Hand-of-god, q turns and other traffic terms
Silkbaord has a series of interesting posts on Indian traffic.
Traffic terms continued!
Traffic terms – enjoy some more
Some more traffic related terms
‘Hungry auto’ and some more
‘Belly hunters’ and ‘rattle therapists’
Dancing hands and leaking two-wheelers
Hand-of-god and more concepts of Indian city traffic
My favorite definitions are “q turn” and “hand of god”.
Did you know about “q Turns†? Let me describe this rather easy to explain Bangalore specialty. “q turn†is stylish Indian cousin of the plain vanilla “U turnâ€. A U turn happens when you keep turning right and right till you reverse your direction. But when executing a q-turn, the driver first turns slightly to the left to announce that hey, I am about to start on a U. This left deviation is then followed by the series of rights that eventually puts him in the reverse direction. Vehicle’s trail almost resembles a “qâ€, hence the name “q turnâ€!
I hit into the “hand of god†phenomenon at least twice a day. You are doing 60 kmph and you suddenly see a pedestrian jump on the road. You have the momentum, and right of way as well, so you assume the ped will try get out of the way. But no. Out pops a hand. Stop! One hand this direction, second hand in another. This is called the hand of god way of crossing an Indian street.
If you want to know about indian traffic or if you endure it on a daily basis, these posts would qualify as a must-read for you.
Posted under: On The Road
Tagged with: Indian city traffic, Indian traffic, traffic related terms, Traffic terms
October 26th, 2006 at 11:54:42
Late again. but thanks so much Sajith for the kind words.
October 28th, 2006 at 15:25:33
Most welcome SB, and thanks for the putting the content on your blog without which this post would not have been possible :)
November 2nd, 2007 at 19:33:47
Almost 10% of the global road traffic accidents occur in India. Much of the world wide web is full of sarcasm & mocking of the indisciplined driving on Indian roads. Unfortunately in since 60 years since independence the authorities have failed to publish a National Highway code. Licences are given to anyone who can demonstrate an ability to use the clutch-accelerator, consequently the motoer driving schools teach just that and no more. Concepts such as – blindspots, principle of MSM, the tyre & tarmac rule, 2 second gap and most improtantly giving way are not known to the average Indian driver.
This site http://driving-india.blogspot.com/ has been created with the purpose of providing driver education and training to all Indian road users. It is by far the most comprehensive website providing training in defensive driving. Learning simple road habits can make our roads safe and also free up congestion caused by traffic chaos.
At present 17 driver education videos aimed at changing the driving culture on Indian roads are available. The video are unique in that the footage is real life action from streets of London. We have copied the Western habits: Replaced the dhoti with denim, high rise buildings for Indian cottages, burgers and coke instead of Indian breads and perhaps sugarcane juice. Surely we can copy the Western ways of travelling too.
To watch the videos, interested readers may visit: http://driving-india.blogspot.com/
The videos cover the following topics:
Video 1: Covers the concept of Blind spots
Video 2: Introduces the principle of Mirrors, Signal and Manoeuvre
Video 3: At red lights, stop behind the stop line
Video 4: At red lights there are no free left turns
Video 5: The Zebra belongs to pedestrians
Video 6: Tyres and Tarmac (rather than bumper to bumper)
Video 7: Merging with the Main road
Video 8: Leaving The Main Road
Video 9: Never Cut Corners
Video 10: Show Courtesy on roads
Video 11: 5 Rules that help deal with Roundabouts
Video 12: Speed limits, stopping distances, tailgating & 2 seconds rule
Video 13: Lane discipline and overtaking
Video 14: Low beam or high beam?
Video 15: Parallel (reverse parking) made easy
Video 16: Give the cyclist the respect of a car
Video 17: Dealing with in-car condensation