India - Day 2 - Traffic

I expect day 2 in India will turn out to be the most memorable day of my whole trip. I think we saw and did just about everything I imagined I would ever see or do in India. It's a four hour drive from Delhi to Agra so we started early - about 4 am. I had originally thought I would sleep some in the car on the way to Agra - after 5 minutes in the car, I realized there was no way that was going to be possible.

Traffic, even at 4 am, is wildly different than in the U.S. Let's start with vehicles. Anything that moves has a right to use the roads and highways of India. Even the big super highways have such an interesting mix of traffic. Lots of people walking, riding bikes, rickshaws, bullock-drawn carts, camel drawn carts, horse drawn carts, motorcycles, mopeds, elephants (we saw lots of them plodding down the road loaded down with things), pack mules, lots of tractors and combines (even an occasional John Deere), lots of big trucks (usually loaded taller, but less length than U.S. trucks) and a handful of cars (suprisingly few compared to other forms of transportation). The big trucks are all very colorfully hand painted with lots of charms hanging from them (to bring good luck). On the back of almost every truck were the handpainted words "Blast horn. Use dipper at night." Dipper I found was the headlight dimmer switch. Blast horn because the trucks don't have much in the way of rear view mirrors so you use your horn to let them know you are there.



The roads themselves were in very good shape - I was expecting much worse, but I think for the most part they were as good if not better than the roads we find around home. There is not really any concept of a traffic lane in India (though there are lines on some roads). You just kind of use whatever part of the road fits your need at the time. Generally you drive on the left-hand side of the road, but it's not uncommon to drive in the oncoming traffic lanes (even when there's oncoming traffic and even on hills). Even when you're on a divided super highway, don't be suprised to see oncoming traffic in your lane. If you need to stop, just stop your car anywhere and jump out. Everybody else goes around you.

Traffic moves in a kind of ameba-like manner. Since everyone is moving at different speeds, you just kind of weave around in and out of lanes. Horns are used constantly as a way of signally your intentions. If you want to pass someone, you just come up hard behind them blaring your horn. Either they move over or you swerve around them. Cutting off and getting cut off are standard procedure. Animals are everywhere (especially cows). Traffic lights are generally meaningless.



Strangely, traffic works well in India. For as crazy and seemingly out of control that it is, everybody understands the rules and everybody plays by the rules. Yesterday I mentioned about the temper on the guy that shuttled us to Chicago - every little thing made him mad. Those things were nothing in comparison to the wild traffic here. Yet everyone here just accepts it and noone seems to get upset about it.



Sorry to go on so much about such a mundane subject as traffic, but traffic is really one of the most impressive and distinctly different things about India. It is far from mundane and will take some getting used to!