Hello everyone, this is Kilo,
Today I will discuss another and very vital aspect of defensive driving. As far my knowledge is concerned driving is not only mere a skill but a highly developed science. You may wonder why I call it a science. Science is something that brings predictability and empiricism. You could learn and anticipate a scenario in the field of driving from your past experiences and preserve it on your reflexes in order to deal with any such instances in the future. Everything that I mention here in this topic can be used in driving, riding and even helpful for the pedestrians as well.
SPEED IS THRILL
Who does not love speed unless and until your reflexes are slow. Yes, the old age group does not love speed as they have gained immense experiences and thus the reflexes slowed down eventually with aging. However, the young group has the edge to blend the experience with best working reflexes. Speed is not about going fast like a rocket and brag the triple digits in social media. This is the problem of our new generation bragging each and everything that is available to them no matter whether it is ethical or not. When speak or discuss about speed in the society it is not about a scientific topic of physical science i.e., distance/time having SI unit m/s, it is actually about being “cool” being fast and bragging the console. This is the unfortunate understanding of speed how fast a vehicle could go is more important than any other factors. Thus, we need to change the notion here from HOW FAST to WHY FAST. Being fast is not difficult or not a bigger concern but mastering control while being fast is important and for such skills, we have all our reputed racing academics to learn and lean in the corners. That is all total a different science in the track and requires penance and professional training in order to learn it. However, in order to drive in Indian road conditions, you need to master more than that as the conditions and variables are more than the constants.
UNDERSTANDING SPEED
What is speed? It is distance covered by a body in a unit time (m/s), when we add a particular direction to the speed it becomes velocity (m/s) and sometimes the terms are used interchangeably and now the rate of change of velocity with respect to time is called acceleration(m/s2) which is even more devastating in driving conditions. The general understanding is that we need to drive in speed in order to cover the required distance faster though it is correct but not practical in Indian driving conditions. Thus, government does intensive research and surveys before limiting a speed in a particular road. This research done by government often comes into contradictory views of the public as the roads apparently seems wonderful for cursing as high as 140 kmph, where as the limit is set to 120 kmph. The principle of defensive driving is you can check the limits but never always remain in the limits. That means a road having a speed limit 120 kmph does not mean it is meant to cruise at 120 kmph. It is advisable to cruise below 120 kmph to remain in the bracket of the safer side. Let’s understand this with few automotive examples below: –
- Speed Index of a tyre is rated with alphabets (T, U, H, V, W, X) that means the user is advised to drive the tyre below the rated speed though it can handle the limited speed rating but not for a prolong period. Like speed index V 240 kmph, that means user need to drive it under 240 kmph not at 240 kmph. Moreover, the user follows more safety precautions and drives it with his own decided safety limit of 220 kmph keeping a safe margin of 20 kmph from the assured value of the company. If the user uses it at 240 kmph as a regular speed then there is a great chance that the tyre may not sustain its limits for a long time. Though it could do 240 and even sometime touch 250 kmph for a small period of time. I hope the elaborated example helped you to understand how not to test the limits as regular usage.
- Let’s understand this example with engine revs. Suppose the rev limiters are set at 7000 rpms and the user could rev it till 7000 rpms. But when the user drives the vehicle in a regular basis, he/she could touch the limits for short span of time and that would not inflict any damage to the engine. But when the user drives only at 7000 rpm it damages the engine, though it was constructed to sustain such revs. Yet the damage will occur. Thus, we conclude limits are not meant for regular usage, but treat it as the extreme end.
Bifurcation of speed and risk assessment.
I am not stating that we do not have roads to do 120 kmph or even 150 kmph, the fact is that our road conditions or the dynamism of India roads do not allow to sustain that triple digit speed for a long duration. It is important to asses the risk involved in touching the devastating speed. And when you critically asses or scrutinize that risk eventually you will slow down below 120 kmph or as per the speed celling of the respective roads. Let’s do a risk assessment assumption and understand how fatal it could be if things went beyond our control.
Let’s assume a scenario where I am your driver on duty.
Hello Sir/Ma’ am, I am Kilo your chauffer for the day and we are travelling in a very wide beautiful highway having a speed limit of 120 Kmph. When I opened the chapter of risk assessment from the book of defensive driving, I came across the tool to assess the scenario and Scanning is the prior one. When I scanned the upcoming roads ahead, I found few patches of the road without guard rails, few vehicles ahead and just empty wide roads. Now I have few speeds in my mind that I want to travel with. Let’s say 150 kmph, 100 kmph, 60kmph. Seeing the road condition and these speeds let’s bifurcate the speed on real time, how it is in ground and let’s take safety to another level in this chapter of DEFENSIVE DRIVING.
