To tow or not to tow...

Since moving to Mumbai, I've had many a chance to marvel at the almost manic singularity with which towing crews swoop in on an unmanned car 'violating a parking rule' and proceed to haul it away...all in a matter of seconds. Blink and you might miss the sight of the tow-truck slowly coasting to a stop as the gents standing in the back of the truck spot an 'offending' member of the general traffic, the almost lightning-like descent of said gents from the truck, the deftness with which the tow-truck driver backs his vehicle up closer to the unsuspecting culprit and the almost-invisible action with which the towing line is hooked up. Then one of the guys from the team proceeds to scrawl something with a piece of chalk ("Gotcha!"? "Guess who?"?) on the spot where the car was parked and before you know it, he's back on the truck and they're pulling out with the 'towee' obediently following. It's a quick, silent and effective operation and an exhibition of such stealth, skill and teamwork that I've had to convince myself a couple of times that I did see a car stand in that spot just a minute earlier.

So should you be worried about rushing back to that spot where you parked your car for just a minute ago while you nipped into the ATM or stopped to pick up a smoke and finding it gone? Well, apparently there's a bit of discrimination afoot - the probability of your car getting towed is in inverse proportion to its perceived value. (Link via India Uncut)

Comments

[http://driving-india.blogspot.com]

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

Many thanks