Monday, July 23, 2007

Rules of the Road - 07/23/07

Because of the large population in India, there are a lot of people on the roads.  Jaipur and Agra are also the two most popular tourist destinations close to Dehli.  However, it does not appear that they were ready for the influx of cars on the road.  On our trip to from Jaipur to Agra on Saturday, most of the roads were two lane roads.

The distance from Jaipur to Agra is about 240 kilometers.  If you don't pass stay behind the cars behind you and don't pass them, it would take you about 8 hours to get there.  We had a video player in the van.  The movie that we were watching was Cliffhanger.  I don't remember much about the movie because frankly the drive was much more thrillling than the movie.

Our driver never passed up the opportunity to pass another vehicle.  There were many close calls.  If it looked liked there was an opening in the other lane, he was going to take it.  Because of the high traffic on the road, the government is trying to build divided highways.  However, they haven't done a very good job of directing the traffic to let them know that a divided highway is coming up.  The scariest moment came when we were actually on a divided highway.  We were passing another car and a bus was coming from the other way.  Since we were on a divided highway, the bus should not have been on our side.  It was at that moment when I just looked up and said a prayer for God to just watch over me.

In India, there are two main rules of the road.  The first one is "The right of way goes to the one who gets there first."  The second one is "If someone honks, get out of the way."  These two rules are pretty much followed by everyone.  There are some stoplights, but when there are not, everyone follows the above rules.  Even the trucks say the following on the back of them "Please Honk. Wait for Side."

No comments: