traffic in Old Delhi

 

Ok, I finally understand why the Indian roads are so chaotic.

The bottom picture is an ad in the Hindu Times by the Delhi Police. They give instructions to 3 & 4 wheeled passenger & goods vehicles (yes....in India there ARE 3-wheeled vehicles carrying goods...); vehicles are told to drive on the left (in 4 lane roads) and in the middle (on 6 lane roads). They are allowed to change lane 50 meters before an intersection, but ONLY for the purpose of turning.

So where does it go wrong?

1: Most drivers seem to have little or no education, judging by the way they drive. They may very well not be able to read (and subsequently will not read the paper)....and many of them may not even have a driver's licence. No point in trying to tell them what to do via an ad.

2: What about all the other road users, like riksha's, normal bycicles, horses and camels, elephants, pedestrians, dogs, cows, and the occasional monkey? Right! They'll go whereever pleases them, which is usually in front of you.

3: In India it is perfectly normal to use the "pavement" or whatever passes for it at the side of the road for driving. Does that count as "left"? And if that is "left", the what is "middle"?

4: When speaking of a 4 lane road whilst showing 2 lanes (or 6 lane road when showing 3 lanes of which one does not seem to be part of the regular road), one confuses the average Indian driver (see point one). Apparantly 4 rows of cars have to be able to fit onto those two lanes.....well, it must be said, the Indian drivers are very succesfull in their attempts to do so! 

5: Except for the posh areas in Delhi (and India, for that matter) there are no lines on the road indicating the lanes. Very often it is not even clear which side of the road is which, and traffic drives where ever it pleases...left, right, middle, and both ways. The one thing nobody seems to have trouble with is changing lanes....for turning, for stopping, for a u-turn.....

And finally.....in the 4,5 years that I have been in India I have NEVER seen a road as empty as this! It is therefore very likely that the Indian drivers will not recognize this as a road and have no clue what to do with the instructions given.

As a conclusion I would say that the money spent on this brave but rather useless attempt to educate the average driver had better be put into traffic safety lessons to educate their children....and then maybe, in one or two generations or so, these ads will not be necessary anymore...

It is said that when you first come to Delhi, you cannot stop talking about your experiences....and when you have been here a while, you cannot find the words to describe your experiences anymore.

I have experienced some sort of writers' block the past months... I had no words to describe the problems arising (literally) because of the heavy monsoon, or the frenzy that swept the city when it was preparing for the Commonwealth games, nor what happened during the Games...collapsing footbridges, dogs shitting in the athlete's quarters, and the likes. I tried to upload pictures showing people painting the pavement the day before the grand opening of the Games, or headlines I found in the newspapers about beggars that were being moved to areas that were less crowded with tourists....I made pictures of slums hidden behind huge posters advertising the games, with ironic slogans as "come out and play" and wanted to talk about the fact that suddenly it WAS possible to clean the city....but the words failed me.

My new year's resolution is to write more often about the many noteworthy things in India. Headlines, things that happen on the streets, or even the interesting battle that T has now taken up with the neighbours who ALL seem to have chosen this particular time to knock down their houses and build three story appartment buildings, no doubt with the purpose to rent them out to foreigners against ludecrous prices. The work is being carried out by workmen and -women who earn 100 rupees per day...or less. For this they officially work six days a week from 8 to 8.....unofficially (which is why T started his battle) they work 7 days a week from 6 to 11, and even sometimes pour concrete at 4 at night....next to our bedroom.

So today a few of the noteworthy things that I found in the newspaper yesterday: a Sadhu blowing for good luck in the new year, a headline about how "no honking day" was going to be celebrated on january the 1st (never noticed anything....honking as usual) and -very noteworthy for a Dutch person like myself- a picture of our traditional new year's fare, the "oliebol" (literally meaning oil-ball).
Only a few weird things in the wonderful world called India......more to come!