Road Rules And Common Courtesies.

[Supra_Natural]

Awesome topic VVTi, im ashamed to admit that I've fallen into some of the bad habits mentioned here myself especially when in a rush!

quite an eye opener!

[Sifaan]

The thing is all of these is included in the Tarffic rules book. Theoretically all of us have to be fully conversant with the traffic code.

yeah, but knowing and doing (or not doing) can be worlds apart. e.g. almost any smoker knows it's bad for him, but still continues.

so either it needs to be enforced by rules (more cops, more fines) and/or there needs to be some kind of massive awareness campaign. or something on the lines of www.thefuntheory.com (see especially the speeding lottery )

[jdnet]

yeah, but knowing and doing (or not doing) can be worlds apart. e.g. almost any smoker knows it's bad for him, but still continues.

so either it needs to be enforced by rules (more cops, more fines) and/or there needs to be some kind of massive awareness campaign. or something on the lines of www.thefuntheory.com (see especially the speeding lottery )

more cops = more bribes to be paid

[VVTi]

Great topic VVti!

My road rage is at an all time high these days,and I'm amazed to see people with 4/5 million allions,axio's etc. driving like three wheeler buggers.

I was just thinking, we are just about to pass the tipping point... There will be MORE Allions/Axios than 3 wheelers.... every monkey and his uncle wants one of those cars these days it seems...

Yeah, X-Mas is Road Rage time!

[kumudug]

Sometimes its a 1000 times better to give way to an idiot rather than getting aggravated. I now just smile and let any idiot who wants to overtake, go. Also, started to give way to people waiting to cross the road, turn and all kinds of other things. Noticed that there is no nett delay in my ETA and that I am more cheerful rather than if I played 'El Bastard'...

Perhaps if we all do that, there might be an overall drop in road rage?

Soooo true but sometimes some idiots pull extraordinary stunts making me loose my cool. Ruins the whole day.

[MkX]

Soooo true but sometimes some idiots pull extraordinary stunts making me loose my cool. Ruins the whole day.

Don't let other idiots to ruin your day. End of the day its about you.. not them

Edited December 23, 2010 by MkX

[harshansenadhir]

superb Thread here VVTI. However, I try to behave as you said, like, ignoring idiots. But my thresholds values in patience are really really narrow, so it aint hard for an idiot to wake up the monkey/idiot inside me and there you go all discipline and road rules goes for a six. Taking lots of efforts these days to correct it as it won't make much of a difference, say 10 mins maximum, saves fuel, saves lives, saves all spare parts of the vehicle.

how about switching on the right signal light when encountering an oncoming vehicle, specially in out of Colombo roads and switching on the right signal to indicate the driver in behind not to overtake. Are they accepted signals ?

[MkX]

how about switching on the right signal light when encountering an oncoming vehicle, specially in out of Colombo roads and switching on the right signal to indicate the driver in behind not to overtake. Are they accepted signals?

Still not needed in my opinion. What will the message vehicle behind you get. That you are going to turn right, isn't it?

The driver behind deside to overtake you even in on coming traffic best is to slow down and let him have enough space to get back to the lane. Alternatively if you are really P***sed off allow him to come to the right side lane and then accelerate. But if we do so we all will fall in to the morons category we mentioned here

[heavyD]

how about switching on the right signal light when encountering an oncoming vehicle, specially in out of Colombo roads and switching on the right signal to indicate the driver in behind not to overtake. Are they accepted signals?

Still not needed in my opinion. What will the message vehicle behind you get. That you are going to turn right, isn't it?

The driver behind deside to overtake you even in on coming traffic best is to slow down and let him have enough space to get back to the lane. Alternatively if you are really P***sed off allow him to come to the right side lane and then accelerate. But if we do so we all will fall in to the morons category we mentioned here

But it does help when you're following a vehicle on a narrow winding road with very little visibility, for example. The driver ahead can warn you of oncoming vehicles if he sees you trying to overtake. Or vice versa. Slowing down and letting you pass might prove disastrous.

