traffic in India (I can mainly speak for Mumbai but I heard places like Bangalore are worse) is horrific. Want to go 10 miles? – you’ll need an hour. And there are no highways and no basic auto infrastructure. The two lane roads somehow support 4 lanes.
One of the people who I met there said, “for India driving you need good brakes, good horn, and good luck.”
Pedestrians are constantly tempting fate crossing the street. I count myself lucky that in my one week in India, I didn’t hit anyone (though I sure have if I was driving … Indian drivers must be the best drivers in the planet … they can fit their car in the smallest places).
No Mumbai driver can be commissioned without a great horn – it is a necessity to ensure that pedestrians and motor scooters get out of your way.
Helmets for motor scooters and motorcycles are few and far between (despite the massive danger of getting hit on the crowded road). Luckily, because of the traffic jams, you never can go too fast.
Haha replace India with China and Mumbai with Shanghai and we’re in violent agreement. America just doesn’t have the same density issues (thanks suburbia) as the rest of the world.
Right said Devin. Mumbai is densily populated. I stay in mumbai spend on avg 2 hours a day traveling to work and back using public bus, Which is painful ?.
Most Mumbaikars use Trains thou, and Mr. Auren Hoffman if you are still in India you should see the morning/evening rush in the trains. Then you know what densily populated means.
However population is no excuse for poor infrastructure and slow execution of existing infrastructure projects by govt.
Almost 10% of the global road traffic accidents occur in India. Much of the world wide web is full of sarcasm & mocking of the indisciplined driving on Indian roads. Unfortunately in since 60 years since independence the authorities have failed to publish a National Highway code. Licences are given to anyone who can demonstrate an ability to use the clutch-accelerator, consequently the motoer driving schools teach just that and no more. Concepts such as – blindspots, principle of MSM, the tyre & tarmac rule, 2 second gap and most improtantly giving way are not known to the average Indian driver.
This site http://driving-india.blogspot.com/ has been created with the purpose of providing driver education and training to all Indian road users. It is by far the most comprehensive website providing training in defensive driving. Learning simple road habits can make our roads safe and also free up congestion caused by traffic chaos.
At present 17 driver education videos aimed at changing the driving culture on Indian roads are available. The video are unique in that the footage is real life action from streets of London. We have copied the Western habits: Replaced the dhoti with denim, high rise buildings for Indian cottages, burgers and coke instead of Indian breads and perhaps sugarcane juice. Surely we can copy the Western ways of travelling too.
To watch the videos, interested readers may visit: http://driving-india.blogspot.com/
The videos cover the following topics:
Video 1: Covers the concept of Blind spots
Video 2: Introduces the principle of Mirrors, Signal and Manoeuvre
Video 3: At red lights, stop behind the stop line
Video 4: At red lights there are no free left turns
Video 5: The Zebra belongs to pedestrians
Video 6: Tyres and Tarmac (rather than bumper to bumper)
Video 7: Merging with the Main road
Video 8: Leaving The Main Road
Video 9: Never Cut Corners
Video 10: Show Courtesy on roads
Video 11: 5 Rules that help deal with Roundabouts
Video 12: Speed limits, stopping distances, tailgating & 2 seconds rule
Video 13: Lane discipline and overtaking
Video 14: Low beam or high beam?
Video 15: Parallel (reverse parking) made easy
Video 16: Give the cyclist the respect of a car
Video 17: Dealing with in-car condensation
Many thanks