Are High End Buses Hazardous To Our Safety on Roads?


Are the high end buses dangerous?


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I didn't get your point. Highways are not definitely meant for cattles, and tractors driving in opposite direction. And no Jack and Jill should use highways to dry their crops or take a walk or jog. Highways are connecting two cities for quicker journey. Why do people wants to walk or stroll on highways?
Rekharam,

You are confused because you are normally driving in Bangalore and the comparatively risk free Bangalore - Chennai highway. Also you are in US many times where good road manners and discipline are routine and not a rare scene like what we practice here.

You will understand my point after a drive between Belgaum and Tumkur in NH48 (old NH4).


About two wheelers, drive safely on the left hand side of the road. I know all morons share the same lane with motor bikes wich we should not. But I dislike (Note: I didn't say hate) bikers blocking the right most lane on highways. Other than couple of bikes in India the average speed of bikes are not more than 60 (safe speed). Then why do they want to go in the middle of highway?
Its out of ignorance, arrogance and attitude


I have seen (to my knowledge) this bus drivers driving the buses to their limits. But we can't save people who wants to cross the road without watching either side of the road and fall on the bus. In that case, even there are accidents with cars, bikes and what not.

There is nothing to blame about highend buses. It is the way how you operate and the environment are responsible for the accidents.
Rightly said.

But those big heavy buses are developing huge momentum and are much more dangerous than small vehicles.

That is why speed limit for high end buses is a must.

Limit speed to 90 or 100 kmph which is apt for our highways.
 
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Gotcha. Safe speed on our roads are anything between 90 - 100. Wish this buses maintain that speed for the safety of passengers as well as others on road.
 
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Bullying on roads by buses!

I was in rikshaw today when coming back home and a DTC(DL 1 B C 1431) bus was about to crash into the rikshaw on a turn. It happened like this:

The rikshaw was supposed to take a right turn from gap-in-median. As there was no one behind rikshaw, he went into right lane earlier. There was a stopped school bus in left most lane. As rikshaw was about to reach the turn, I heard really loud acceleration of the bus, and turning my head shocked me, the bus was trying to overtake both rikshaw and school bus, leaving hardly an inch between both. This could have been justified if bus made an emergency turn or didn't have enough time to brake, but no, all road in front and back was empty.

I'm not sure if I'm clear, so made this image to show what I mean:
untitled.GIF
Yellow is stopped school bus, red is the rikshaw and green the low-floor bus.

I feel that bus drivers ignore presence of others on road, and can scare most people away with just a foot on accelerator. My mom stops the car or changes the lane if she sees a bus in RVM, she knows bus drivers can do anything to overtake a lady(Bus drivers' inferiority complex maybe?).

I'm sure there are many other ways these idiots 'bully' other drivers on road, please share them.
 
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Re: Bullying on roads by buses!

I was in rikshaw today when coming back home and a DTC(DL 1 B C 1431) bus was about to crash into the rikshaw on a turn. It happened like this:

The rikshaw was supposed to take a right turn from gap-in-median. As there was no one behind rikshaw, he went into right lane earlier. There was a stopped school bus in left most lane. As rikshaw was about to reach the turn, I heard really loud acceleration of the bus, and turning my head shocked me, the bus was trying to overtake both rikshaw and school bus, leaving hardly an inch between both. This could have been justified if bus made an emergency turn or didn't have enough time to brake, but no, all road in front and back was empty.

I'm not sure if I'm clear, so made this image to show what I mean:
View attachment 64984
Blue was my car, Orange was the Victim and the red-blue thing is the interceptor.
Yellow is stopped school bus, red is the rikshaw and green the low-floor bus.
This is the worst case scenario in our city, These BMTC drivers care for nothing and these auto-ricks are equally bad.

I feel that bus drivers ignore presence of others on road, and can scare most people away with just a foot on accelerator. My mom stops the car or changes the lane if she sees a bus in RVM, she knows bus drivers can do anything to overtake a lady(Bus drivers' inferiority complex maybe?).
Dominance attitude is the problem here.


I'm sure there are many other ways these idiots 'bully' other drivers on road, please share them.
I don't give them a chance to bully me, make them [anger] and flee the place sometimes.

Here's a funny incident that happened last week.

I took my car for my workplace as i did not feel like going in my shuttle, In my route Volvos ply in large numbers. I drove calmly in a busy peak hour traffic near Mayo Hall and this guy(BMTC Volvo) comes roaring flashing his headlights and scared those two wheelers and passed me too!
Anyway at that time, i did not have any music playing in my car and then i thought that this fool is in a play mood, then i slowly sneaked up-to him and stopped right in front of him such that, he had little place to take a left turn and he honked very harshly(off-course with a puny keeeeing horn)
Kept him tailing me until the next signal. Unfortunately it turned green for him and both of us had to take a left turn towards HAL Airport road, so there is little room to take a left turn and then i gave him a choke by taking a long left turn while he tried to cut in very fast thinking i would turn very fast, but i did not and he had to brake hard(Could hear the Retarder noise).
Then came another signal followed by another one where we had to stop and didn't want to end our hot-pursuit.

