Monday, April 23, 2007

Horn Not OK please

A hard-to-disagree-with article on helmets in Bangalore.

How true it is. There isn't a single day when I'm out of the house and I don't see these 'hand-helmetters' in Bangalore. It could be that they value the safety of their hands more than their heads. Well, one man's meat ... Yesterday I even saw a rider implement a particularly efficient system where his pillion slid the helmet onto his head as they approached the traffic policeman. And dutifully removed it as they drove well past him.

Other in-traffic irritants :

- 2 wheelers which are 2 seaters having 3 seated on them.. (or maybe even 4, and well, 5 isn't impossible.)
- People on 2 wheelers driving parallelly and having a merry conversation.
- People honking way more than is necessary. At every traffic signal in Bangalore you will see the following scene. 5 seconds before the signal turns green, there are these People in a Perpetual Hurry (lets call them PiPHs) who start honking as part of their duty to remind the front row junta to get going. Maybe they think the front-benchers can't see. If only someone told them they can. If only. Then there are the PiPHs who will keep honking for you to give way, only you're in a narrow lane and can't possibly budge enough to give them that coveted space of theirs with which they can overtake and move ahead. If only you could.

Any more on your list? I'd love to hear about more traffic irritants. Let us vent together. :)

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

In the south of France they also have that protect the elbow and do not mess up the hair style attitude. And when I was in Korea, I saw more than once a bike driver on the phone and watching a little portable TV precariously attached to the handlebar!
If you come to the USA, honking is frowned upon... Actually, it will get you killed in some big cities.
Different places have different styles.
After spending a few weeks in Bangaloru I'm actually amazed you guys don't die more often. While in Nice,France every couple of years we would mourn the loss a classmate biker.
--

Rach said...

omg! really? Well, Bangalore isn't that accident free, accidents happen all the time. I guess what keeps the count lower than what the erratic driving suggests, is that traffic, for the most part is not smooth, and jams keep the speeds down... :)

neutron said...

The other irritating thing is that the vehicles start moving 10 seconds before the signal turns green. and no one cares when the signal is green for pedestrains to cross.

Rach said...

True. But even pedestrians have a care-a-damn attitude these days. Many people just cross the road regardless of the state of the signal, or the speed of the vehicle approaching them.

The Mad Hatter said...

My pet peeve these days: cars & bikes who cut across traffic at the foot of Martahalli bridge to cut into traffic going in the other direction, causing traffic jams on the bridge. Isn't it worth driving 5 more minutes to take a legal u-turn and not make an already bad situation worse? Maybe we do deserve the civic administration (or lack thereof) that we have.

lite said...

I have one- Two wheelers riding on the already worn out pavements so that they can cross all the vehicles (mainly four-wheelers) that are dutifully waiting for the signal timing to read 5 seconds to green. And, not surprisingly, the pedestrians end up walking on the main road.