The Mountain

N.B. This isn't meant to attack anyone specifically, and may not even apply in some areas of India. However, I have to say something as these things drive me crazy, and probably others as well, for a number of reasons, and in the interest of developing better riding habits for all.

I've been here over a year now after living my whole life in the US, and while I realize that there is a huge cultural difference between India and the US, the "rules of the road" are supposed to work pretty much the same the world over, regardless of which side of the road one drives on. There are a few things, however, that drive me up the wall concerning the motorcycle culture in India. Motorcycles are wonderful machines, and are a terrific solution to traffic congestion *when ridden properly*. Due to their small size, far more motorcycles can fit on a given stretch of road compared to even the small cars here. But, and this is a big But, only if everyone follows the rules.

One of the biggest hazards I see, to both the motorcyclist and other drivers, is the utter lack of discipline for observing lanes of traffic. Here in Bhubaneswar, and probably in many other parts of India as well (I know I've seen this happen in Delhi too to a lesser extent), although the lane markings on the road are fairly clear in most places, nearly all vehicle operators completely ignore the marked lanes and the "rules of the road" concerning them. For cars, trucks, and buses, this is usually limited to an inability to stay within the lane. I can't even count the number of times I've seen vehicles ostensibly in the rightmost lane drifting as much as a meter across the lane markings to the left. For motorcycles, it's worse, since not only do many riders ignore the lanes, they ride wherever they feel like on the road, regardless of how slow they're moving. If you're going to ride out in the main traffic lanes, go as fast as (really, slightly faster than) the rest of traffic. Don't ride 25kmh in the right lane. If you're going to ride that slow, stay to the left, as close to the shoulder as possible. Slower traffic in general should always stay towards the shoulder, leaving the middle and inside lanes for faster traffic. If the cars and the bikes can get this sorted out, we can all gang up on the autorickshaws and get them squared away

Another big hazard is the obliviousness of drivers of all vehicles to their side mirrors and their uses, and the general "rules of the road" pertaining to pulling out into traffic, changing lanes, and entering a road from a side street/driveway/u-turn. Once again, many drivers here are guilty of this; autorickshaw drivers in particular seem to believe they're the only one on the road, and I see even expensive cars with both side mirrors folded in. However, once again motorcyclists seem to be the worst of the lot, since many bikers completely remove their mirrors (sometimes leaving one for a convenient helmet hanger, a topic for a separate thread). Always always always use your mirrors, especially when changing lanes, and check over your shoulder first as well. Also, wait the extra few seconds for an opening in traffic. I can't count the number of times I've been the last car in a raft of traffic, with nothing behind me, and yet people insist on pulling out right in front of me instead of waiting the 5 seconds for me to pass. Bikes are small and hard to see on the road, so it's incumbent on the rider to ensure their own safety. While the custom in India seems to be that the larger vehicle is always at fault, that won't do you much good when you're squashed flat by the bus you just pulled out in front of; said custom does not give riders license to ride as though the world must yield to them.

Another bad habit is the slow speed at which many bikers here ride. It's kind of a subset of the first one I mentioned, but deserves its own section. Long gone are the days when the Hindustan Ambassador was the fastest thing on the road, and a cruising speed of 30kmh had you running with the rest of traffic. The vast majority of the cars on the road in India today are easily capable of outrunning and out-accelerating any Desi bike, even the Pulsar 220. Yet so many riders crowd up to the front of traffic queues as though they've been held up by the "slower" cars, which then creates a huge logjam and a cacophony of honking horns when all the actually-faster vehicles behind them try to thread through once everyone starts moving again. To further the problem, whenever there's any kind of hitch in traffic flow, such as a pothole or errant autorickshaw, a stream of bikers pours around both sides of all the cars, as if once again it's the cars' fault for the delay. This is horribly unsafe for everyone, and countless times, I've seen some biker with an overdeveloped sense of entitlement try to push past my temporarily-slowed car or bike, only to run out of room in the face of oncoming traffic, risking getting smeared between me and the bus/tractor/truck/car coming the other way like jam on bread. For heavens' sake, ride with the rest of traffic. If you're at least maintaining the speed that all the cars are, you could conceivably get away with cutting to the front of a traffic queue since you'll stay ahead of them, however, even that doesn't apply if you're riding your bike 20kmh slower than the cars around you. There's no excuse for swerving around much faster cars due to a road obstacle though, since there's a legitimate reason for traffic to slow temporarily and everyone's going to speed up again once past it. Stay in the traffic queue and wait your turn through the intersection or past the obstacle like everyone else.

One last one, and this may not apply in some of the more urban areas, is the constant flow of bikes I see (and some cars) going the wrong way on a divided road to get to some establishment or side road. You don't really save much time, and you cause a huge risk in traffic by going against the flow, even on the shoulder. It only takes a minute or two at most to find a u-turn spot past your destination and to come back to it going with traffic.