[Sifaan]

But it does help when you're following a vehicle on a narrow winding road with very little visibility, for example. The driver ahead can warn you of oncoming vehicles if he sees you trying to overtake. Or vice versa. Slowing down and letting you pass might prove disastrous.

hmmm... but if you can't see for yourself that the road ahead is clear, you shouldn't be trying to overtake at all?

and if the guy ahead is going to be so considerate, I guess he would anyway move to the left when there's an opportunity to overtake

[E L N I N O]

how about switching on the right signal light when encountering an oncoming vehicle, specially in out of Colombo roads and switching on the right signal to indicate the driver in behind not to overtake. Are they accepted signals ?

as far as i know, switching the right signal for the incoming traffic at night is to indicate the right most edge of your vehicle to aid making a safe pass. i dont think its needed unless u have your heads in order (or else u have weirdly popped out side mirrors since now we have winkers).

but i think switching the right signal to indicate not to overtake is somewhat a good practice. as of what i have experienced, mostly ppl who drive long vehicles or either ppl who have a long driving history tend to do that. it normally followed by a left signal to indicate now its safe to overtake. but i hardly practice this. i feel overtaking or not overtaking is their call, not mine.

but i do practice switching on turn signals when i stop at a pedestrian crossing. depending on the side pedestrians are going you can indicate the vehicles in behind not to overtake mine from that side. you dont want to witness a pedestrian being run down by the vehicle coming behind just because you wanted to show some empathy

[seeker]

Correct. Not many people respect the STOP sign. STOP, means Stop. Not slow down or crawl....

STOP.LOOK.DRIVE.

Good thread mate. One more point...

Pls stick to the lanes. the dotted lines are to divide the lanes, not for you to crawl on top at 10km/h, blocking the entire road.. if you want to change lanes, put the appropriate signal and do so. If you want to drive slow, stick to the leftmost lane on the road.

[heavyD]

hmmm... but if you can't see for yourself that the road ahead is clear, you shouldn't be trying to overtake at all?

and if the guy ahead is going to be so considerate, I guess he would anyway move to the left when there's an opportunity to overtake

I guess so... I was recalling an incident that happened some years ago. Was going somewhere on a long winding road and the guy in front kept warning us of oncoming trucks and other vehicles. There was no real stretch to overtake so that kept my over-enthusiastic friend (who was driving) in rein...

[LashNeo]

Hats off for the post VVTi.

adding to the list..

* Don't reverse in to a main roads from a by-lane. and if you see an idiot reversing to a main road ahead of you obstructing your lane, please be patient and wait until he finishes without switching to the other lane making a huge traffic jam behind you.

* Don't park in main roads near the entry point of a by-lane unless you wan't the drivers entering from the by-lane to thank your ancestors for obstructing their view. Usually these areas are marked in Yellow prompting that parking is not allowed. But even if it's not, it's not ethical to park like this.

* Do not overtake on fly-overs !!

[CK2]

:action-smiley-033:

two thumbs up for the post..

this thread should read all 3 wheel drivers, Indian bikers, Buddy van drivers, marutis and definitely AXIO & Belta drivers,

but unfortunately they wont..

[aamarakoon]

Sometimes its a 1000 times better to give way to an idiot rather than getting aggravated. I now just smile and let any idiot who wants to overtake, go. Also, started to give way to people waiting to cross the road, turn and all kinds of other things. Noticed that there is no nett delay in my ETA and that I am more cheerful rather than if I played 'El Bastard'...

Perhaps if we all do that, there might be an overall drop in road rage?

Agree 100%

[SeanD]

If you're driving a threewheeler/moped/non-sports bike, please don't drive at 10kmph in the middle of two lanes, on the lane marker, or on the overtaking lane, especially when there are no vehicles in front of you. Driving a motorbike or threewheeler on the right hand lane on roads such as greenpath without a right turn in sight serves absolutely NO purpose other than to slow down everyone behind you.

To add to the above two posts, the solid white line before the traffic light is for you to STOP before, not to cross and park on top of the pedestrian crossing in front during a red light!

[vishkid]

Wonderful to read all the comments and hats of to VVTI!

God knows, we need better disciplined and mannered drivers - not better drivers, necessarily - but more courteous and pleasent divers.

It's hard to keep your head ( ..or cool), when all about you are losing theirs!

But we gotta try!

