Today I drove between most irresponsible drivers I ever saw

This is about my visit to a city and drivers there.

I have driven car in various parts of India but only today I felt to write something here. I am a sort of Long Drive lover from some times. So I can say that I am pretty experienced in day to day driving as well as Highway cruising.

To add to this, I am strict follower of traffic rules, I always follow traffic rules and make others to follow too. The list of city in which I have driven car is long but yesterday was different experience.

So I will name it as :
Driving in Streets of Delhi and adjacent towns

In India, as we all know, we already do not have systematic infrastructure and if we have then mostly people do not know how to use. So Delhi is having comparatively better infrastructure of Roads but what is the use ? People do not know about lane concept. They do not know how to change lane. Even they do not know how to respect car who wants to change lane.

This is worst thing I was facing. No car was following lane rule, they were overtaking you from wrong side. And if you are trying to change lane adn giving indicator is just useless. It appears as if value of indicating lights is 0 in Delhi. Every one is so much in hurry. There were moments many times when I was amazed to see that do these drivers even care about their own cars or everyone is driving car provided by their company / employer? Well, I do.. I don't want it to have scars (scratches) all over but they were just pushing their cars where there is no possible way to pass. Ultimately I had to give them pass to save my car.

In other city, if you give indicators then fellow drivers really respect it, they allow you to change the direction or lane etc. But here, they ignores it and when you look into their eyes then you will find instead they are complaining to you. What the hell !!

Next thing was Traffic rules, people were only stops their cars when it was Red already for few seconds. Many times I saw that I stopped because it was Red signal but people were passing by on and on, it was all encouraging me to ignore RED signal ie. ideally you should slow down or stop when it is Yellow which means that now it is going to be read in a second or two but no , everyone was ignoring until its already RED and 1 or 2 seconds are passed.

Another thing, you may have seen youth having zip-zap sort of driving. But here in Delhi, majority of driver were doing same no matter what is their age or what. Being a youth, I was just avoiding this and was trying to follow rules but I was finding it hard to maintain because of fellow driver's irresponsibility.

So on return, I decided to do their way, I just showed all my skill of zip-zap driving and seriously I was feeling like winner in Delhi's traffic. Now I was no more respecting other people driving nearby me, I was just finding my way, no more waiting for traffic signal.

Result was that now I was having relatively better driving than earlier. Thing was that I was using engine's all grunt as if there is no tomorrow. Earlier when I was following rules and trying to be respect traffic , I was disappointed many times and really just got lucky enough to get my car unscratched at many moments but when I was returning and on zip-zap mode, just passed through all without any glitch.

Usually I do such driving in city when I am in really hurry and when I know that reason to drive this way is strong enough else I avoid this. This way you are actually risking a lot of life and yours own too. Moreover, using your car at peak always hurts its life, you reduce engine life.

So you see that how bad company of driver resulted in one more bad driver ie. I had to drive like them.

Any Delhi guy want to comment ?

Ricky i think you forgot to talk here?

Yesterday night i read this but thought u wil write today.

Wat hap

Ricky i wont remind you this again :( i am tired man :(

Hi Ashok..

I just finished my Essay.. :)

Your inputs are crucial !

oh i didnt expect u wil edit and save :( Sorry

Hey.......... i read your post.

Nice comments....... You know someting? This is the same case in chennai too.

Here people wont stop in red. They wil stop after 3 seconds from red...... Just imagine if you are driving and pushing hard your brake to stop then ulitmately the vehicle who is rushing to cross the signal before red will hit you hard at your back.

I was once very soft driving until a man hit my back. When i respect the lanes then people will irritate me with their worst driving.

From then on, i changed. I never cared the rules, no lane concepts, No yellow signal concepts, zip zap driving, i find small space to enter and i go to any place within 30 min which others take more than 1:30 hrs.

I am not proud by this way. Infact i was made to change my driving by those people. The poor and sad car drivers will suffer a lot when we guys drive bikes like this.

I can feel your strain. But this happens in all city man.

In your city do you guys respect the lanes? and signals? I mean your city which you live all time.

Well, just to tell .. on that very day I even saw an accident when we were about leave city, same as you said.. it was a car who I think hit a car from back. Wagon-r, seriously damaged from front.

About lane concept here, well , ya generally they follow ie. not exactly but atleast they know that fast car has to be driven first lane and slower one on second - third respectively.

Here no one knows the lane concept.

Seriously no joking. There is no painting on the road to follow the speed on such lanes , and slow speed on the next lanes...... I havnt seen any paints or indications on the chennai road like that.

Even wen i came to delhi the same was the case.

I wonder which city you live in again. Is it in india or another country ;)

NO no..

They just do it without knowing it, basic rule of thumb is that if you are driving slower then remain on out of the path of faster vehicle which runs near to divider , ultimately first lane.

Here too there is no indicator and there are not even lanes properly drawn on road.

I just imagines the USA roads in your city :) ;)

NO man.. don't not get that imagination.. its even worst than Delhi .. ie. Roads.. but generally I see people with faster speed in first lane and slower on other side.

I have seen footage of traffic in some places in India. Pretty scary...It looks like a "free for all" in some places. If that was tried here in the US with so many large vehicles we would have many deaths. Fear keeps everybody following the traffic laws for the most part.

Hmmm....

I've also noticed that truck wallas drive much better (and stable) than Small cars, Bikes and Buses.

Hey Bhvm, your comment on this topic made me to read it all and I remembered all again. I also corrected this article as there were few typos.

And yes, I strongly support you that best drivers are truck driver though people blame them a lot for bad driving but I differ.

He he heh.,..

Funny is'nt it?

Its like.... The eldest kid always gets the scoldings? ;) ?

Most notorious are definitely the Rikshaw wallas and the Buses. They constantly keep poking their nose here and there. They may escape, but pull others into the harm's way.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ashok_replies

Here no one knows the lane concept.

Seriously no joking. There is no painting on the road to follow the speed on such lanes , and slow speed on the next lanes...... I havnt seen any paints or indications on the chennai road like that.

Even wen i came to delhi the same was the case.

I wonder which city you live in again. Is it in india or another country ;)

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Agreed.
People are not sure in what lane to move.
Some Truck driver Chacha's slot in at top gear, and claim space in the middle of the road... No heed to horns no matter what. Thats what forces us to overtake from the left at times.

There are no boards to instruct that trucks to drive in the left...cars in the right etc..