Just yesterday, while driving my way from the office, I heard this issue being discussed over on a Radio Channel. While most of the callers were criticizing the authorities and their hap-hazardous ways, very few dared to agree that the bigger fault lies within us.

Most of us, if not all, have the tendency of speeding up at the drop of the hat. We just don't care about anything, including our own self, which results in sad incidents, accidents and all. Definitely, am not trying to shield the authorities for being so lame in putting up adequate road signs, but on the same hand, I would still say, my safety is my own priority and not the responsibility of some other person.

My very dear Old Fox gave us a wonderful write up on the tramlining, how to avoid it and all. And believe me, I would reiterate that always try to perform 70-75% of your potential while on road, so that should the need arise; you can use the reserve 30% of the available resource to get out of the situation. Anytime when you are using close to 100% of the available resource, you tend to fall apart the moment an extra burst of resource is required.

It still is sad that the authorities are not cautious enough to GUIDE us to KEEP ourselves SAFE. They have to put up Speed Breakers to tell us to slow down, else we will be hurt. What an Irony? I want someone else to protect me, as if my safety is the last priority for myself. On the same note, do we ask the Authorities to wipe clean our bikes, to fill petrol in the tanks??? This is our steed and we need to take care of it, so is our lives too. Think about it.


All cheers

dcs


P.S: No, am not related to anyone in MCD or DMRC.

I had my first ever fall from my Fazer an hour ago... and it was due to tramlining. Feels ironic as I was reading this topic just yesterday.

I was coming back to Bandra from Ghatkopar via LBS Marg (Which as per an RTI in my possession is a place where a large number of fatal accidents occur due to BEST buses). Since it was midnight there was no one on the road other than a BEST bus.

I had just overtaken the bus and was taking a right turn towards Kalanagar at Sion when I just suddenly skid and slid. I had no idea WTF had hit me. I was on the deck and I saw the bus cruise past my far side. Luckily the bus was to my left. When I overtook him he was at around 50-60 km/h. If that bus was behind me I would not be here right now. I had myself slowed to take the turn which is why I avoided serious injury. Some people passing by helped me up. I took a good 5 minutes to assess everything.

Damages:

Bottom of Muffler scratched (which is fine)
Crash Guard scratched (also fine)
Some scratches on the helmet, nothing serious enough to warrant a new one.
Twisted right ankle (it does not appear too bad, but I'll only know tomorrow morning)
Bruised shoulder.

Afterwards I checked what had happened. Since it was dark I had not noticed a patch of the road near the divider was a good 1/2 - 1 inch higher than the surrounding tarmac, causing the Fazer's large rear tyre to tramline while I -- the rider -- was telling the bike to pull right.

I really feel lucky today... any number of things could've gone really wrong for me just now. I thought I should share this with everyone... FFS beware the height difference between road surfaces!

^^Fazer's rear tyre also unable to help
Seems, best is to keep an eye on the road , thats all we can do.

Quoting the relevant section from the writeup:

In such a scenario I would argue FZ series are the most vulnerable bikes to this phenomenon

Means we are not safe in any case.
It all depends on us how we judge the situation and overcome it without any mis-haps

Well this is certainly a issue that is everywhere. Since tramlining isnt considered as serious as hitting a pothole at 60-80 kmph most people will not take notice of the effect to consider it seriously. Even the NH4 toll road here has some very shoddy large patchwork where tramlining is easily possible. Just a good thing that those patches are visible in the day, however in the night its just your experience / familiarity which will keep you alert.

Wouldn't tramlining be worse in case of rains ?

Mumbaikars can best experience tramlining experience while coming from bandra to airport ........ The nice curve right after u get down the fly over . Saw many ppl loosing out to tramlining and crashing on the speedy bend .. courtsey ... the difference in level of tar right in the middle of road ...

Many times i ask myself:
1.Do these road construction contractors follow some kind of building standards ? Does our govt have some standards mentioned for laying roads? i see roads laid out differently in every locality ...

2. Is'nt it the responsibilty of RTO to check the roads ? Cant they check the drivability of the road or do they keep waiting for some mishap to happen ?
3. Where is the amount spent that is collected from traffic violators ? I thought it is spent for doing something good for roads ...