L-board : how useful/ needful is it?

Anshu, Can't agree, I believe there is nothing wrong in this, how do you expect people to learn the city driving without being on city roads ?  ( there is no simulation for this in any driving schools ).

The new drivers learn the tricks once they start observing the experienced drivers on the roads and add their common sense to it, and IMHO ,obviously there is no one in this world as a perfect driver, we all are humans and humans are prone to mistakes, but learning from them and avoiding in future is what experience is ? which has to be gained over time/driving kms.

The experienced lot on the roads, need to be a little considerate and patient with others on the road, and the new learners have to learn from the experienced ones and adapt themselves to create a win-win situation.

OT: I agree. They must stick to the side or to the leftmost lane possible. The reason is not because of anyones non-experience. But thats the rule. You must always give the right lane to faster vehicles. So, any car, whether irrespective of the experience of the driver or the class of vehicle, must stick to the left and use the right lane only for passing another car. 

@Surya, in a few days you will have a considerable amount of experience wrt driving. But what you must always follow is what is stated above. If you want to pass a vehicle, move to the right and then come back to the left. This is not a difficult job. By staying on the right, you are creating a hazard for yourselves and for others. 

There have been many instances where personally, we have come across a slow moving vehicle in the right lane, sometimes after a curve, which is a very dangerous thing. An alert driver can brake in time and/or change lanes to avoid a mishap. But if its a heavy vehicle or a bus thats cruising, it will be a tragedy. 

Hence, please try to be to your left as far as possible.

@Surya, I think you misunderstood me. Most of my point of view is already mentioned by Sankalp, but still let me explain.

No where I mentioned that people should not drive with L boards or they are not entitled to drive on the city road. The only point I mentioned is that they driving in right most or middle lane is incorrect. We all boast off ourselves saying that I stopped on that signal even if the whole crossing was empty. Why? Why did you stop? Because you want to follow the rules and you know that you jumping the signal might lead to accident because the signal which is green might have a sudded and speeding vehicle coming on. Isnt it?

So now why we want new learners to break rules and drive in right most lane or middle of the road? While the experienced lots needs to be patient and considerate, isnt it new learners responsibility to ensure that they are not blocking the traffic? Does following rules comes with experience or based on how you have followed or learnt the rules you get experience? Or let me rephrase my question: You want to get experienced following rules or you want to follow rules after getting experienced? And which gives better result?

Now lets consider the ideal scenario of driving. I am a new learner and because am still not having good control of car at speed or on roads, I would prefer driving on left most lane. As I drive some few kms, say 100 kms, I get more confident and feel like pushing my car to 40 kmph from 20 kmph and move to next lane and try see if I am able to control the car. I give an indicator of changing lane and start crusing on middle lane. After say another 100 kms, I feel great and I move the right most lane after giving signal and now driving at 60 kmph with good amount of expreience and control.

Why do you want someone to not learn driving this way and drive wherever he/she wants with L board and if anything happens, you try to escape by saying that am a new learner. I guess it needs to be understand by all that the moment you are on road, you share the equal responsibility as new or old or exprienced driver, of all the goods and bads happening on the road. You cannot blame exprienced driver for an accident between him and a new learner. Or even give excuse of being a new learner.

I have seen such a nasty accident on NH7 thats hard to describe. And it was not at all the exprienced drivers fault nor it was the new learner's fault, as you describe. Even if the exprienced driver was considerate, he did not have scope to stop or manouvre his vehicle to avoid the accident. It hit that santro in such a speed from back that santro flew into air quite a feet above the ground before landing upturned and killing the new learner on the spot. And the experienced driver lost control on his car skid and toppled over on the other side of the road flying over the median and killing himself. He was driving accent if am not wrong and was at good speed, must be 120+ as I myself was at 120 at that instant and he was overtaking me from right side. Unfortunately, it was a blind curve and that poor learner was driving on the right most lane at his own pace without realizing that he is actually become a death trap.

Sorry for posting such a long thread but could not resisit myself. Road is not anyone's responsibility but everyone's. Its high time we start realizing it.

PS: All and every one: Please do not take anything personal in this post. Its a generic one, even if its mentioned you/your/me/mine etc.

MODS

Thanks for the detailed replies, Sorry, i was in-fact replying the post keeping in mind that the new learner have to drive in the left most lane till one gets the confidence, but i believe my reply sounded like i was kind of supporting to drive on the right most or mid of lane.

I will/was not boasting that i was the only following the rules on the road by stopping at the signal, i was just giving my experience on the road and how it felt when others were jumping it.

Even on bike, i do overtake the vehicles from the right if there is distance and the gap, hence, i follow the same while in car too.

I would like to mention that i am not trying to say that the new learners can drive as they wish and they can break rules ( i am a strict rule follower ), but i was just trying to answer sarandiip's post. I am also not stopping anyone to learn the way you have provided here.

In the city, most of the bus stands are on to the left, so assuming a new driver is driving slowly in  the left most lane( this also amounts to block of traffic), the big vehicles, just honk from behind and try to overtake and you can imagine how stressful it would be for a newbie(my own experience), so in order to avoid it, they drive on the mid of the road, and take some time to changing gears to change the lanes and speed up.

To end it all, if the road rules are there(i suspect they are there and followed in our cities) , it is for everyone on the road as you rightly said. And, if it is being broken by 99% on the road, the one who follows looks .....( sorry nothing personal and not to offend anyone )

@Surya, I already mentioned, do not take anything personal, even if its mentioned you/yours/me/mine. Its generic and I myself is applicable to such statement. Nothing against you dear. And this is what is called as healthy discussion. Isnt it?

No end to this discussion. Its there for ages and will remain for ever

Keep the discussion going. Cheers

Hi mods,

It may not be correct for learners to stick to the right, but why they do this due to the following:

1. For a learner it's easier to get good look at the right as the driver's seat is on the right side. Hence they are able to set the median as a guide and keep a correct distance between the car and median.

2. For the same reason quoted above, since the new driver is not able to see properly to the left (to see whether the car can clear an obstacle on the left without hitting it needs to be gained by experience) they stick to right.

3. When driving on the left, many people will be taking free left turns, pedestrians will be walking on the left side, there will be parked vehicles etc etc. So learners need to pay more attention in controlling the car to sudden and constant changes when driving on the left side, which surely learners are not adept at.

4. Worst is the slow moving buses which suddenly change lane from right to left to stop at bus stops.

I agree to all of the points of sarandilip. It will take only a little time and experience for the new learners to learn the tricks of the car driving.