BHPian nileshbhatiaa recently shared this with other enthusiasts: Imagine travelling on roads in India where the norms change from ‘me first’ to ‘safety first’, where we honor the rule ‘pedestrians have first right of way’ and pedestrians reciprocate by giving right of way to drivers when there’s signal to go. Sounds like a dream!! We can make it a reality through our own community effort. I list below the principles of safe driving we should teach our kids to help them grow into responsible drivers. In addition, the ‘each one teach one’ pledge should be extended by educating our support staff, our house help, driver, cleaner, security or who ever you meet. While police carry out their duty by hosting safety week regularly, as citizens this we must share our burden to make our roads safer. As Team-bhp we can harness the power of togetherness to inculcate this discipline, let ‘each one’ of us take the pledge to ‘teach one’. Here’s my list of top 10. This by no means is an exhaustive list but are simply the things that bother me the most. It will be good to know what’s on top of your list.Rule 1 – Respect, respect and respect! Motorists, pedestrians, cyclists on the road are your fellow countrymen. They deserve respect as much as you do. They are travelling with their families, some with their own set of problems, some in emergency. No one is on road simply to kill time. Please respect.Flip the ‘me first’ attitude: Let’s teach our kids to yield and not rush through traffic, not to overtake by cutting lanes in a hurry. Using headlight flash/blink to tell others ‘me first’ is stupid. There is a concept of ‘right of way’ that needs to be taught in the schools or by parents.Respect the cyclists, give them their rightful space.If you are a motorist, respect the pedestrian and stop! If you are a pedestrian, respect the traffic signals. Pedestrians must not cross the road randomly by waving hands to the oncoming vehicles, if vehicles have received a green signal to move, they have a right of way.Lanes are not designs or patterns on the road; they have a purpose. When lanes merge, driver already in the lane has right of way and the vehicle merging into the main street has to yield. It is a good habit to take turns and let few vehicles from each lanes enter.Do not race! If you must, please go to the race-track. Let’s not treat every Indian road as Autobahn highway.Do not see overtaking vehicles as your competitors, they are going their own way. Do not block them or race with them.Do not stare, yell or abuse. Pardon the mistakes. Don’t honk. Please shut up! Remember, other road users are your fellow country men and not aliens or enemies.Ambulances always have the right of way, no matter what. Do not block an ambulance.Helmets are not accessories: Helmets are essential life-saving equipment and not an accessory. Helmets are meant to be worn, they should be right sized and be worn with straps on. Likewise, seat belt buckles are not used for avoiding warning beeps. They are an essential life-saving equipment meant to protect passengers. Kids must learn that a 5-star rated car with 6 air bags may not do much to save lives where seat belts are ignored.Last, not in the list but a bonus one – Smile, we have a lovely day/evening ahead of us Here’s what BHPian NomadSK had to say on the matter:That’s a very basic much needed wishlist. Two things I religiously do during my drives in India, since muscle memory takes over, I subconsciously stop for pedestrians and zero honking. Few times when I have stopped for a pedestrian on a busy road, I was once rear ended and many times have been subject to choicest words. Since I don’t honk, I reduce my drive speed mostly and still get weird expressions from people who are used to honking for attention. And within a week I stop driving in cities and let my mom/dad drive me. Hence I’m confused because the majority of the road users don’t abide by the basic rules which forces me to take evasive actions regularly. So what’s right to follow or not to follow !! Because doing right things on Indian roads seems to be wrong for our own safety. I tried to teach my dad that honking is not good, who happens to be a voracious honker, and he said “what’s more important honking or accidentally hitting a pedestrian/biker” and I was speechless. So IMO, theory can match practical only with robust laws, but unfortunately the reality is we can have lots of lip service.Here’s what BHPian Rajeevraj had to say on the matter:Good thread. Although I am not sure if we will go beyond being keyboard warriors on this topic. Couple of points. Use high beams only when needed. Within a city you really don’t need high beams all the time. So be on low beam and switch when needed.The horn is not an accelerator, it is not a brake, it does not light up the road. Use