8 things I hate about traffic.
Organized chaos - is what my friend calls the Indian road traffic. Riding on Indian roads is indeed emerging as one of the world’s most dangerous stunts (after riding on Indian rail, and living in Indian high rise apartments). Listing here the top 8 interesting (read: irritating) experiences I’ve been having on Indian roads:
1. There is no ‘right of way’ funda. Everyone wants to go first. You would be looked upon as a ‘loser’ if you give way to others on humanitarian grounds.
2. Traffic Jams at unmanned junctions. Created in the first place because of point 1 above. And we think blaring horns will somehow, magically undo the jam. So each one tries to outwit the others by increasing their sound levels.
3. Pedestrians trying to cross the road while looking at the opposite (wrong) direction of traffic flow.
4. Pedestrian starts to cross the road, sees a vehicle coming. stops. vehicle sees pedestrian, steers to the side. Pedestrian gets confused. Moves back. Vehicle guy tries to predict the pedestrian’s next move, moves to the other side. pedestrian moves forward. vehicle guy moves to the other side. This continues till either the vehicle screeches to a halt or the pedestrian gets knocked down.
5. Have seen this mostly with 2 wheeler drivers: Group of friends riding side by side, talking. They take up the entire road, and are in their own world, unaware of the sea of traffic behind them
6. Innovative use of blinkers: Hazard lights are used if drivers need to indicate that they are going straight (and not turning) at an intersection. The other new one that has emerged in the recent times is to use blinkers to signal to the drivers behind that they could pass (overtake). This can be very confusing.
7. Buses (especially the private carriers) bullying you on city roads so you let them pass. I should admit I take sadistic pleasure in not letting them through when they try these stunts. The worst part is that they would do all these to get in front of you, and then stop at the very next instant to pick up passengers. And they would of course be blocking three quarters of the road.
8. Autorickshaw is like the camel in the camel and arab story. They get a little space, enough to get their front tyre thru, and they would squeeze in the rest of their body somehow. Traffic rules dont apply to most of them. They can stop anywhere and turn any time.
Stumble it!