After the green signal, We both tossed and he took a chance revved very much, i knew some vehicles ahead of us at some distance were going very slowly and felt it as an unusual sign and slowed down to 50 whereas this brainy took a chance and to his dismay got the number registered in the interceptor who was in the blind curve.
untitled.JPG

I felt he learnt some lesson (me with this[evil]) and then drove as usual as i did not want push him again.
 
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One amazing thingy I have found is that these bus drivers are very calm on the hilly roads,especially the ones which are just two lane one with a lot of high spin turns etc.

Some days back I got a chance to follow a Mercedes Benz bus on one such route,there were some other such buses too(one two Volvos and one Toyota Coaster were also there),though they used all the power they had on straight inclines and tried to be quick but on the turns,the long buses haven't allowed them to be as quick,in fact some short Tata buses were also simply out of their reach.
But the thing I appreciated was that,the guys were aware of the speed they were carrying and you just give a one second long honk(the negligible one) with a slight flash and on the very next turn,you could see the driver waving his hand to let us pass!!
I GUESS THE DRIVER'S TRAINIGN PROGRAM OFFERED BY VOLVO ETC IS QUITE GOOD AND PROMOTE DISCIPLINED DRIVING ONLY.

@Username:
On the DTC bus point,I think even the auto wallahs of Delhi are also quite expert,they keep on ignoring anything behind them.
I still remember a when when I was doing about 130 kph on ring road and the auto in front of me started overtaking a truck all of a sudden.I was about to overtake the truck from the same lane and I neither had time nor I had space to apply brakes.I only know how I saved the auto and its occupants that night.I passed my car from half of the lane(half was occupied by rick)and there were barely some milimeters between my car and footpath and between my car and auto.
Rest these low floor driver are also not anywhere behind,they think they rule the road and I find those Haryana and Rajasthan roadways drivers even more rash near Dhaul kuan etc.They all just keep on pressing on gas wherever they get some meters of free space.
 
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@Username:
On the DTC bus point,I think even the auto wallahs of Delhi are also quite expert,they keep on ignoring anything behind them.
I still remember a when when I was doing about 130 kph on ring road and the auto in front of me started overtaking a truck all of a sudden.I was about to overtake the truck from the same lane and I neither had time nor I had space to apply brakes.I only know how I saved the auto and its occupants that night.I passed my car from half of the lane(half was occupied by rick)and there were barely some milimeters between my car and footpath and between my car and auto.
Rest these low floor driver are also not anywhere behind,they think they rule the road and I find those Haryana and Rajasthan roadways drivers even more rash near Dhaul kuan etc.They all just keep on pressing on gas wherever they get some meters of free space.
It wasn't auto rikshaw, it was a cycle rikshaw. [lol]

And the road was completely empty for atleast 100 meters(or maybe more) behind and in front of rikshaw. :|

But yea, agreed, they still are a nuisance on road.
 
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In Bangalore, Volvo and Private buses (with actress pics) are most indisciplined drivers. They can stop anywhere and can change lane even they can go break any speed limits.
What I hate most about private buses that they will not move even traffic light is green, this cause severe bottleneck and huge traffic pile up. This you can check mostly on Bommnahalli Signal on Hosur Road.

Volvo can stop at any place just like auto rickshaw.
 
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Speed governors to be made mandatory for trucks and buses from October.
The government plans to make it mandatory for new commercial vehicles to come fitted with speed limiter devices that will restrict their speed to less than 80 km per hour.
From October 1, all new commercial vehicles will have to come fitted with this device, according to road transport and highways ministry's new draft of rules to amend the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989.​

Speed limiter devices will become mandatory for trucks, buses in October | ET Auto
 
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Safety First. Give way OR Runaway:
I do not in any way support rash-driving anything that moves on 2, 3, 4 or more wheels. Still I remember what my driving teacher said : bade bhai ko salam karo. AND, I recommend everyone to follow it. Doing 60-80kph AND hugging the rightmost lane on the highway is as dangerous as doing 30kph in a busy bazaar ! Consider this : On the highway, a Volvo driver doing 120kph might like to be on the right most lane and mightn't like to change lanes. A law abiding citizen maintaining 80kph might also like to drive on the right lane. Both are right!

Another example : It is fact that so many of us men pause/stop/move-away/tilt/perform circus steps, just to avoid colliding with a walking-and-digging-into-her-mobile lady/young lady in a busy shopping area. As a College goer, we wouldn't have moved away :biggrin: insisting that the other person also should display some responsibility. Rather than commenting "what's the hurry" / "don't drive rashly", why shouldn't we move and give way to a person/bus and be safe ?? What do we lose?

