Nice thread. Even I had been planning to write something like this, but now would be happy to add on to some beautiful thread. My experience is based on (first 23 years of life) travelling on highways for school and college as a passenger and observing others. The rest doing long drives myself.
The first thing I notice is that every tom dick and harry who thinks can steer well in city limits can drive on highwyas. Driving on highway is a different ball game all together. It needs more alertness, more patience, planning and controlling your urge of doing stud-giri. Indian roads have improved (in patches) and the cars have improved in leaps and bounds over the years, but one thing that has not changed is the mindset of people using Indian roads. For villages settled around the highways, they consider it as their backyard road and you plan to zoom on it.. Beware.. hell gates are near. Either you will get involved in an accident that may be fatal or else if by gods grace you survive the villagers will have a field day on you.
then there are idiots who drive the wrong way, dogs and cattle crossing the highways, a bike squeezing across at the last moment. So be alert and watch out.
Regarding how to drive, here are my 2 cents
1. Always prefer driving in day light and when you are alert. Carry enough liquids (hot / cold) or take breaks for refreshing. Never overload your stomach as you may feel sleepy.
2. Avoid driving in nights. reason is not your bad driving, but because people park on wrong sides, make sudden manouvers and all. This leaves you at a higher risk and lesser time to respond. Also people driving drunk is high during nights. You may fall for their tantrums on road.
3. Always blink eyes every 5 mins, as things start look stationary with tired eyes. If driving at night, use high beam low beam high beam combination every 5 mins, for the same reason. Doing this keeps eyes alert
4. Even you feel alright, take a break after say every 2 hours. Walk around your car, have a tea, wash your face. Something, but stop and step out of car. This also helps cooling the tires and the engine a bit. Remember a hot tire has more chances to burst, and a hotter engine is tired so reduces your mileage (my friends have debated on hot engine giving higher mileage, but i am a petrol head and my car behaves as this.. so)
5. Never tailgate. Always follow the 2 sec rule for any speed you travel. 2 sec rule is that for any particular point, if the vehicle in front crosses at "X" time, you should cross the same not before 2 sec of it
6. If driving on 1 side driving, drive in the middle lane, as anyone can step into the highway from either side at any instant. Driving in middle gives you that essential extra micro second to react
7. If driving on 2 ways highways, (our standard state highways) never go for overtaking near a village/town, near curves, or in a scenario where you are not able to have a view say 200-300 meters ahead of you. Plan your overtaking. Longer the vehicle to be overtaken, better should be the plan and timing of overtaking.
8. You car may support 140+ speeds, but on Indian highways always prefer to not exceed 80-100 kmph. You know you have a good car, but other localites and animals on road dont.
9. If possible always give hand signals. Idiots on roads are not that good with blinker and light signals. Highway signals are a bit different. A right indicator for instance means come overtake, but some think it is for turning right, and vice versa. Better safe and perfect.
10. On a 2 way highway (state highways), never drive on extreme left. The vehicle coming in front may eat up the rest of the road, pushing you down a drain. or else can also give a suggestion to the oncoming traffic that a overtake is possible. Drive on road, and give only enough way for the oncoming traffic to move smoothly. But be alert, as some idiot may still want to overtake and push you down the road. So be prepared.
11. Never let your tires leave the tar of the road at any speed >20. The road is unknown to you and you dont know when which pothole will sink your car and throw you out of the road.
12. Be it day or night, while overtaking a truck / bus which are regular on highways, use headlight flash followed by horn. Now there is a different way of flashing based on different length of vehicles. This comes with experience or observation. After 30+ years on highways still i find it difficult sometimes to convey my intentions to vehicle in front. my bad or else the driver ahead is the dreaded idiot.
13. Never drive a friends car / new car on highway just because you know driving. Drive cars which you are very familiar and comfortable with. High speed reactions require you to react without thinking. A different machine may not behave same as your set of wheels. Always talk to your machine. never push it
14. While driving on highways keep your racing instincts , revenge feelings at home before starting. idiots will come and tantalize you. but you are on highway either because of the love for it or because you need to reach somewhere, and in either scenario the idiots dont have a place in your schedule
15. Listen to soft songs, and cooling songs. A high noise or high volume songs unintentionally increases your heart rate and forces you to become aggressive on road. best is talk to your fellow passengers. It keeps you awake and alert.
16. Always slow down near approaching junctions or curves. You dont know what will pop out in the last instant.
17. Driving not only means looking ahead, but also involves keeping a tab on rear view mirror. Never keep anyone on tail. let the vehicle move ahead at first instance. And never follow a rashly driven vehicle. Never tailgate. And if you see a vehicle approaching too fast let it pass by. But if it is coming on your lane only, no need to change lane at last moment to give pass, as he may have committed himself to a maneuver much ahead at that speed, and your sudden lane change may cause in a crash
18. use lot of horn, while overtaking, while crossing a small village, while approaching diversions. And slow down as well (other than overtaking :P) in above scenarios
19. A dog crossing road with tail up will cross the road be what may. A dog with tail between legs may go anywhere. Cattle and pigs may not move, so the moment you see them come down to your 2nd gear.
20. Always give way to bigger vehicles. And never be around larger vehciles. the moment you see yourself between larger vehicles in your front / back/ side, try to get away from them as soon as possible. And till the time you are stuck there, use lot of horns. remember the truck behind you has a less powerful brake and will take longer distance to stop than you. So use brake cautiously and not suddenly.
21. Also never overtake a line of trucks going at a particular constant speed and try getting between two just because you had not planned the overtake properly, and you need to give way to oncoming traffic at last moment. You may get rear ended. (I have seen such an accident. I was following a long trailer as I was not getting a proper view for overtaking. A swift guy came and overtook me and next moment overtook the trailer. the moment after overtaking he realized that there is a bigggg pothole and he applied sudden brakes. To avoid rear ending, the trailer guy had to maneuver away and as a result fell of the road. He survived the accident, but the biggest irony was the swift guy was laughing at the accident and he didnt realize he had only caused it)
22. Never make turns at higher speed. You may understeer or oversteer. Always bring your speed down.
Use lot of signals, if possible hand signals. Be calm, overlook the idiots on road. remember someone is waiting for you at home, and for the others too for whom you are creating a havoc.