Defensive driving in Puttaparthi and elsewhere

Last updated on September 21st 2014

I thought of sharing an extract of a mail (edited to make it suitable on the blog and also to include more info. on defensive driving) I had sent to somebody little less than a year ago:

I saw you today afternoon (a little while ago) coming down Chitravathi Road at quite some speed on your scooter (Chitravathi road is a very small stretch of road in outside-ashram Puttaparthi, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puttaparthi, between the main ashram entrance and the, usually dry, Chitravathi river bed). And I saw a child running on the road - for some seconds perhaps, I was quite concerned about the child coming in your way - but you were still some distance away. Then I saw that the child was off the middle of the road.

I was relieved and smiled and wished you as you drove past me. Of course, you also would have seen the child and if the child had come back to the middle of the road you, I am sure, would have slowed down.

But ... I felt that you drove past me at quite some speed (on Chitravathi Road). Perhaps the rather empty road and maybe some urgent work made you feel you could safely drive at that speed. However, I have seen that small children of shopkeepers on either side of Chitravathi Road seem to view it as their playing ground! They just rush on to the middle of the road without looking right or left!

Given this state of affairs, I thought that I should let you know that I feel driving on Chitravathi Road at the kind of speed you were driving today, even when the road seems empty, may be somewhat risky due to these kids. Now, some others too drive fast on Chitravathi Road but as I know you, I thought I should let you know my view.

Once again I would like to say, please feel free to disagree :).

BTW I used to drive cars during my US stints in the 80s and early 90s (and a little bit in Europe too). I have done fair bit of speeding on highways, some of which I regret today as I drove beyond the highway speed limits (like so many others). By the Grace of God I did not have any accidents in which people got hurt. [But I did experience a car tyre burst at high speed leading to the car eventually overturning at slow speed but which did not hurt anybody seriously. For more on it see: http://eklavyasai.blogspot.com/2013/03/a-debate-on-warranty-for-software.html?showComment=1364485584372#c3991372261768827144]. Later I grew wiser about driving and tried to adopt a defensive driving, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defensive_driving, approach. If you have not heard of defensive driving you may want to have a look here: http://www.nsc.org/safety_road/DefensiveDriving/Pages/defensive_driving.aspx (does not have free course material, as far as I know, but you get an idea of what defensive driving is). Here is another link with some tips on defensive driving, http://www.wikihow.com/Drive-Defensively. Towards the bottom of the page, it has a youtube video link, Driving Lessons: Defensive Driving Tips | Volkswagen Australia, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brIkouqOp6I, 8 min. 37 secs, published March 2012, which is certainly worth viewing if you have not had exposure to defensive driving/proper technique of driving.

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Extracts of my part of a mail exchange (slightly edited) with a correspondent on the above:

Car driving on congested Puttaparthi roads ideally needs more responsibility & patience than two-wheeler driving, especially for conscientious/ethical/spiritual persons.
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One of the persons standing/walking (anywhere on the road) would be me, at least sometimes :). This is the problem of the narrow road being shared by carts/baskets & their owner-vendors, people and vehicles.
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I will jump out of the way (if somebody honks at me) - but some Western foreigners, and some Indians too, would give (the car/bike honker) a glare! (Some Western foreigners in Puttaparthi get upset with the frequent honking in Puttaparthi roads probably due to their mental conditioning in the West where honking is done rarely and pedestrians are usually treated with a lot more dignity as compared to India, by car & other vehicle drivers.)