the horn judiciously as needed.Acknowledge when someone does something nice. it is pretty rare. Example: stops to let you cross the road, slows down to allow you to take a right turn or U turn in unmanned junctions, allows you to merge into the next lane when your lane is blocked for some reason.Here’s what BHPian raycers_honda had to say on the matter:Sadly, I have to admit that driving in India is in a poor state. Whether educated or uneducated, the mentality of Indian road users seems to remain the same, and I’ve come to accept that it may never change. I’ve learned to live with this reality. Beyond all the points mentioned below, the most important takeaway is to stay calm, smile, and keep driving, even when you’re not at fault. My daily commute to the office is approximately 15 minutes, and in that short span, I witness around 100 infractions by road users.Here are a few examples: I live in a colony that has a school nearby. Exiting the colony is always a challenge due to traffic jams. This school is located in an upscale area, so most of the vehicles are high-end-Mercedes, BMWs, Porsches, Range Rovers, etc. One would expect that people driving such expensive cars, or their drivers, would follow traffic rules. However, the reality is the exact opposite. Forget double parking; these uncivilized drivers triple park. To make matters worse, this is a route frequently used by local transport buses, which get stuck because of the triple parking. This often leads to fights and arguments. What concerns me most is that children mimic their parents’ behavior, and I believe 95% of the parents and drivers dropping off kids are setting a terrible example. It’s disheartening to see people who can afford cars worth over a crore have no civic sense or empathy for others. The irony is that the opposite side of the road is always empty. Another issue I face regularly, with about 95% of road users-especially auto rickshaws, taxis, tempos, and tourist vehicle operators-is tailgating. I have a personal policy of maintaining a one-and-a-half-car gap between my vehicle and the one in front. I’ve witnessed numerous accidents because people don’t follow this basic rule, and I often have the last laugh. Once, I told a driver not to follow me so closely. He overtook me, only to tailgate the car in the next lane. As expected, the car in front couldn’t make it to the signal and braked suddenly. The tailgater, of course, crashed, and I passed by laughing at the fool. However, I did feel sorry for the other car owner. Unfortunately, these kinds of drivers are everywhere-whether on highways or in the ghats, they ruin what could otherwise be an enjoyable drive. Another major issue is how people overtake. I don’t mind being overtaken, but it should be done safely. Many drivers overtake and immediately cut into your lane without enough space. Ideally, after overtaking, you should pull ahead and then merge into the lane, not cut someone off abruptly. Don’t even get me started on drivers who blatantly ignore “no entry” signs-the less said about that, the better. What makes it worse is that many of these infractions happen right in front of police stations or even in the presence of police officers, who themselves often flout traffic rules. These things should be taught in schools and reinforced in driving schools. Public transport drivers, in particular, need to be sensitized to traffic rules and road manners. Until that happens, I have little hope for the state of driving in our beloved country.Here’s what what BHPian DevendraG had to say on the matter:How do all of us know alphabets? Once we went to school. The slow learners took time or the strictness from parents/teachers to learn but they did. Pls don’t mistake strictness for striking. High time our law enforcers do their job and stop complaining on the irrationality of police to people ratios. I’m sure we’ve seen multiple instances where things could’ve been managed by the police and yet they don’t. Either they don’t want to or they can’t. Be as it may, the way things are right now, enforcement is the first step and then work in other directions should follow in parallel. The technology we have at our leverage is simply a waste if not put to good use of the tax payers. I want to follow rules and I do to the best of ability. But at times, you follow the law of the road or set yourself up to be at the mercy of your parents/friends/cabbies which too ain’t guaranteed to follow the rules. This chaos has led to recent generation to avoid riding/driving completely which further leads to low automobile sales and a feeling of helplessness towards our country’s capabilities. Be the change you want to see but also remind the ones appointed for this change to do their effing job.Read BHPian comments for more insights and information.
