My wife and brother tells me that I take excessive risks while driving, especially on highways while overtaking slow moving (well, relative to me :-)) vehicles. I agree. Sometimes I am too close to the vehicle I am overtaking. Sometimes I start the overtake immediately after the car in front has given way to me. May be these are not the best ways to overtake and experienced drivers would tell me that I am taking too much risk. But that's the point. Isn't the risk taking appetite is different for different people ? Somebody might consider mountaineering or river rafting 'risky' but for someone else it's just an adventure or sport that he or she can not live without. Does that mean the person who is risking his life is stupid ? I don't think so as long as (s)he is aware of the risks associated with these acts and has taken steps to mitigate those risks.
My brother who drives at 120 kmph on a highway where speed limits are clearly marked as 80 kmph is also taking undue risk. But he considers that as acceptable. He would sometimes overtake from the left side and consider that as acceptable or is not aware of the blind spots and is OK with that. But he finds one particular aspect of my driving as risky and unacceptable. Isn't that hypocracy ? I mean, com'on, give me a break! Each one of us takes risks, one way or the other, in all aspects of life. I am not against giving a piece of advise (neither against taking it :-)) or reminding somebody of the risk he is taking, but let the person decide whether he wants to keep taking those chances or not. I believe every sensible person would adjust his behavior, habits and decisions to strike a right balance between the risks and the rewards, but as per his own risk taking appetite at that point of time.
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4 comments:
The point was just about one specific habit not a general comment. Question really was, whats should be the minimum distance between two cars to react to any uncertainty?
Answer is, it depends on every driver's reflexes and ability to react. I don't think the point was about risk, it was more about judgment. I think, you are good driver but your judgment about the minimum distance you maintain between cars is not right. This point can be proved with a very small experiment.
I wouldn't mind you taking more risks if you upgrade your car but not with tyres which are 40K Kms old and car without air-bags. Montaineers/rafters/F1 drivers etc. ensures that they take all safety precautions. Mountaineers and rafters responds to weather information, F1 drivers respond to data about health of theirs tyres etc. In all the examples you gave, when they go in a group, they respects judgments of other members because judgments of anybody can go wrong.
BTW, make a rule and then there could be some exceptions. For example, as long as overtaking from left is an exception and one of event its OK, don't make it a habit.
Hey, I agree with what you say. I know that I need to do more to mitigate the risks I take. But the point is: every person has a different characteristic and based on that he would continue to take different quantum of risk. I gave the example of speeding to just prove the point. The stated rule is to drive at 80 kmph. We just take that for ride, always not as an exception, which contradicts to what you said. Now you may claim that 100 or 120 kmph is OK. But what makes you think so ? If someone has come up with a recommendation that the speed limit is 80, why not follow it ? Its just because you are ready to take that extra risk. Now I may extend that further and say, well why not 140 ? I believe, you and me are both wrong.
The same argument holds true about the minimum distance. While you may argue that 5 feet is risky, I may say 10 feet is risky too. I remember a rule of thumb that you should keep a minimum distance worth of 2 seconds travel ? At 120 kmph, that's about 66 meters. Anything less than that is risky :-)
So to summarize, my point is: we all take risk, the quantum varies.
Pavan, You are right in saying that the quantum of risk is different for every individual. But the point that I wanted to make was the probability of accident increases due to such a short distance(which you would agree) and losses due to the event would be huge(due to high speed). Is such huge risk acceptable, even if your appetitie for risk is bigger than average?
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