Driving in the fast lane

Picture courtesy: Wikipedia

Driving habits of Indians don’t wean out easily, even on a state of art Mumbai-Pune six lane expressway. This state of art highway was built to showcase driving skills of Indians and not to lessen time of travel. After driving on this expressway for six times, my observations about Indian drivers keep on increasing like a series of numbers in Geometric progression.

1. No one follows the 80 Km/hr. limit displayed at regular intervals. I followed it as my dad sat beside me on all the six occasions. :P

2. The first lane is dedicated to cars and SUV’s who want to cruise at an excess of 120 km/hr. Even state transport buses cruise in first lane at a very high speed. Government was mooting of installing speed limit breakers on the buses but it is still not implemented putting the lives of passengers at risk. If you move to first lane at a speed of 80 Km/hr. you will be honked to death.

3. If you are plying at a speed of 80 Km/hr. on the second lane, cars and SUV’s will overtake you from first and third lane, from both sides scaring the shit out of you.

4. Lane cutting: This is the favourite pastime of Indian divers. This quality is possessed by instinct and young people like me learn it and try to implement it if they are in a hurry to reach the destination.

5. Queue: The toll centre on expressway has around 10 booths collecting a hefty toll. Cars in the first lane make it a point to cut the lane and go to the toll booth which has minimum queue. A car in first lane, at very high speed has the will to go to the extreme left toll booth to avoid queue. Law of queues: ‘If you are standing in a queue , the other queue always moves faster than the one in which you are standing’ . Indians lack patience. They try to leave their own queue and try to penetrate the other queue prompting heavy honking and abuses by the other driver.

6. Ghat section: Truck drivers make a mess here. When the old highway joins the new one after crossing half the ghat, the problems start compounding. Heavy trucks move at a speed of 10 Km/hr. and when illiterate Indian truck drivers move their truck in the first lane trying to overtake other truck, it creates a trail of cars behind truck. While climbing uphill, there is an S shaped curve under a bridge which comes after climbing 3/4^th of the ghat. Before the S shaped curve, you will always see a car or truck in broken (failed) state. This stops the traffic completely in one lane and a bottle neck gets formed. You will always find a towing vehicle and a mechanic before the S shapes begins. The mechanic is always waiting for a truck or car to fail and on all three times while climbing uphill; I have seen a mechanic repairing a car with harried passengers standing by the car. The mechanic might me making good money daily. This fact of many cars getting stalled before the S curve was verified by my relatives, who also have observed the same phenomenon. My relative explained me that cars having poor maintenance have their clutch get jammed while climbing uphill and continuous pressing them going uphill aggravates the problem and hence the car gets stalled mid-way.

7. Cars coming at high price have a roof top mounted on the top. I have seen people coming out of the roof top to enjoy quick breeze. Newly married couples take advantage of this roof top to enjoy cool breeze and distracting drivers like me.

8. If you are driving at a high speed, it requires immense concentration. The expressway is banked for cars plying only at 80 km/hr. Try to increase your speed on a curve and experience the force that pulls your car. This increases the risk of accident with a car coming in other lane.

9. While driving downhill, don’t increase your speed beyond 50 km/hr. Gravity takes care even if you are not accelerating and a few 100 meters of path covered can increase your speed by 20 km/hr. The dividers are risky at some places and it requires hard barking if you over speed. A high speeding car can swirl from first lane to third lane while coming downhill! Be careful to look on both the sides of the lane while coming down. Newbies find downhill tough than uphill as the speed increases without even pressing accelerator. This scares the shit out of anyone who is driving the vehicle. I too have experienced it first time when I was coming downhill.

Be ready for sudden change in climate while going downhill or uphill. Khopoli area is heavily polluted at night. And lastly always engage in safe driving. The older driving license had a message on the back, ‘Driving is privilege given by Government and not a right’.