I agree with this post that some steps should be taken to make people at least aware that tailgating is dangerous. Taking things into our own hands on the highway is not a sensible solution.

[SS-Traveller]

Originally Posted by Sunilrj

...would you still stop ?

Yes. Crowded area or bottleneck zone of road. Every time. Not on a bike though, strictly for 4-wheelers.

Originally Posted by avisidhu

...came out and gave the truck wallah an earful.

Don't unlock the car, don't step out. Just sit until the other driver opens his door to climb out. Then drive off.

[racer_m]

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller

Why is being tailgated so intimidating? Is it because you think the fellow behind will ram into you?

Next time you are tailgated, try this: slow down gradually in a crowded area, completely stop, and wait for 30 seconds. Ignore the shrill horns and flashing lights. Then drive off again.

No more tailgating. No one would have rammed you either. AND you will have conquered your fears.

Hope that post was in humor, else its a high potential scenario for even more road rage on the roads that we read about everyday.

If I see someone tailgating me I let him pass if I can without causing inconvenience to everyone else. But if it a maniac trying to bully me off road on a single lane, I close the windows raise up the music and become oblivious to him until the next clear section where I can give way.

[Sunilrj]

Originally Posted by avisidhu

I actually did this 2 days back! Stopped my car in the middle of the road and sat for 10 seconds, then came out and gave the truck wallah an earful.

But tell me, how many times can we continue to do that?
Besides, most of the times we are accompanied by females and/or family members, who will then scold us only for our behaviour. It seems the acceptance to someone flashing lights and blowing horn incessently behind you is quite high, I wish I could be that cool about such things.

But broadly I agree with this post that some steps should be taken to make people at least aware that tailgating is dangerous. Taking things into our own hands on the highway is not a sensible solution.

reading your post, i could recall an incident i faced on my trip to Bangalore. i was in a Private Luxury Bus which was being tailgated by you wont believe LPG Bullet Tankers. the Bus had 41 passengers- 20 women and 9 kids. this was on shirady Ghat. the driver stopped to give them way and a group of Bullet Tanker drivers came armed with rods etc to assault the driver of our bus.

ultimately a brave heart in the bus threatened to set fire to the tankers and the drivers took off.

taking Law into your hands on a Highway could be perilous specially in a foreign city when a bunch of drivers could gang up and assault you!

[amolathalye]

Hi ,

This can get very scary , I have experienced this even on mumbai-pune expressway few times while overtaking. If you are in rightmost lane at decent speed , the faster and bigger vehicles behind try to scare you by coming too close to you , stupid , morons do not understand that its equally dangerous for themselves too. Now I overtake only when I don't see anybody in my RVM , not even far away.

regards
Amol

Hi ,

I am almost convinced that there is no law and order in our country and we have to understand that we can not fight with rowdy drivers , its sad that we have no choice but to rely on our luck. Hope Aamir khan takes up issues such as road rage and misbehavior on his "Satyamev Jayte " TV programme as travelling is unavoidable and is part of our day to day life

regards
Amol

[babu.sundaram]

Yours truly & brother on Waggie (KA registered) in Chennai city limits, light traffic. After 5 mins of following managed to get to overtake a Chennai vestibule (train?) bus. It was a drizzling evening and people were also crossing at unexpected place, I took the overtake a little slow. A travels Suma fellow was tailgating to push to overtake faster. I ignored him and overtook at my own pace. After couple of minutes, the Sumo guy overtook the bus, came in parallel to me and started shouting with gestures. When I (and later my brother) shouted back, he backed off.

Probably Chennai Tamil in KA registered car caught him by surprise, if not seeing two men shouting back. Whatever it is, knowing local language helps!

[Waggy]

Originally Posted by babu.sundaram

Yours truly & brother on Waggie (KA registered) in Chennai city limits, light traffic. After 5 mins of following managed to get to overtake a Chennai vestibule (train?) bus. It was a drizzling evening and people were also crossing at unexpected place, I took the overtake a little slow. A travels Suma fellow was tailgating to push to overtake faster. I ignored him and overtook at my own pace. After couple of minutes, the Sumo guy overtook the bus, came in parallel to me and started shouting with gestures. When I (and later my brother) shouted back, he backed off.

Probably Chennai Tamil in KA registered car caught him by surprise, if not seeing two men shouting back. Whatever it is, knowing local language helps!

lol... Me and my TN reg Waggie in Bangalore! I won't attempt to engage on a rage unless I have a co-passenger sitting with me (preferebly of same gender). One reason is that I don't know Kannada. But I've had enough experience of horrible buses on Mangalore/Udipi strech and I gave up driving there!