Why roads in India are unsafe: 3 major problems

We once booked a Toyota Innova Crysta to travel to Hyderabad on NH-44. The driver got angry with a Maruti Wagon-R so he overtook the car and braked abruptly in front of it to show hooliganism.

BHPian silver-stand recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

In my opinion, we have three broader problems:

1. Driving culture
2. Driving knowledge & patience
3. Govt. not doing enough

Driving Culture

In my experience, I have seen people around me talking me down that I'm too fearful when I say some way of driving isn't safe. They indirectly belittle me for driving slower and taking more time.

People take pride in completing a journey much faster than it usually takes. And I have seen in the Bla Bla Car app that some people comment badly that a specific driver has a vehicle with an 80 kph speed lock.

Also, people think when accidents happen it's all a chance occurrence and nothing can be done, being oblivious to risk-mitigating-driving techniques like defensive driving and anticipation.

And other drivers on the road won't be patient if you drive safely as per rules. They'll tailgate and honk you to move fast.

All of these cultural elements and others, keep rubbing off on new drivers who just extend this bad culture. But I'm thankful that I have been learning a lot from Team-BHP and useful Twitter threads and saving myself from getting dragged into the bad driving culture.

Driving knowledge & patience

Once a person is on the road for 7-8 hours or more a day, the patience wanes off. The person just would want to finish their journey as soon as they can. It is rare that I come across a driving professional who drives with a decent amount of patience and anticipation.

We once booked an Innova Crysta to travel to Hyderabad on NH-44. The driver got angry with a Wagon-R and what did he do? He overtook the Wagon-R and braked abruptly in front of it to show hooliganism. I just kept quiet fearing he wouldn't take any of my gyan and may get jerked, becoming even more aggressive on the road.

Also, people don't think getting into clusters isn't safe. They happily get into highway clusters trying to go past it as much as they can. In one such cluster, I was trying to be patient and keep a safe following distance. I got honked hard by an Etios, who eventually overtook me on the shoulder. Sensing the shoulder wasn't even, I braked to let him go and to ensure my own safety.

People in rural areas especially are poorly knowledged about safe bike riding. They only see the convenience part of riding a bike and mostly none of safe riding practices.

Govt. not doing enough

I have seen for many years discouraging Tobacco and Alcohol consumption in theatres and TV. Why I'm not seeing the same amount of effort being put into educating the masses about safe driving and road safety?

Often highways don't have enough signboards. On NH-44, from Hyderabad to Kurnool, I rarely see speed-limit signs. No speed-breaker signs before many speed-breakers on most of the roads. And rumble strips with uneven heights. Not enough U-turns causing local traffic to drive on the wrong side. And the list goes on.

We have someone at the helm boasting about how travel times are being reduced with road development projects. I hope to see the leadership pridefully boasting about how they have made Indian roads safer for all with robust initiatives.

Here's what BHPian RunGaDa had to say about the matter:

Well written. I have been driving for over 25 years, 2/3rd in India and 1/3rd outside India. Yet the number of miles crunched is 4:1 in favour of driving outside India. The scientific roads, dedicated lanes for exits, standardised sign boards, uniformity in types of vehicles (only cars, SUVs, and trucks), knowledge of the rules, roads, and traffic, and driving sense are lacking in India due to poor enforcement and too much leeway given to errant drivers.

Even in other countries, drivers must have been errant in the past. However, they enforced strict rules, punishments, higher insurance premiums, driver's license cancellations, and penalty points to fix the problem. After years and more and more people following, they are now in the habit of safe driving, following rules, and using the public road responsibly. Even Dubai, UAE, emerged to become one of the best places to manage traffic. This could not have happened without rule enforcement.

India, we never learned. We should just follow best practices from the world over and pick the ones with the most stiff penalties. Enforce them ruthlessly. Do this for ten years. Then everyone will be used to it, and they won’t try to violate any rules. The major problem is enforcement, and this problem gets bigger and bigger with the increase in the number of vehicles and the number of kilometers of roads built.

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