Highway Driving Tips - Sid And James Take A Road Trip

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UrvishJ

The phone rang at seven on the dot. "You awake yet, you big lout?", asked the stickler-for-time Siddharth, and James replied groggily in the affirmative. "Yup. Let's get out of here, or we'll miss out on Saturday drinking in Pondy." Typical, Siddharth thought, early morning and the guy's already thinking of booze. A delayed two hours later, they were nearing the highway, with Siddharth at the wheel.

Siddharth was using the service road to enter the highway but James felt he was going a little too slow to join the traffic, and began twitching nervously in the seat. "Give it a little more gas, man, speed up a little," said James.

"Why?"

"Because then you'll be doing the average speed of the other vehicles on the highway, and we'll all be safer. Entering the highway too slowly is dangerous as you might get hit from behind; also, you don't want to unnecessarily slow down other traffic."

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Vitor Pamplona

"Hmph. This is India, James. We drive differently here, have you forgotten that?"

"I'm not saying it's not different, but there's no harm driving safely. I've had the privilege of driving abroad regularly, I know, but I still spend a lot of time driving in India too. You know that."

There was an uncomfortable silence for a minute, till James said, "Remember the time we caught Professor Mathen smoking in his cabin? I'll never forget his expression as we walked in."

"And how our assignment grades suddenly began looking a lot better," added a now grinning Siddharth.

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Bryangeek

They were now about 70 kilometres out of Bangalore, and Siddharth pulled over into a petrol station for a quick coffee and cigarette. "Why don't you take over?" Siddharth said, after their caffeine and nicotine fix.

"Sure."

James took his time setting up the seat position, adjusting the mirrors and then moved a bag on the rear seat that was partially blocking his rear vision. "You quite done yet?" asked Siddharth sarcastically. "Yup, ready to put some miles behind us now." James got out on to the service road, sped up to around 80 km/h and joined the vehicles on the highway with no drama. A few minutes later, they were approaching a truck in the left lane.

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Harmishhk

"Sid, do you flash your lights when you pass trucks and buses?" James asked. Siddharth replied no, he didn't, how come?

"Because that lets the driver know you're approaching, and also because all the noise in the truck or bus driver's cabin makes it difficult sometimes for them to hear a horn. So it is good practice to flash the headlights, mind you, only when you can see their rear view mirrors, because otherwise you would be in their large blind spot and they won't be able to see you."

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Falling outside the normal moral constraints

"Hmm. That makes some sense actually," Siddharth had hardly conceded before they suddenly heard a loud thump and a metal crashing sound. James had hit an unmarked speedbreaker. They pulled over to check for damage, since James was doing a little over 80 km/h at the time. Luckily nothing had happened but for a small dent in the bumper. "Sorry mate, I should have seen that" said James, "I wasn't looking far ahead enough; I thought the car in front was slowing down to exit the highway."

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Woodennature

They were soon on their way again, and Siddharth noticed James dropping a gear every time he overtook another vehicle. "Is that even necessary? The car's mileage will drop."

James said, "On the highway, you are going to get better fuel economy anyway, so it makes sense to be safe first. If you downshift, your overtaking can be quick and decisive, and you won't block the fast lane for too long. Look at that Corolla up ahead. He's been hogging the fast lane because he hasn't gone down a gear, and is going to take an eternity to overtake that Volvo bus."

Needless to say, it turned out to be true. Traffic had backed up behind the Corolla, which irritated everyone else in the right lane and led to a cacophony of angry honking. When the driver had finally finished overtaking, he stuck in the right lane and made everyone behind him overtake on the left. Tch, tch, sounded James. "The right lane is meant for faster traffic and overtaking, but obviously Mr. Corolla doesn't think so."

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M J M

James really knows this sort of stuff, thought Siddharth to himself, and decided he was going to try and learn as much as he could while James drove.

Siddharth realised that James was a very smooth driver. His head wasn't made to rock with every gear change, and although James was averaging around 100 km/h, it didn't feel that way since his lane changes were always indicated, his brake inputs were almost not felt at all, and he always maintained four to five car lengths of distance between them and the vehicle ahead.

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Philozopher

They had reached the outskirts of Chengam, and decided on biriyani at a restaurant Siddharth knew on the highway. Ten minutes later, the Biriyani Paradise sign came into view and James flicked on the hazard lights, slowed down gradually, and pulled into the car park. Both were hungry, and there was not much chatter as they ate.

"Do you want to take over, Sid?" asked James as they walked to the car. Siddharth said no, he was content being the passenger, and told James that he was warming up to his driving and beginning to see the sense in why he drove rather differently to anyone he knew. "Cool, so let's head. Only two hours or so left, no?" "Yes, that's right, assuming we don't run into traffic."

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V i p e z

Exactly that happened. The next 100 kilometres or so were a nightmare, with heavy truck traffic that made overtaking difficult since they were more often than not blocking both lanes of the highway. This stretch took them almost three hours to complete, but Sid noticed James was calm and composed, humming the music playing rather than leaning on the horn like others, including himself, would do in a similar situation.

"There is no point honking, they can't move any faster. We just have to accept the fact that sometimes, even on the highway, progress can be slow and frustrating, but one needs to make the best of it."

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Snikrap

Dusk was approaching, and they were still about an hour away from Pondicherry. James turned on the parking lights much earlier than Siddharth was used to. When he asked James why he did that, he said, "Dusk is a very dangerous time to drive, since visibility is the worst at this time. Too many drivers in our country wait till almost dark to turn their lights on, which is wrong. It is critical to be clearly visible at all times to others on the road."

Both Siddharth and James were not looking forward to night driving, but they had no choice now. Thankfully it was only another half hour or so to their hotel, but boy was it stressful. All road users had their headlights on and the glare was overbearing. Siddharth observed James looking a little to the left of the lights. "If you keep the edge of the road on the left as your reference point and look towards the left of the oncoming lights you will be blinded much less, and will be able to drive safely more easily."

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MC =)

Finally, Pondicherry arrived. Siddharth asked a local for directions to their hotel and twenty minutes later, they had perched their rears on stools at the bar. Sipping from the beer mug, Siddharth asked James, "I had no idea man, that you were this keen on safety. Knowing you, I had prepared myself for a hair-raising drive when you took over."

"Racing on a circuit and driving on the road are worlds apart. The risks of driving too fast are way too high on public roads and highways. One doesn't just put himself and the car occupants at risk, but other innocent road users as well."

"True that."

They had three more rounds accompanied by several laughs and a hearty dinner, and retired to their rooms for the night. Both knew the next two days were going to be great. And the beer was to be cold.

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Shashi.kallada