Now, I'm not going to just complain without offering solutions; that would be irresponsible and immature. As good riders, we have the obligation to set the example. Ride in your lane, and know where the lane markings are, even if they're not clearly marked on the road surface. Don't wander in the lane; a helpful trick is to look 300-500m down the road (or as far as feasible for hilly/curvy roads). This will keep you riding in a straighter line. If you must ride slower, stay to the left lane (or center lane for 3-lane roads). If you must ride *a lot* slower, keep to the shoulder (and get a scooter; riding that slow you don't need the extra power and cost of a bike). Always always always use your mirrors, and look over your shoulder as well, when you're pulling out into traffic or changing lanes, and wait for an opening in traffic before you start moving.

Something done in several other Asian countries to address the slower speed of two-wheel riders is to have a separate lane just for scooters and bikes. For the time being here in India, until more bikes can keep up with the cars, it might be a good project for xBHP to band together to petition the state governments to re-paint the roads so there are bike lanes here (and then beat everyone over the head with them until they use them).

Lastly, don't be lazy. Ride down past your destination and do a u-turn. It's not worth your life to save a couple ml of fuel and 10 seconds.

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Noor

Thread approved and moved

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NANOtechnology

@ mountain

You're right my friend, infact this was my first observation when i started riding initially, as i live in a metropolitan, here its believed that people tend to follow rules.
But i strongly agree than 90% of the car people DO STICK to their lanes, give signals before turning and allow almost anyone to pass if someone behind or ahead flashes (by anyone means even bikers), but there still are 10% of people who don't do the same.

Bikers are treated like $#!t because they cause stupid problems, its believed that they have lack or road sense, i would still say that its correct as most of the 'so called' bikers belong to 2 categories, either uncles with smaller capacity mileage oriented bikes which have never ever seen a speedo read over 40 kmph, and the other breed is of the posers, with pulsar's and FZ's trying to rip it the way Ghost-rider does.
Because of these guys, the remaining bikers have lost their respect, as none in this two know the proper way of either riding and also having a proper road sense.

But having said that, i strongly feel that the bikers who follow lanes, keep up with a standard lane speed (roughly 80~100 on the first lane), stick to the lane, no matter how hard the situation is or fast moving the traffic is, still give pass signals before overtaking, ofcource look at the mirrors before changing the lane, give hand signals to allow anyone faster to pass or overtake (even though on the same lane), and value others as well as ourselves are truly respected.

I do all of the above, mostly i am laughed at because i stop at a signal the way cars do, one behind the other, doing this i sometimes give up upto 2 running signals because of slowly moving traffic.
But even then i follow this simply because its safer, there's hardly anything that can go wrong if you follow this like religion.

There are many many high end cars which do give me way when i am trying to approach them at a speed faster then they are, these guys don't even over-react.
All of those who follow this and prefer this are the ones who have a lot of patience, and don't get affected with stupid maneuver's of insane traffic.
These guys have proper road sense.

Anyone who has this can judge who else has this too so this works mutually and it does do a great job.
Irrelevant of how fast or slow your riding.

Instead of trying to force the government to make road lanes for bikers, etc i guess most of us should ride properly accepting global standards.
As majority will turn into doing the same, the scenario will change from bad to decent if not good.
Now once the scenario changes it will be much much easier for everyone to accept and perform safe and proper driving/riding.
These uncles who ride at speeds >40 at highways will turn older and stop riding, we are only left with posers and ghost-riders, once the scenario changes everyone will fall in line as that would be the fastest and the safest way to ride.

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abhijitkn

Hi,
As they say "When In Rome Do As Romans Do"! So just relax & you will come out of this frustration. I got my first driving license in US so when I came back I started riding in Pune, I was in the same frustration. But things are very different in US & India, be it infrastructure, people, population & motorcycle/cars. So you can not complain. Here others are not too mindful while riding so at least you can. Stick to the basic rules while adopting yourself to the rules of the crowd & traffic .
Still riding alone I do stick to the rules only because I know for sure I'll be riding/driving abroad soon..

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Centaur

Interesting reading.
Very good and accurate take on the traffic conditions here by both, Mountain and Nano.

PS: Not all uncles ride @ <40

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The Mountain

Of course things like the road conditions and culture are different. I understand that. My issue is that there's really no excuse for the poor vehicle operation. 50 years ago, the US road infrastructure was as primitive as it is here in India now, and yet traffic there was never as chaotic as it is here. If everyone took the same attitude you have, nothing would ever get better. My rant up there was a call to stop just doing what everyone else is doing, just because everyone else is doing it. This same kind of attitude is the reason there are piles of trash along the roads and in vacant lots everywhere. Everyone sees everyone else doing it, so they all assume it's ok to do. Just imagine how much more pleasant the roads would be if everyone stayed in their lane, drove at or near the speed limit, and otherwise observed traffic regulations.

