First off, I am so glad Nemo initiated this group blog. I’ve only been in India for three and a half days and yet I feel like I could write a novel’s worth of commentary. Nevertheless, I will abstain from ranting and discuss strictly one topic; the absurdness of India’s road systems. So far I have rode in a van, private bus, government bus, and multiple rickshaws. I’ve been almost hit by a bus in a rickshaw, inches away from being mowed down by a scooter while on foot, and rode in a bus that side-swiped a car. I want to share with you my first impressions and how my attitude about the road situation has changed in just these last few days.
Well, my initial impression was formed on our 3 hour ride from the airport in Chennai to the CMC in Vellore. It was around 4am in the morning and I was utterly appalled by the seemingly chaotic way everyone traveled. The road was filled with buses, vans, scooters, people on bikes, animal-drawn carts, rickshaws, and people walking and crossing the street like a sick version of frogger. Inside Chennai it sounded like an orchestra of horns. Seriously, our van driver beeped the horn every two to three seconds. The van was traveling at least 70 miles per hour and passing everyone. Then out of the blue the van slows to a stop and some cows cross the road in front of us. If this isn’t crazy enough, I forgot to preface that in the city all these drivers are lined up sometimes 3-4 rows deep in a one lane road. The bus passes the others by going into the lane of traffic coming the other way. From an aerial view it must look like a cluster of epic proportion.
With all that said, after three and a half days I see a pattern in the traffic that makes me believe there are actually some rules of the road. I am going to give my best hypothesis on what I think these rules are but I could be completely wrong and fabricating this whole thing. I say that because every time I am on the road my adrenaline is pumping thinking back to lecture when the professor announced that statistically I am more likely to die from a car accident than anything else in India (that is true for tourists, not natives; yesterday I learned that diabetes takes the cake on that one). Ok, so here it is. Everyone drives on the left side of the road. Slower travelers stay farthest to the left, with the exception of people on foot or bikes (not motorized bikes, just your run of the mill pedal bike). The pedestrians walk on both sides of the road but almost exclusively on the soft shoulders. The animal-drawn carts are always on the road hugging the farthest to the left. Motor bikes and rickshaws travel on the farthest left too unless they approach an animal-drawn cart in which they pass them on the right. Some rickshaws act like US taxi drivers and attempt to pass cars too but this isn’t always the case. Buses and cars tend to travel farthest to the right so they can travel faster and pass everyone else. Whenever a bus or vehicle is about to pass someone they beep their horn, almost analogous to a directional signal. When you are in the downtown area busses and cars often have to pass in the opposite side of the road in which all the other bikers and rickshaws coming the other way move over. When downtown the buses also beep before approaching a crosswalk to warn the people not to cross. When people do cross they usually cross in increments during the busy times. Initially I was terrified that the cars would not stop and just mow people over, but that doesn’t really seem to be the case. From what I have seen the vehicle gives a warning beep to the pedestrian to make them hurry up but if they are too slow the vehicle does actually slow down. When I was on the bus that side-swiped a car the bus actually pulled over and talked to the driver. Not quite what I pictured happening. Well, I say talked but it was more like a heated argument with arms flailing in the air. Nevertheless, there is some humanity present amid this crazy system.
Ok. That’s it for today and sorry for making it dramatically long.
-Marissa
Well, my initial impression was formed on our 3 hour ride from the airport in Chennai to the CMC in Vellore. It was around 4am in the morning and I was utterly appalled by the seemingly chaotic way everyone traveled. The road was filled with buses, vans, scooters, people on bikes, animal-drawn carts, rickshaws, and people walking and crossing the street like a sick version of frogger. Inside Chennai it sounded like an orchestra of horns. Seriously, our van driver beeped the horn every two to three seconds. The van was traveling at least 70 miles per hour and passing everyone. Then out of the blue the van slows to a stop and some cows cross the road in front of us. If this isn’t crazy enough, I forgot to preface that in the city all these drivers are lined up sometimes 3-4 rows deep in a one lane road. The bus passes the others by going into the lane of traffic coming the other way. From an aerial view it must look like a cluster of epic proportion.
With all that said, after three and a half days I see a pattern in the traffic that makes me believe there are actually some rules of the road. I am going to give my best hypothesis on what I think these rules are but I could be completely wrong and fabricating this whole thing. I say that because every time I am on the road my adrenaline is pumping thinking back to lecture when the professor announced that statistically I am more likely to die from a car accident than anything else in India (that is true for tourists, not natives; yesterday I learned that diabetes takes the cake on that one). Ok, so here it is. Everyone drives on the left side of the road. Slower travelers stay farthest to the left, with the exception of people on foot or bikes (not motorized bikes, just your run of the mill pedal bike). The pedestrians walk on both sides of the road but almost exclusively on the soft shoulders. The animal-drawn carts are always on the road hugging the farthest to the left. Motor bikes and rickshaws travel on the farthest left too unless they approach an animal-drawn cart in which they pass them on the right. Some rickshaws act like US taxi drivers and attempt to pass cars too but this isn’t always the case. Buses and cars tend to travel farthest to the right so they can travel faster and pass everyone else. Whenever a bus or vehicle is about to pass someone they beep their horn, almost analogous to a directional signal. When you are in the downtown area busses and cars often have to pass in the opposite side of the road in which all the other bikers and rickshaws coming the other way move over. When downtown the buses also beep before approaching a crosswalk to warn the people not to cross. When people do cross they usually cross in increments during the busy times. Initially I was terrified that the cars would not stop and just mow people over, but that doesn’t really seem to be the case. From what I have seen the vehicle gives a warning beep to the pedestrian to make them hurry up but if they are too slow the vehicle does actually slow down. When I was on the bus that side-swiped a car the bus actually pulled over and talked to the driver. Not quite what I pictured happening. Well, I say talked but it was more like a heated argument with arms flailing in the air. Nevertheless, there is some humanity present amid this crazy system.
Ok. That’s it for today and sorry for making it dramatically long.
-Marissa
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