Wednesday, June 22, 2005

Driving in Pune in particular, India in general:

There are very few resources available which talk about this topic. Many of these posts/ articles are by foreigners and tend to exaggerate. The good ones that I have come across are:
http://www.boloji.com/humor/025.htm
http://www.indax.com/driving.html


I am in a unique position to talk about driving in the Pune or for that matter in India. Till an age of 30, I did not own a car. I lived in Mumbai till then and would rely on the public transport. Also to be honest, I never had the money to buy and maintain a car.

Well, things changed during my 4 year stint in Illinois, US. I learnt car driving from a driving school there. That and the fact I stayed in a small city in Midwest shaped my driving habit. So once I returned to India, the biggest challenge was to adapt to driving here! In last 2 years, this is what I have learnt:

You can’t beat them, better join them: There are only two ways people deal with the Indian traffic. First ones end up criticizing it a lot, have chauffeurs drive them. The other set of people have to commute to earn their paychecks. So can’t take the high moral ground. For the people in the second category, it is essential to learn that Indian traffic is not going to change or be like US for quite some time. In the mean time the best way to survive it just to be one of them!


Right of the way: The most fundamental rule is related to the fact that everyone cares about his/her vehicle and doesn’t want it to be damaged. So while driving everyone is banking on the fact that the other person cares about his car. The other person is the one who does not want any accident and hence should take steps to avoid it.So in a way, driving at times reduces to bluffing. If you appear to be reckless and not worrying a bit about the other guy, chances are high that you will get the right of the way. ( so others will let you pass, cross the intersection etc)

Extreme alertness: As compared to driving in US, driving in India (Pune in particular) needs extreme alertness on the part of the driver. Not only are you trying to maneuver your car through the busy narrow roads, you are also tying to guess the moves of unpredictable two wheelers, bicycles and pedestrians. It takes enormous amount of f attention and at times great intuition :-)

Every man for himself: most of the drivers see the roads as a “dog eat dog” situation and believe that they are left to fend for themselves. So there is no cooperation, no concept of letting others go first. Road is a precious commodity which must be snatched from others. If not, others will snatch it up from you. So everyone is fighting a battle to reach where ever he/she has to. I have suffered from being Mr. nice. I allowed few vehicles to cross the road at an intersection and then was stuck at that intersection for more than 5 minutes because no one would let me pass...

Traffic rules: Traffic rules in India are like laws of economics. They are more of “statement of tendencies”. Simply put, many people will tend to stop at a red light. But there are no guarantees that all of them will. These are not laws of physics/ chemistry that will be always true.I had to understand that others will not follow all the traffic rules and drive with that in mind. These days, even I am treating these rules in similar way and obeying the rules when I really have to :-)

Honking as a communication medium: This is the part which is least understood by the foreigners. In India, the rear view mirror is not used at all. It is very common to see cars actually not having rear view mirrors or they being tucked in! In addition, most drivers assume that once they decide that they want to take a turn (some of them might give turn signal also), the rest of the traffic knows it and will let them. (goes back to pt#2 above)When you are up against such drivers, you have to just make them aware that you exist. At times it helps them not do something stupid. So the rule becomes, honk to let others know that you exist. Honk to let others know of your existence before they do something stupid!

Mental makeup of a Pune driver: In order to figure out what they behave the way they do, it is essential to understand how these drivers are made.Most of then start with bicycles and drive it whichever way it pleases them. When you are riding a bicycle, there is really a no right side or wrong side of the road. Then these youngsters move up to two wheelers which simply give them more power. Finally they get a car. Now they can’t really get rid of the habits they have acquired over the years. They just continue with what they have learnt

There are quite a distinct number of moves that the drivers use. I will keep this topic for some other post…