Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Smile and Drive

The expression on the faces of most drivers in India, well atleast in Bangalore is either a scowl or a grimace. We hardly find any drivers who smile. The reason for all this being the utter chaos on the roads with people jumping signals, lanes, honking incessantly and we all end up blaming our city and other road users for it.

What are some of the things that we can do to ensure calm on the roads and see to it that we are smiling drivers? Inter alia,One, follow traffic rules to the T, two, be caring towards our fellow drivers, three, dont jump lanes, four, dont honk unless necessary, fifthly, of all pedestrian pavement not to be used by two wheelers.

Check the "Smiling Drivers" who strive to make the roads a pleasant place to be on, to make the drivers smile as they drive and it is all about making Namma Bengaluru a better place to be in.

Visit their site and learn as to how this movement can be strengthened

3 comments:

Jo said...

I think it is mostly because people are in a hurry and are under pressures and thoughts all the time. Maybe they should take time to relax and enjoy the riding leaving the thoughts and pressures behind. (oh yeah, then will come the roads and traffic!! :-))

Unknown said...

I have been hearing a lot about the chaotic driving conditions in India. Smiling drivers seem to be a good move in the right direction.

Anonymous said...

Training rather than criticism will help improve road safety.

This site http://driving-india.blogspot.com/ has been created with the purpose of providing driver education and training to all Indian road users. It is by far the most comprehensive website providing training in defensive driving. Learning simple road habits can make our roads safe and also free up congestion caused by traffic chaos.

At present 17 driver education videos aimed at changing the driving culture on Indian roads are available. The video are unique in that the footage is real life action from streets of London. We have copied the Western habits: Replaced the dhoti with denim, high rise buildings for Indian cottages, burgers and coke instead of Indian breads and perhaps sugarcane juice. Surely we can copy the Western ways of travelling too.

To watch the videos, interested readers may visit: http://driving-india.blogspot.com/

The videos cover the following topics:

Video 1: Covers the concept of Blind spots
Video 2: Introduces the principle of Mirrors, Signal and Manoeuvre
Video 3: At red lights, stop behind the stop line
Video 4: At red lights there are no free left turns
Video 5: The Zebra belongs to pedestrians
Video 6: Tyres and Tarmac (rather than bumper to bumper)
Video 7: Merging with the Main road
Video 8: Leaving The Main Road
Video 9: Never Cut Corners
Video 10: Show Courtesy on roads
Video 11: 5 Rules that help deal with Roundabouts
Video 12: Speed limits, stopping distances, tailgating & 2 seconds rule
Video 13: Lane discipline and overtaking
Video 14: Low beam or high beam?
Video 15: Parallel (reverse parking) made easy
Video 16: Give the cyclist the respect of a car
Video 17: Dealing with in-car condensation