[SeanD]

Tried to follow these rules this afternoon turning on to galle road from duplication (colpetty). Frikkin road crew have dug up half of both sides of galle road near juliana in the middle of the day with absolutely no alternative route or traffic control...nobody really wanted to give way to anybody else, whether they signalled or not. Needed a few well placed maneuvers and one-finger salutes to get past colpetty junction. Worst thing is with the opening of marine drive up to station road, people just toss their cars onto galle road without even looking. I don't think it's autolanka users who need to read this thread- it's every other moron out there!

[bogzy]

My first post

A very informative thread , thanks VVTi + all others for the info!

I also like to bring up a point,

when ur in a traffic jam, moving ever so slightly froward , and you stop behind the vehicle in front and a bike comes from the wrong side and tries to cut across to the other lane in front of you and suddenly realizes that there is not enough space for him to go through then comes to a frighteningly jerky stop ! Then Almost all of them stare at you like nothing... as if to say "WTF you moron... you blocked my path *&^%$#@... "

It's pretty hard to keep your calm in a situation like this isn't it ? I normally inch forward just enough to aggravate the bugger a bit more, just for my self satisfaction !!!

[xax]

as far as i know, switching the right signal for the incoming traffic at night is to indicate the right most edge of your vehicle to aid making a safe pass. i dont think its needed unless u have your heads in order (or else u have weirdly popped out side mirrors since now we have winkers).

but i think switching the right signal to indicate not to overtake is somewhat a good practice. as of what i have experienced, mostly ppl who drive long vehicles or either ppl who have a long driving history tend to do that. it normally followed by a left signal to indicate now its safe to overtake. but i hardly practice this. i feel overtaking or not overtaking is their call, not mine.

but i do practice switching on turn signals when i stop at a pedestrian crossing. depending on the side pedestrians are going you can indicate the vehicles in behind not to overtake mine from that side. you dont want to witness a pedestrian being run down by the vehicle coming behind just because you wanted to show some empathy

Today I saved an ignorant driver and occupents of a three wheeler by indicating left signal to a Civic trying to overtake me from my left hand side. Three wheeler was coming ahead of me trying to turn to his right crossing the road ahead of me. Civic from my behind had no clue of the three wheeler, neither did the three wheeler guy of the civic. Having seen my left signal blinking, civic realised he should slow down which eventully saved the three wheeler.

Not sure if indication of this nature complies with the code but it surely saved some lives in this case.

[xax]

News just in....

Seat belts made compulsory for english numbered vehicles.

[SeanD]

Well they made it compulsory a couple of years back too, until people found excuses that made them halt it. I'm sure some folks will try and find excuses this time as well. It's amazing how some people blame everything on the "system," when it's the people themselves that often are at fault for the problems. Hopefully this time the rule is here to stay.

[jdnet]

Well they made it compulsory a couple of years back too, until people found excuses that made them halt it. I'm sure some folks will try and find excuses this time as well. It's amazing how some people blame everything on the "system," when it's the people themselves that often are at fault for the problems. Hopefully this time the rule is here to stay.

Well I highly doubt this seatbelt law is to save our lives. The Sri Lankan government does not give two s***s about people dying. It just seems like a prefect oppurtunity to make some money out of fining people in order to raise money to balance the budget.

Not saying you should avoid wearing seat belts....Wearing a seat belt did save my life this year when I rolled my car over multiple times, but, what I'm trying to get at is if they really cared about people they would just start an awareness campaign before putting the law into effect. This way people would understand why they need to wear seat belts.

On another note, If these cops are going to stick around the colombo rush hour traffic and ticket people not wearing seatbelts, as I envision would be the case, it's going to be rather stupid.

I do most of my driving in the traffic and I don't really wear my belts. Now when travelling out station of a higher rate of speed I always wear my belts. Eitherway I see this as a thing that is much less about safety than it is about filling the government coffers.

[VVTi]

Well I highly doubt this seatbelt law is to save our lives. The Sri Lankan government does not give two s***s about people dying. It just seems like a prefect oppurtunity to make some money out of fining people in order to raise money to balance the budget.

GOSL or not, I am pleased that this law is being implemented.... at least the government is forced to save lives...

The decision to safeguard your own life should be yours and yours alone. GOSL has vested interests due to the cost of medical care in case of idiots injuring themselves due to not wearing seat belts. If you don't want to protect it, then by all means don't use the seat belts... But then, don't blame the GOSL for enforcing a law...

Edited December 24, 2010 by VVTi