… is quite an adventure. I may use a comparison to illustrate this: In the game Need for Speed: Underground, the player gets extra credits for „reckless driving“. I have been told that it is very hard to get this, even when driving quite … recklessly. I can safely say that no Bangalorean driver would have any problems to get these credits.
Indian authorities were smart enough to not mark any lanes on most streets. What would be used as a one-lane road in Germany is in India easily wide enough to provide three lanes, with a bus overtaking a truck, while being passed by a riksha. Those rikshas are three-wheeled motorbikes with a windshield and a roof, and the main mode of transportation for most short to medium distances. They are quite cheap (if one insists on using the meter), but the drivers do take on every opportunity to move forward, even if it means passing between to lorries through a space which is not much wider than the riksha – all at about 60 km/h.
Public transportation in form of buses also exist. They are usually packed until people fall out. Well, almost at least. I would not dare to climb onto such a bus, whose average age lies at about 15 years or so (and it looks like it, too). Using the blinker is also very uncommon. Direction indication is instead performed by holding an arm out of the window and sounding the horn.
Most bus drivers are accompanied by a boy, about 16 years of age. These boys are responsible for „blinking“ to the left, opening and closing the door, directing the traffic, cleaning the windshield, … By the way, as an old british colony Inidians drive on the left side!
Fortunately, SAP provides transportation in the form of shuttle buses, which pick up commuters at specified pick-up points and drop the off at work. The same also works the other way round. As all Bangalorean drivers, they use every possibility of moving an inch forward. This does include sqeezing in spaces which seem too small, or crossing the road with other vehicles approaching very fast. It seems to me that the right of way is determined by who is on the street first and blows his horn the most often.
On my whole way to work (remember, about 45 mins), there is one traffic light. In front of the most dangerous places, there are „speed bumps“, as I call them. They are just a slab of paving, which forces the cars to slow down dramatically (which leads to more blowing the horn and some traffic congestion). However, I have never heard of large traffic accidents, so somehow this seems to work out…
Anyways, I got to go now and fetch said bus, for which I now also got a bus pass. I wish everyone a great weekend 🙂
Hi Martin,
it seems that the bangalorian traffic is an example for the chaos theory – Germans like us are in the Basic Level of MAslow, still looking for rules, as the Bangalorians have already exceeded Level 7 and therefore do not need any Basics any more 😉