Plying at 150 Kmph: –
When we are travelling at a speed of 150 Kmph let’s convert it into m/s i.e., meter per second. 150 kmph = 41.6 m/s that means in layman’s term if we are plying at a speed of 150 kmph it means we are covering a distance of 41.6 meters in just a single freaking second. Just in case any object or animals or vehicle or anything came in front of us because of the dynamic traits of Indian roads how well I could handle the situation. Let’s say I need to brake in order to avoid a collision in front because of anything intersecting the road. If we are travelling in a luxurious suv it requires a minimum braking distance of 66.2 meters if and only if we are travelling at a speed of 110 kmph and I have reacted well and responded swiftly to the stimulus. Here in such scenarios each and every millisecond of response time makes a difference in life or death. Moreover, the braking distance is more than the speed that we are in now. 66.2 Mtr >> 41.6 Mtrs. The chance of avoiding the collision is very thin. However, this situation is such when we are plying in a luxurious suv costing above 3 crores and the regular vehicle available in the market will perform less as compared to this luxurious suv for obvious reason of affordability and all.
Plying at 100 Kmph: –
In this case it would be 27.7m/s and the same vehicle would be more than capable enough to brake and avoid the collision. Moreover, it provides 2 times more of the room to react in time, in case the driver did not react fast he still has more time to react and brake to avoid collision.
Plying at 80 Kmph: –
Now in this speed, it is more more and more than anything to react as you can observe the speed 80 kmph is actually let’s say approx. 20 m/s and the vehicle would respond well and even our normal regular vehicles responds very fast in terms of braking and could easily avoid collision, provided the driver responds well in advance to apply the brakes.
However, even 20m/s is faster and a regular vehicle would take 70 to 80 mtrs of braking distance to completely stop the vehicle. If not reacted well before time it would result in a devastating crash and even lead to death. That’s the reason government has speed celling of 80 kmph in most of the good looking and well-maintained highways. Thus, now we had a very good perspective of speed let’s understand how to reach a destination faster yet keeping the speed in limits. Is it even possible let’s find out.
Forget Over-Speed Master Average Speed.
Another skill and science to have in your bag of skills to survive in Indian roads is Mastering Average Speed. If you wonder what is average speed and how to master it let’s understand it here briefly. Average speed is nothing but total distance travelled divided by total time consumed in order to accomplish that distance. Let’s say you are travelling to a place 200 km far from your location and you need to reach there by 1100 hrs itself. Now what you need to do is again a chapter of defensive driving. You need buy time for yourself before leaving your location i.e., drive out early without getting late. In case if you are late still the technique of maintaining average speed would help you, however we will discuss it in some other blogs. In order to cover a distance of 200 km you need to start your journey as late as 700hrs. And if you maintain an average speed of 50 kmph it is more than enough for you to reach at your destination in time. But maintaining average speed is a difficult task and you do not need to over-speed but you need to maintain you average speed. This is the KEY TO REACH FAST YET SAFE. When you master you average speed you gain fuel efficiency, tyre life and enhances your engine life to the most. It even gives you more time to react and respond accordingly to Indian road dynamism. Moreover, you save the speed tickets and eventually you become a mature and responsible driver for the society. It also helps in reducing the chances of accidents to a large extent. In case you need more details, we will discuss it in a complete separate topic and mastering it needs patience and perseverance.
OVER-SPEEDING
Generally, there is a preconceived notion about over-speeding is that driving at triple digit speed is called over-speeding whereas as per law driving beyond speed celling prescribed by the authority or by legislation is termed as over-speeding. That means if a road having a speed celling of 40 kmph and a person plying at 41 kmph he/she violated the law and could be charged for violations of speed limits thus over-speeding tickets. However, where there are no speed sign boards that does not mean that the vehicle could ply at any speed as per there own will. Even under such conditions the Motor Vehicle Inspector could charge the violator for over-speed as per his discretion under his jurisdiction. Though, such cases and charges are open to judicial reviews so that the authority could not practice absolute powers and become arbitrary. Over-speeding is the major concern of today’s scenario because not only in India but in nations other than India registers major accidents occurring due to over-speed. Thus, in order to contain this offence government and authorities have taken many steps to curb such violence and violators. For example, installing speed cameras and provision of online challans and pan India challan portals to make the violators liable for their own offence and even in some cases judicial intervention has also been seen all through. More work force and volunteers for traffic safety has been indulged to make people aware about the fatality of over-speeding. Different NGOs emerges to work as a helping hand of the government and make people aware. Thus, NGOs and Civil Society organizations have transformed the society from being a rule-based organization to a mission bound organization where missions like Safe Cars India makes an unfathomable impact in people’s life while pronouncing to buy a new vehicle or driving it responsibly in the society. Let’s Join the mission and make our roads safe in the world.
