The Driving In Your Country

Thats if you don’t skip red lights and smash into BMWs beforhand :p

Completely different when when your light is green, as was mine.

Driving in India

The video clip just about sums it up – just got back from my second business strip to Bangalore in the last 12 months – it’s one place where I am more than happy to sit in the back of the car and keep my mouth (and eyes 😮 )shut! They put their faith in their god(s) and just go for it, eventually you get used to the fact that although they nominally drive on the left, in fact they use whichever part of the road appears to give them room, left, right, pavements – even driving on the wrong side of a dual carriageway (i.e. into the oncoming traffic). Add in roads that vary from smooth tarmac to unmade dust (and often back again in the space of half a mile), slow moving tractors, bullock carts, hand carts, tuk-tuks, lorrys carrying loads twice as wide and four times as tall as the truck itself, and of course, the sacred cows that are free to wander wherever they like – both in the countryside and in the city itself and the driving experience makes for a good white knuckle ride. I tried to take a few video clips myself, but the roads were so rough I often couldn’t keep the camera steady.

I met an ex colleague over there who has a 14 month old Ford “Ikon” (the model sold as a Focus here in UK), which is already on it’s third set of suspension units. That’s what the video cannot convey, just how rough the roads can be, especially outside the cities. Some are so bad even the CRV I was travelling in had to crawl along in low gear in order to negotiate the pot holes.

I don’t remember ever seeing an accident or a dented car in my two weeks over there, so either their driving skills are up to the conditions, or the fact that repairs are so cheap means that accident damage is quickly repaired.

One of the local guys I visited summed the traffic situation up with “As you can see from the roads, we do have Law in India, but we do not have Order!”

Paul F

Even though I am not a driver myself can I just say now that is some bad driving although I will praise them for one thing “I never saw a collision either of the two vids that is AMAZING!!

AJ

Where I live you seem to get shot at if you are a joyrider and have 6 people in a very small car.:D

Thats if you don’t skip red lights and smash into BMWs beforhand :p

Where I live you seem to get shot at if you are a joyrider and have 6 people in a very small car.:D