Street Craziness of India. Rule is no rules…
When I came to India, the first thing I saw was the lack of order happening on the streets. I mean ok, there is an order but nobody knows the rules so each participant of the traffic creates their own. You can only survive if you go with the flow cause if you try to put some European rules, you will simply get into troubles.
The red street light is just a decoration and nobody respects it. Everybody overtakes wherever they want, from whichever side they want (ok it happened to me in Serbia that I was overtaken from the right side by the truck, not a big deal).
While driving, be careful of all the walking traffic. People do not use zebra crossing. In fact there are not so many of them. They pass the street wherever is comfortable for them, to make the walking shorter and less hectic.
More to that, COWS are everywhere. They are regular participants of the road traffic. Even more dangerous are street dogs as they run after people and they do can bite you (experienced that as well). Street animals prefer slow walking especially on the highways! They are absolutely everywhere and in many cases they are in a big group which makes them easy to spot but also a bit dangerous while they start running 🙂
The roundabout… hm thi is also very interesting place of watching people’s behavior. Some of them don’t get, you can only use it in one direction and they do go opposite way to make it shorter for them or god knows for what reason. So while you are on roundabout be double concern and watch the traffic coming from opposite direction as well.
Ah and my favorite one, there is no privilege of right hand (left in India’s case), or main road. The first one who honks, goes first. The trucks always go first as they are the loudest and the biggest so they don’t have to fight for privilege. I sometimes have the feeling Indian drivers never use breaks, they just honk.
While on a highway, if the truck or car in front of you blinks right indicator, it either means they let you overtake them (give you a sign the road ahead is free) or they simply turn right or change the lane… 🙂 I am serious here!
Sometimes motorcycle is the only vehicle they have in the household so they learn how to carry absolutely everything with it. It is very common to see the entire Indian family (like 4-5 people including kids) commuting on one motorcycle. Ah and women do not have to wear helmet while sitting on a bike even if they are riding it. The same applies to Sikh people who wear turban as there is no way they can put it on.
It becomes even more dangerous at night as it seems in India it is not obligatory to use car lights. More to that there roads are dark as well so if you don’t want to raise a risk of getting into accident better not to use your vehicle at night. The streets can be narrow and if you see a car with one light on, you can think its motorbike and once its close to you: SURPRISE! and bump!
The main rule on the road is no rules at all! So forget about all you have learned on your driving course, have your eyes around your head and drive safe!