Driving in India
Jan. 31st, 2008 04:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cheeniA common scene among prosperous sections of an Indian city is the ubiquitous presence of new cars and still newer drivers. The drivers are either first time car owners (all too common among the IT districts of Hyderabad and Bangalore - driving brand new cars sporting a huge red L and a dented fender or two) or first time urban immigrant cab drivers - who start with the less popular night shift to master their skills behind the wheel.
If I were to pick the top three cities in India for bad driving, it would have to be Calcutta, Delhi and Hyderabad. I still haven't figured out why exactly they are the worst, but they appear to be so for different reasons, Delhi just seems to breed bad drivers, the traffic cops in Hyderabad are pathetic at stopping violations and Calcutta has perhaps always carried the immigrant burden - where Biharis and Bangladeshis get their first taste of city life before moving on to a better city and the fatalistic attitude of Bengal if not all of India doesn't let the locals be bothered about piddling things like traffic accidents.
I don't think there's a whole lot of effort at educating the drivers to drive better, but I just came across
http://driving-india.blogspot.com/
I haven't watched the videos, but it looks hopeful. BTW, the site says that 10% of all traffic accidents in the globe occur in India. With 1/6th of the world's population that isn't a bad number, but with a tiny fraction of the world's automobiles that's a huge number.
Learning To Drive: Blind Spots - video powered by Metacafe
If I were to pick the top three cities in India for bad driving, it would have to be Calcutta, Delhi and Hyderabad. I still haven't figured out why exactly they are the worst, but they appear to be so for different reasons, Delhi just seems to breed bad drivers, the traffic cops in Hyderabad are pathetic at stopping violations and Calcutta has perhaps always carried the immigrant burden - where Biharis and Bangladeshis get their first taste of city life before moving on to a better city and the fatalistic attitude of Bengal if not all of India doesn't let the locals be bothered about piddling things like traffic accidents.
I don't think there's a whole lot of effort at educating the drivers to drive better, but I just came across
http://driving-india.blogspot.com/
I haven't watched the videos, but it looks hopeful. BTW, the site says that 10% of all traffic accidents in the globe occur in India. With 1/6th of the world's population that isn't a bad number, but with a tiny fraction of the world's automobiles that's a huge number.
Learning To Drive: Blind Spots - video powered by Metacafe
