Traffic & roads in India--pure chaos & confusion. First of all the drivers--I am not sure if there is any requirement to take/pass a driving test in India to learn & apply any user code, and if there is, it has been 100% rejected. The streets are jammed with vehicles from large trucks, motorcycles, school buses and myriads of angry three wheel green & yellow auto rickshaws that buzz about emitting clouds of blue smoke. Human muscle powered vehicles, bicycles, handcarts, seem to have largely disappeared from the traffic scene. Common sense indicates that complete grid-lock should prevail, where nothing moves, but miracle of miracles, everyone keeps moving along with non-stop assistance from every driver in terms of continuous heavy non-stop application of horns.
Traffic users drive absolutely where ever they wish---wrong direction up a one-way street--no problem. Wrong side of a dual carriage way system--just go for it. Over the sidewalk--don't worry the pedestrians will jump out of the way! Add to the road madness, the wandering cows and you have the picture.
The idea is that every one knows the de facto road rules. Keep going until you get blocked and yield when someone else blocks you. It's a game of inches. And its not just male driver aggression, the Indian lady scooter riders are any ones match in the hard ball game of traffic survival.
An attempt has been made to install traffic light sanity at some major intersections so as to control traffic flows. The red lights are totally ignored, as vehicles from all directions surge forward to assert their priority right of way. Traffic police loiter at key intersection, totally ignoring the mayhem right in front of them--I am told that employment as a traffic cop is a guaranteed job for life-- so why work when the opportunities for bribes are so plentiful? Already, during just this first week in India I have perhaps ridden 20+ auto rickshaws and have to report that I've not seem a single collision, or scrape, occurring as we have charged along, your humble scribe hanging on for dear life. Drivers actually smile at each other and and share banter as they inch forward. Yes, Indian city traffic chaos shouldn't work---but it does!
Traffic users drive absolutely where ever they wish---wrong direction up a one-way street--no problem. Wrong side of a dual carriage way system--just go for it. Over the sidewalk--don't worry the pedestrians will jump out of the way! Add to the road madness, the wandering cows and you have the picture.
The idea is that every one knows the de facto road rules. Keep going until you get blocked and yield when someone else blocks you. It's a game of inches. And its not just male driver aggression, the Indian lady scooter riders are any ones match in the hard ball game of traffic survival.
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| Busy streets... |
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