Driving in India

We arrived in India very early on Friday morning. On Saturday we picked up a rental car, drove it 20km plus through the middle of Bangalore, went to a wedding, and then today, Sunday, we drove down to Mysore, around 150km. So what, you might say? Well, everyone I meet tells me that you have to be crazy to drive in India. Travel by train, by bus, by taxi, or hire a car with a driver, all are relatively cheap ways to get around. But I don’t like to be driven around. I don’t evven like someone else piloting a plane when Iam aboard, even though I don’t have a pilot’s licence.

Before we came to India I did a little study of the driving. Yes, it looks chaotic on a video, people who have been to India say it is chaotic, Indians who have driven in India say it is chaotic. They are wrong. As a psychologist I decided to look at it a little more closely. If driving in India really was chaotic then there would be continual accidents, and no one would get anywhere. While the accident rate is high people do generally get to where they want to go. It is not just Brownian motion, with random movement, there is direction and purpose.

Indian driving is just driving with different rules. The rules are very different to what we in the West are used to. Driving in Italy – boring, driving in Paris – do it blindfold, driving in Eastern Europe, more interesting but definitely more like the West than India.

To drive in India means to accept a new set of rules. Now, having only driven for two days (though without accidents), I have begun to establish some of these. As we will be driving for the next 10 days or so these should develop, and I will hopefully add to this. Please take these rules as a beginner’s draft, from someone with limited experience.

1. If you drive like a Westerner in India you will never pull away from the kerb. If you drive like an Indian in the West, you will be in an accident within about one minute
2. Use your horn in the way we are supposed to in the West, to show you are there. Horns are constantly used. They are not used in the way they usually are in the West, as a means of shouting at someone you are angry with.
3. Indians are very courteous, I have yet to see and anger or road rage. This is the essential rule. Without it, all else falls apart.
4. All round vision, high levels of attention, and perceptual acuity are essential. If you cannot focus these attributes then don’t drive, seriously.
5. Understand the size of your vehicle. Other vehicles will come within centimetres of yours, and you will go through gaps with similar dimensions
6. Be brave. You have to pull out in front of other vehicles in a way that is incredible in the West. How else are you going to get across that junction, get round that roundabout, or cross the road to the fuel station?
7. Drivers interdigitate at junctions. Critical rule. Link to rule 3.
8. Motorbikes, pushbikes, tuc tucs and other small vehicles create a sort of atmosphere similar to having buzzing flies all around. Just don’t swat them. They will use the tiniest space on any side of your vehicle to pass, and you will let them. See Rule 3.
9. Undertaking is as common as overtaking, and perfectly acceptable. Use that left mirror
10. Vehicles will come towards you in your lane on your side of the road. Deal with it. There is space.
11. Oxen and cows will be using the road, and they are very slow. Ox carts are used on dual carriageways, but they tend to keep to the left
12. People walk across the roads (including main highways) but they are taking account of traffic and you have to take account of them. Sometimes you let them through, sometimes not
13. Drive slowly. The limit on open roads is often 80kph. The roads are potholed and have speedbumps. All the above only work because traffic moves slowly, but it keeps moving – generally
14. Apparently 13 is unlucky, so I have added this rule. If you believe that then you should probably not drive in India. Success is not about luck, it is about driving like an Indian.

There we are. That is a start. I am not claiming these are the definitive rules, but they are a start, and I will hopefully be back with an update after more driving experience here in India.