Many a times I've deployed these intercity/interstate buses to be my sweepers to clear convoy of slow moving trucks; they are fantastic in that. These drivers enter city limits with the same 'clear-the-road-mindset' and come across many whose need on that day is to drive just 20-30km. For the high end bus, this is really chotta (I meant the distance). Whereas for the local man "where can this bus fellow run away after hitting me?" is the attitude. Either this, or the local man's mind is on some other serious matters (in which case he/she shall not be driving in the first place). I feel this ego/attitude related issues may be the reason for a major share of accidents involving these high end buses.

You, my friends, tell me how many times you were irritated by such slow moving vehicle(s) holding you up, two wheelers cutting across you dangerously (giving you a mild attack free), drivers forcing you to stop because they need to answer their phone, driver on your left honking loudly expecting you to stop so that he could cut across and make the right turn, etc etc ??? We all know that a major percentage of accidents happen due to momentary madness. I feel drivers of high end buses may also fall victim to this madness. Best is to GIVE-WAY or RUNAWAY, if you have a powerful car !
 
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Re: Are High End Busses Hazardous To Our Safety on Roads?

No, but the drivers of all the buses are dangerous. The high-end buses only make it more dangerous.
I agree to this completely. It is very difficult to train this drivers & even more difficult to civilize their mindset.

In my state, govt. (state transport) buses are usually safe, but private owned luxury buses are "yumdoot" on wheels.

Drivers usually do >1 shift, less salary, time based reach to destination, mandatory halt at roadside hotel for free food & so rush on road to cover that rest time - all promote tense mind & so rash driving. Most important, such accidents usually proved to be due to bus mechanics failure or any dam external factor in police & court (with bri**), so all insurance is obtained, bus is again on road, driver are not punished & only looser are those injured or died in accident.

Many have cited accidents made by these buses. But to this should be added accidents which are cause by frightened pedestrians / bikers / small car drivers, which actually don't physically accident with bus but with each other or go down road to pole / trees / pits etc. And loss is even more enormous.
 
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I have had a good experience with heavy vehicle. 100 is piece of cake on volvo, 120 is okay. when pushed hard a volvo can touch 135-140. but what is the safe braking distance?

the vovlo needs a braking distance that is equal to the length of two volvos at a speed of 80. volvo buses handle well when compared to tata, leyland, here tata divo is an exception. it's the drivers that make this buses feel less safer by tail gaiting other vehicles.

if you tailgate a vehicle, no matter what the vehicle is it's gonna crash. i know some experienced volvo drivers who are speed junkies driving at 130. but they speed up only when the road is clear. they maintain safe distance when they are behind a vehicle.

the reason for accident is not the volvo, tata or mercedes high end buses, or the drivers. it's due to a few drivers who does not know how good a vehicle that volvo's are.
 
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Here in Tamil nadu not only Volvo even Ashok Leyland with CRS engines maintain 90+ average speed .
Those high average speed is done by bullying everything on the road .
Speed locking at 80 is necessary then they will be too slow for bullying .


If some trucks is holding the traffic and being impatient doesn't change anything but will make us appear like bully to the truck driver .

In other forums where these bus fans discuss the fastest between plus driving their cars at the shortest time only shoes their immaturity .(If they really need to travel that fast they can opt for a flight like people in other countries do).
 

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As a person who has traveled in the Volvo buses for about 20K KMs, most of the time in the seat behind the driver.(I specifically ask for that seat), never ever have I, as an occupant felt endangered in the bus.

And the bus drivers do about 120-130 because, they are the experts on that route. Imagine driving 1000 km everyday on the same route for a month = 30K KMs = you even get to memorize every single pothole in the road.
 
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They might be expert in their routes but that all works in a racetrack where you know exactly when to accelerate/brake/turn .
In real life conditions with highest number of accidents happening plus improper driver training and abiding to rules gives us only way to restrict speed .

Live Accidents in Tamilnadu - YouTube

Highway Accidents - Andhra Pradesh State, India (Viewer Discretion Advised) - YouTube

Doing any speed above 80 will not be adequate to control such heavy vehicles especially considering other equally stupid guys on the road .

https://www.gov.uk/speed-limits
With UK restricting buses at 110 in highly disciplined motorways India should lock them at 80.
All the craze for high speed monster will get vanished if high speed trains became a reality (200+ kmph average speed now which Volvo/Scania can match them)
 

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There is nothing wrong with the buses or the way they are driven.
Its just that they are driven by highly experienced people, and that they are much more capable than what an ordinary perceives them to be.

And that the speeds they do are never more than 120 anyway.
 

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