Discussion
Just got back from my first trip to India and suffice to say it was mental.
The roads were chaos, but bizarrely organized chaos, everything kept moving, and on the whole, for the volume of traffic and carnage, crashes less than expected.
Lost count how many times five cars and ten bikes were piling into one bit of road and they all came out the other side.
Cars were all crap too but amazing ply they all soldiered on. Some of the trucks were awesome.
Clearly I would last just five mins out there, so hired a 24 hour driver service, did 400 miles in 4 days, probably 16 hours driving and he waited all day. £140.
Crazy place, but strangely loved it. Wouldn't be complete with pout obligatory shot of cows on the road, tuc tuc, rubbish, and assorted crazy motorbike shots.
The roads were chaos, but bizarrely organized chaos, everything kept moving, and on the whole, for the volume of traffic and carnage, crashes less than expected.
Lost count how many times five cars and ten bikes were piling into one bit of road and they all came out the other side.
Cars were all crap too but amazing ply they all soldiered on. Some of the trucks were awesome.
Clearly I would last just five mins out there, so hired a 24 hour driver service, did 400 miles in 4 days, probably 16 hours driving and he waited all day. £140.
Crazy place, but strangely loved it. Wouldn't be complete with pout obligatory shot of cows on the road, tuc tuc, rubbish, and assorted crazy motorbike shots.
My experience of various nations with 'bad' traffic is that the more apparently chaotic it is, the more easily it all flows. In Britain we spend too long trying to organise and plan things, and queue too much. In India they just get on with it. Admittedly this may be at the expense of some safety, but hey ho, life is cheap etc.
The most bizarre thing about Indian roads I found were not the 10-men on a scooter or ridiculously over-loaded lorries, or even motorways that inexplicably end in a swamp, but the habit of the authorities to place, in the middle of the night, on poorly-lit motorways, chicanes made of barriers. After going through three or four of these haphazardly sprinkled along a motorway from an airport to a city centre one evening, I asked the driver what they were all about. "Safety" he explained. Apparently it's safer to randomly block motorways with no warning than it is to just let the traffic flow. On that note, I didn't notice any particular speeding problem, so either it works, or it's just not a problem.
The most bizarre thing about Indian roads I found were not the 10-men on a scooter or ridiculously over-loaded lorries, or even motorways that inexplicably end in a swamp, but the habit of the authorities to place, in the middle of the night, on poorly-lit motorways, chicanes made of barriers. After going through three or four of these haphazardly sprinkled along a motorway from an airport to a city centre one evening, I asked the driver what they were all about. "Safety" he explained. Apparently it's safer to randomly block motorways with no warning than it is to just let the traffic flow. On that note, I didn't notice any particular speeding problem, so either it works, or it's just not a problem.
I just flew into Delhi last night. On my short drive to the hotel we had near misses with a truck (almost drove into the side of our minibus), a two-up motorcycle (we almost hit it) and a pedestrian (stepped backwards in front of us at a toll booth and just managed to jump out of the way). It's lethal!
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff