Road Rage. Review on Delhi Police

We have all heard a lot about road rage on Indian roads. We too often see people fighting on the road, and some turn very ugly and people get shot dead. Now what are the reasons for road rage?

Of course, the obvious cause is irrational driving by someone. But what leads to this behaviour, and why do we see more road-rage in India than other countries?

The reason for this behaviour is absence of any control by the traffic police on Indian roads. You rarely see the police at most of the roads, and they rarely try stopping wrong behaviours. In fact they encourage wrong behaviour so that they can earn money out of you. Few years back, I was at Delhi Airport and could not see any one-way sign. I needed to go back on that road, but saw no car going that way. I saw a traffic police few meters behind, and went to him to ask if this is one way and can I go back. He then showed me a defaced sign board hidden behind a tree, and asked me money, as I had moved few meters on wrong side. Traffic police in India is not to teach people to drive the right way, but to get money out of them.

Anyway, following are some of the behaviours common on Indian roads, but are wrong driving skill:

Not driving in their lane is the most common behaviour in Indian roads. People are seen driving at the left most lane, and turn right in front of traffic to their right. People also use the right most lanes at the traffic even if they need to go straight, blocking all the cars behind them who want to go right. Also, people needing to go right use most of the road till left corner, not giving any space for traffic going straight. These behaviours are never punished in India, but create so much frustration in drivers.

Overtaking from left is so common that people coming from US feel India follow the same traffic rules as in US. The driver may not see a car overtaking from left, and may turn towards left, resulting in accidents. People overtaking from left don’t even feel they have done any mistake.

Not giving priority to traffic on right is another mistake done in India, and most drivers don’t even know about this rule. If at a junction, a car is coming from right, it has to be given the right of way. But in India, everyone tries to get in front, and whoever rushes first, wins. This is frustrating most of the times.

Jumping red signal and not being punished is so common that people standing at the signals look like fools. Those who break the rule reach faster and ‘win’.

Driving slowly on the right most fast lane is a norm that exception. Most slow drivers choose the right most fast lane for a relaxed slow driving, without any disturbance from the pedestrian or the two wheeler traffic on left. They don’t even bother to move to left to let the traffic overtake them, even after honking from behind. This frustrates the traffic coming from behind, and are forced to overtake from the left.

Using wrong side of the road is common in commercial areas. We see trucks driving on the wrong side to reach the shops. On highways, tractors are often seen driving on the wrong side, even without lights at nights. People use wrong side to avoid longer drive for a U-turn. This creates problems for the people on the correct side.

Wrong parking on the road sides blocks most of the roads, leaving little space for vehicles to move. This result is jams, or people move ahead scratching the other cars, giving a definite reason to fight.

Speed driving is fun. And people try to show their superiority by overtaking others. If both the drivers are of same kind, there is hell on the road. Not using signals while turning or changing lanes is again very common. And people keep swearing at each other after near misses due to this.

Not using side rear-view mirrors is also quite common. People then just change lanes towards left or right, disregarding the traffic coming from behind. This is dangerous, and often results in accidents or near misses. Using high-beam is the crime very common, and people don’t even know they are doing anything wrong. It is even worse on the single lane roads, and the person on receiving end can’t see where he is going, resulting is some kind of problem on road.

Lack of courtesy is another problem. People do not accept their mistake, and fight at top of their voice to prove themselves right. These fights do become ugly. There are many other issues we see on our roads, like driving very close to the other car, honking un-necessarily, etc. You may also have seen many other incidences of abusive road behaviour.