Right now, the max speed limit on most roads here is a paltry 50km/h. Even on the National Highways. It takes a couple of hours for me to get from Bhubaneswar to Paradip. This is a combination of the limits being set based on older cars with non-power drum brakes (50km is allegedly as fast as you can go and still have a safe stopping distance; though modern cars with power disc brakes can stop safely at much higher speeds) and the fact that road conditions are so chaotic that its not really safe to go faster, because some people insist on riding scooters and small bikes at 30km on these highways. However, I've driven roads in the US which are the equivalent of the NH system here, and the limits on those roads in the US is sometimes as high as 120km/h, and a lot of them are 100km/h. Imagine if the limit on the NH could be raised even to 80km/h or 100km/h. Imagine if the major roads in your city rolled along at 60km/h, instead of a sluggish 40. That's possible, but only once people start understanding how to behave on the road.

It's too much to ask everything to change overnight, but there are 30,000 riders on this site. That's enough people to start making a difference. Even when you're not on your bike, drive correctly; if riding in someone else's car, encourage them in proper driving habits. Don't just go along with everyone else, or we'll never get the kind of traffic you see in places like Japan, Singapore, Europe, or the US.

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ATGATT: All The Gear, All The Time!

Your helmet should be on your head, not your mirror!

Put the phone away and ride!

cmahajan

@ Mountain :

While most of your observations are correct and most of your complains are reasonable, you need to understand that the major problem in India is the huge population. The population and the number of people at any given time in a metro city like Mumbai/Delhi/Chennai/Bangalore is insanely more than it is in any average US city. I know there are some places in the US where there is huge population and traffic on the roads, but that's the case with most cities in India.

As long as there are as many people on the roads in India as there are, people will behave erratically. I don't blame them completely. The problem is magnified by the lack of good infrastructure and roads.

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The Mountain

Gonna have to disagree with your premise. While it's true that most US cities aren't as densely populated as India, the same can't be said for China or Japan, both of which have much better traffic. Europe, while not as populated from a numbers perspective, still has some very old, small cities with narrow winding streets, creating the same traffic density. There's even a city in the US, Boston, which has small, narrow roads creating the same level of traffic congestion. Yet in all these places, everyone manages to follow the "rules of the road". Indeed, I would postulate that as population/traffic density goes up, the need for the roads to be organized, and the drivers disciplined, goes up, not down. It's not a given that more people has to result in chaos. Just look at New York. Yes, the roads are all straight lines, but the volume of traffic there is staggering during the day, and yet everyone manages to follow the rules.

The roads here in Bhubaneswar are actually pretty well laid-out, with the exception of proper turn lanes and u-turn facilities. And yet, even on roads with three lanes in each direction, because of a combination of slow bikers and autorickshaws riding randomly in the left two lanes, faster bikers wandering around between the center and right lanes, and cars riding the lane markings on the left side of the rightmost lane (not to mention farm tractors, buffaloes, and idiots going the wrong way against traffic), the roads here are carrying less than 50% of what they could be. There are often huge holes in the traffic pattern because someone is blocking what should be the normal flow of traffic.

As a visual exercise, try this: get out a sheet of paper, and a bunch of those small boxes of matches. Arrange them randomly on the paper, and see how many you can get on there, and then try it again lining the boxes up in "lanes" and rows like cars on the road. I'll bet you can fit a lot more if they're lined up in "lanes".

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ATGATT: All The Gear, All The Time!

Your helmet should be on your head, not your mirror!

Put the phone away and ride!

plasmabhai

@Mountain
Great post and something which I totally relate to.

@EveryoneElse

Here are some of my own inputs:

Different cities have different traffic cultures. This I know because I have driven both big cars (SX4) and bikes extensively in Mumbai, Pune, Ahemdabad and Bangalore. Mumbai has the most disciplined drivers in my experience with not only the cars but also the bikes running at high speeds in perfect unison and harmony (read 80kmph in rush hour traffic - location: eastern express, western express & the sion panvel highways - on good days and not in monsoons). As opposed to this traffic in Pune and Bangalore pretty much sucks big time. A'bad is pure unadulterated hell though things have improved a l'il bit. For example the two years I rode in Pune I never bought a helmet at all! here in B'lore i dont have a valid PUC for the last 1 year. In A'bad there was not one rule i followed. Still in bombay I drive and ride toeing every line. And I enjoy it!

I myself own a Dazzler and at heart i am a biker. So it pisses me off when driving a car i see other bikers do stupid things on the road. But then I realized that as a biker I do these stupid things too. All the time.

I have now realized that how we ride is not dependant things like road, infrastructure, conditions, rules etc. It is just dependent on how everyone else rides. So to change things for good we ourselves will have to start riding that much more responsibly. Its like this, no matter how much support u give Anna, if at the next signal u pay up 100 bucks since even though it was your fault but u are getting late for a meeting, then no lokpal is going erase corruption. Its the same thing. If we keep blaming and giving stupid excuses and continue riding irresponsibly then nothings gonna change ever, even if other factors like infrastructure and roads and blah blah improve.

P.s. : Frustration of car owners is perfectly understandable because (& though this makes me cry) in relative terms cars in India are way more developed technologically than bikes. But thats a topic for another post!

raghu_scsa316

Law enforcement is a joke in this country. The pays suck, so cops are either fat 45 year olds or skinny 20 year olds either of who are in it due to the lack of options and 'extortion' privileges. Its highly unlikely that things will change even the slightest over the next couple of decades.