Driving in India

For those of you that have had the opportunity to witness the driving in India, you will completely understand this post.

The driving in India can either be seen as organized chaos or sheer madness. In the initial perception it seems like the latter but then after you watch the 'process' you can see that there really is a method to the madness.

First to set the stage, there are no lines on the road, and if there are, the are clearly ignored. The are different sizes of vehicles on the road all of which operate at different speeds. There are large trucks, cars, rickshaws (3-wheeler), scooters/mo-peds, bicycles, slow moving tractors, people, cows,..... the list can go on. Now when there are all of these types of 'things' on the road, everyone feels that they have the right of way. They are all pining to get ahead of the other person. The horn is key in the process.

The beeping of the horn is used all the time. The key to understand what each beep means. Really, there is a 'science' to it. A beep is used to let someone know that you are passing, or just to alert someone that you are there. Sometimes you beep to let some one in or say thanks. Then there are those that just lay on the horn to be obnoxious and hope that it will enable them to get ahead. It usually works.

The other thing that is a big difference is the 'space' around vehicles. Just as we have a radius of personal space that can vary from cultures, there is the same with the 'space' around the cars. By ignoring the lines in the road, people use every bit of space to get thru. In this case the scooter usually has the advantage. The cars are typically within inches of each other when stacked up at a light of in traffic. It is key to keep hands in side the car, otherwise they can definately get taken off!!

All of this brings up the question, will I drive in India? Today my answer is a big NO. Who knows, that may change. Oh, another factor is that they drive on the 'other' side of the road from what I am used to!!

So far our car is 'ding-free' but I am certain that with the driving styles here it will not stay that way. We will see how many days that it will last! I will post a picture of our 'ding-free' car.

Take care!