1. Drive at required pace – Most of the accidents happen due the rat-race/overtaking done in an aggressive traffic flow. And even small accidents create jams. In mornings most of us are getting late for work. In evenings we are getting late to reach home!! Sometimes it’s really urgent and sometimes it’s just our instinct to follow the others. Keep your head COOL, judge your situation and drive accordingly at required pace. And anyway, overtaking 10 vehicles on the way can save my 10 minutes but with risk. Why not to start 10 minutes earlier instead, taking NO Risk.
2. Be in the right lane – We cannot expect ourselves to follow lanes in India. Obvious reason - we have never seen our fathers doing that and Indian Government does not enforce it, majority of roads don’t even have lanes. But still we can do some little, out of the fact that we are educated and responsible Indians. Like, always shift to the left of the road if you need to turn left at an approaching 30 meter away crossing. Same goes for right goers. Right and straight going traffic should always leave enough space for vehicles turning left.
3. Avoid driving spontaneously – Avoid taking spontaneous actions on roads cause they create confusion for the traffic behind and increases accident risk. Try to be informative enough to make your decisions beforehand while driving. Always use vehicle indicators to inform traffic around you about your intentions.
4. Be informative of all the road signs – It helps to be informative while on road and road signs provide that information. Though in India, road signs are not placed appropriately and not everywhere. And even to start following them all strictly would not be a good option, e.g. in India, to a vehicle at your tail, it might be much unexpected if you abruptly stop in middle of the road cause its zebra crossing!! So, use them for your information and follow intelligently. This even reduces your spontaneity.
5. At Roundabouts – Vehicles merging from connecting roads must give way to the traffic flowing inside the roundabout. Vehicles inside the roundabout have high priority to pass through.
6. At Junctions – Slow down your vehicle to 30-40KM/Hr whenever approaching a junction, whether it’s a crossing or a roundabout. This should be done even if it is a green signal. If you are taking a slip road towards left, always “Give Way” to the traffic flowing on the main road.
Additionally, at Parking:
Park Intelligently – Indians have a tendency to park right in front of the destination even if the parking is crowded there and free elsewhere. Always park intelligently, check if there is a free parking place even within 300 meters. It’s less tiring to get a hassle-free place and walk-up to the destination THAN budge around 10 vehicles before parking your vehicle.
Never park within 10 meters of a crossing/turn – Reason being, it tends to create a bottle neck for the traffic coming from behind. Especially for those who have just taken a left turn and found you parked just steps away. In this scenario, they tend to cross the parked vehicle, creating a bottle neck on the road.
So it’s just small things which we can be careful and reasonable of, to make India safer to drive.
