Nah, this post is not about Neo or the R1 but it might be of Neo astride an R1.
Pune – undoubtedly the two wheeler capital of country, a city where you can witness people breaking traffic rules at the drop of a hat. If one fines all the violators just for one day, it won’t be a surprise if millionaires count goes up by one.
It was just another morning ride to office when I approach a traffic signal, glowing red. Though the faster vehicles in front of me simply turned a blind eye towards the red light, I somehow didn’t feel in a hurry and instead of going with the flow of violators, I slowed down and stopped. Standing standstill while a couple of more vehicles went by, drivers of them probably had early morning laughter at my expense. Then suddenly one car driver applied brakes and stopped right next to me and few second’s later vehicles started to stop for the red light instead of ignoring it.
After a tiring day, I was headed back to home. Like everyday, it was a sea of vehicles of road. As I approach a traffic signal, which is always ignored by people as it is on a ‘T’ junction with the traffic coming only from right side of ‘T’ arm; I saw the light glowing red. I decided to stop, vehicles suddenly started to stop.
It seems most of people in city likes to go with the flow. Not many look at traffic signal (not their fault because many time either the signal is not working or the light bulb are fused), they just follow the flow of vehicles. So for them to stop on a traffic signal, which is easy to break, either due to low traffic on junction or being on a ‘T’ junction it probably needs someone to take the initiative and STOP.
Just like they need someone to take the initiative to STOP, it just needs one person to jump a red light to have a group of vehicles follow him, as if they all were tied to the first vehicle. Looks like most of people on road don’t have the intelligence to take the decision as to what is correct and what is wrong for them.
I have decided to be the ONE who is going to STOP at the red light; there are many ONE’s who jumps the red light. So which ONE are you? I know it is very easy to say that no one follows the traffic rule in my city but that’s a very lame excuse of one also not following it.
Just remember if you want to be the ONE who stops, people who are following you are not expecting you to stop. So make sure you don’t apply brakes suddenly. Your brake light is in working order. Keep an eye in your RVM’s before you slow down to making sure you are not going to be plastered on the road by the vehicle behind you. In the end, do not stop in the middle of road but stop on the side.
Hi, my name is Dr. Vistasp Sethna. I find your article above very mature and enlightened, but at the same time I do not think you would be the first to do this – as I will describe below.
I belong to a group of Bullet riders called the Roadshakers – one of the country’s oldest and most respected Bullet clubs. We are amongst the country’s elite rider groups, having proven our mettle across the country in long distance endurance riding, touring, as well as other forms of competitive motor sports.
We pride ourselves in being responsible and mature tenured riders and do our bit to spreading the message of safe riding, defensive riding, being considerate of those who share the roads with us, and wearing of protective gear while riding. We undertake many city rides and on special public occasions like Independence and Republic Day, we even carry banners with the same socially responsible messages for the public who are enthralled and captivated by the magnificent and awe inspiring sight and sound of 50+ Bullets roaring past in a perfectly orchestrated symphony of riding discipline in a staggered formation of 2 abreast!
Needless to say, we make it a point to obey all traffic rules and even if at the head of traffic at a red light, we refuse to budge till the light changes to green. No need to get excited, heated up, or abusive – the message goes down the line very loud and clear – do as the Bulleteers do! 🙂
Cheers, Doc
Well said nav!!
While many riders do break rules, it is unfair to tar everyone with the same brush!! Most of the bad behaviour comes from members of SOME bike clubs. It is a known fact that when in groups, bikers tend to behave even more irresponsibly. Must be the peer pressure. When they are alone they would behave like bheegi billis, but when in a group, they behave like street corner goondas. The moment one guy breaks the core, the whole gang breaks out in a mad fury tearing along crowded city roads forcing law-abiding citizens to flee for safety.
The sad reality is that becuase of the actions of a few irresponsible bulleteers, ALL bikers get blamed….! Becoz of the irresponsible few, the world looks at bike riders with negativity which i think is really sad.
@Doc: Thanks for liking the article. Some â€facts†I would like to correct you have mentioned about the bullet club, till sometime back I was also part of it.
1. Following traffic rules:
– While I was in Roadshakers, I reported a club rider riding rashly in city traffic (I personally saw it) and I was told by one of the club’s â€senior†member that the club don’t force how a member should ride, its the responsiblity of member to know it.
– Every Wed evening, one can see few club members ripping thru city traffic, cutting lanes at will, to attend the meet.
– Doing burnouts/wheelies/stunts on public roads during evening time (during city ride). Thats not â€following traffic rules†in my book.
2. Wearing protective gears:
– I have been to their weekely meets recently and I did saw a few members coming wearing chappals/sandals. Not everyone was wearing helmets. I’m not even taking about “full protective gearâ€. This I have personally seen.
– I have also seen a few club members riding in city in T-shirt and shots. No helmet, ofcourse.
So, is Roadshakers a traffic obeying group? You must be joking, specially when I have personally witnessed it till a few days back.
Dear Nav,
I am shocked and aghast. I seriously think we are not talking about one and the same group of riders in that case. A classic case of mistaken identity probably …..
Cheers, Doc
@Doc: I’m refering to the Pune’s local Bullet club known as “RoadShakers†and its members, even you know that. No mistaken identity here.
No more “discussion” about some club and its members here in this post. Further posts on it will be removed.
Dear Nav,
In that case we are speaking about the same club ….. but there seems to be a degree of incongruence somewhere. May I invite you to Pashan tomorrow evening at 7:30 for coffee and chat and discuss the issue further?
Cheers, Doc
Doc!
Last week (sunday), I saw 2 Road Shaker guys jump the red light. So there goes your claim. Before that, I saw one Shaker trying to rip the traffic like he was running for life. And this doesn’t end here.
What I am trying to say is that every group has moles. And it boils down to the individual. You can’t just claim that some abc group is perfect. But lets not get into that.
And Nav – delete this comment later, I don’t want that this should be taken negatively, which is the case most of the times.
Hey Navendu,
Good to see you back. I read on XBHP that you too became prey of server crash.
Good that you got the archived data back on the blog.
Now can we expect some entertaininh & enlightning post from old biker boy.
Sneh
Thanks Sneh.
Just managed to get all the things together, still some text is not displayed correctly, so have to patch that.
There is a lot of travel exp that I need to share, hopefully I’ll be able to start doing that soon.
Well written Navendu, found this article on BCMT and I hope that you are still following this. I exactly follow the same rule of stopping at the red signal be whatever time of day it is and how open the road is. Few still break the rule(may god give them some brain) and sadly most of them would be bikers or cabs. But I’ve also seen that many people do stop after you stop at the signal. I’ve noticed it many times and so all the hope is not lost yet.
@Kaushik: Thanks. Yes, it has become a habbit of mine now. There are a few more observations I have made, will try to put them up sometime soon.