Driving in India

The first thing my mom asked when we got into the airport was, “What one thing stood out the most about your trip?” My answer? Driving!

Driving in India is unlike anything you could ever imagine here. Imagine driving in Great Britain only with narrower streets and about 100 billion more people. Then throw in pedestrians, bicyclists, pedi cabs, motorcycles and scooters with seemingly no traffic laws or speed limits, and you have driving in India!

 

The first thing you need to know is that you drive on the wrong side of the road.

  Well… you only sort of drive on the wrong side of the road. You actually drive in the other lane unless there is a vehicle larger than you coming towards you in their lane. Or there isn’t any room for a smaller vehicle to move out of your way when you’re in their lane coming towards them.

Chris said he was sure the only rule to driving in India is that two vehicles cannot occupy the same space at the same time. That’s it!

There is no such thing as a no passing zone. There is no road to curvy or foggy or dark or busy to not pass… You just honk your horn when you enter the curve and if you hear a response, you just zip right back in.

Oh, and everyone uses their horn all the time. It isn’t a road rage thing, it’s a way to communicate what you are doing.

The miraculous part is that everyone just understands that’s the way you drive. If you move over to pass and a bus is coming right for you and you need back over, the car behind just lets you in.

There aren’t many traffic lights, but when you get to one everyone squeezes in as tightly as they can and then it is a race off the line when the light turns green! And you know when the light will turn green because there is a timer counting down at the intersection.

this is a 3 lane road with at least 5 or more vehicles across

And all of this is done FAST! I saw what I thought were speed limit signs but we always seemed to be easily doing double the posted limit.

The strange thing is the only thing I ever saw police officers doing was directing traffic at various busy intersections. I don’t know if they give traffic tickets??? The only time we got pulled over was for a random license and registration check.

Unlike in America, there are hardly any parking lots. It’s really just a free for all on the side of the road or maybe in the road…

There were so many interesting vehicles in India! Some are colorful or wildly decorated and I wish I could have gotten a picture of more of them, but it’s hard when you are zipping past one another and weaving in and out of traffic!

But I was just thankful for our ordinary Toyota mini van with air conditioning and our two outstanding drivers: Vipin and Emmanuval! They were amazing!!!