Careless truckers occupying the first lane on JNPT Road: Solutions?

I have to literally take evasive maneuvers due to some of the scenarios these guys create on the road.

BHPian PrasadS recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

More of a rant than a post, but I’m finding myself getting really irritated and bitter instead of enjoying my drive and resorting to Moral Policing.

I’m currently from Navi Mumbai and will be soon shifting to Palaspe Phata Panvel(on the new JNPT highway) at the Goa-Alibaug junction.

As many of you know, Navi Mumbai is blessed with amazing 2-3 lane cemented highways, with almost no signals or speed breakers. Most of my driving is intercity and occasionally highways.

Whenever i drive from Vashi to Nerul, there are a lot of truckers hogging the 1st lane causing huge jams and small cars crisscrossing them. Even on the Dy Patil and Uran Phata bridge.

After shifting to Panvel, I’ll be traveling almost 40kms back and forth on the amazingly made 4 Lane JNPT road. It’s every car enthusiasts dream road, and i encourage everyone to drive on this Road atleast once. But guess what, even on such an amazing road Truckers are a huge nuisance. Completely empty 4 lanes and these dumdums still want to drive 1st lane. Occasionally you’ll find the great wall of trailers with 4 trucks driving parallel to each other.

My problem: What i used to encounter occasionally, now is becoming an everyday scene. I have to literally take evasive maneuvers due to some of the scenarios these guys create on the road. Just yesterday i was pelted with stones by a truck carrying stones, driving rashly on the 1st lane on an empty road. I literally forced him to slow down and change lane by driving slowly in front of him on an empty road.
In Traffic condition, I’m okay with truck on various lanes, but they should leave the fast lane on COMPLETELY EMPTY ROADS.

• Should i moral police and flag these trucks and indicate them to change lanes?
• Should i let go of my irritation(which seems hard at this point), ignore it but leave other vulnerable drivers at their mercy?
• Can i take steps and involve authorities and get some changes done? (Don’t know how)
• Should i just ignore it and once Airport is done and the new bridge is open, we can see some discipline?

Advice from fellow members appreciated.

Here’s what BHPian Small_Bot had to say on the matter:

I understand your situation and your frustrations.

That said, I personally don’t think it’s worthwhile fighting with an object that massive. I don’t think you gain much by it. Rather you might put yourself at risk.

I don’t have much experience with trucks or their drivers, but I assume most drivers use the fast lane mainly to maintain their speed on a clean lane. I’m not sure if most of them do it knowingly or not.

Whenever I come across such a situation, I try to just overtake from the left, ensuring that my horn and headlights work for their money. This is just to alert the driver that I’m coming through though, and not an attempt to make him drive correctly.

You could take a photo/video and alert traffic police, but I’m fairly sure they wouldn’t give a damn as they have fatter and richer fish to catch and squeeze.

I’d just advise you to keep yourself safe at all times, that’s all. Irrespective of whether the truck drivers are right or not, we run the risk of putting ourselves at harm if we try to take the policing business into our own hands.

Here’s what BHPian electric_eel had to say on the matter:

Don’t do this. You are putting yourself into a very dangerous situation. Brake checking in front of a load carrying truck is essentially luck checking akin to playing Russian roulette. What happens if there is a slight downward slope in that particular section of the high way? It is often difficult to figure out such things even on a bicycle (let alone in a car) and with the tempers high on both sides it can lead to really nasty situation.

Here’s what BHPian m8002 had to say on the matter:

Very well said. Its not worth trying to force them to slow down or change lanes. An accident will be much worse for you than them.

Frankly, I dont find this much of an issue in the plains. One needs to follow them for a couple of minutes with a few honks and they usually make way. My pet peeve is in the ghat sections where they just hog all the lanes causing a huge pile up of vehicles behind.

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