Delhi Driving - Lesson 2

Lesson 2: Red Light

A red light at a traffic signal is a place to stop - and RELAX. A place to do your daily shopping, saving on time and petrol (not to mention escaping bombs at your local market). A place where you can buy the latest books and magazines, Cosmopolitan to Better Homes & Gardens to Tehelka, even an IKEA catalogue - you name it, we have it! A place to pick up the latest made-in-China gadgets: mosquito exterminators, "Nokia" chargers, or plain old calculators. Fake beards last month have been overtaken by the demand for cowboy hats this month - in all colours, but only one size. I was intrigued by one in deep blue, and tempted to ask the price, but the light turned green. Dusters? Towels? Try the next red light! You need red roses? Check out the Moti Bagh red light.

Of course, there are those restless drivers who do not know how to RELAX, and start blowing the horn the moment the light turns green, without any consideration for the fact that the driver in the car ahead is still paying for his or her purchases ... Wasn't there a law against blowing the horn at a traffic light?

And then there are the drivers in too much of a hurry to stop at all when a light turns red - usually the ones behind the wheel of a blueline bus or a BMW ...

Delhi Driving - Lesson 1

Driving in Delhi has always been a challenge, despite (or because of?) the plentiful, wide roads. It has become even more of a challenge with the proliferation of vehicles of all sorts, and all the construction going on in preparation for 2010. Some observations of a daily driver, for surviving on these Lawless Roads:

Lesson 1: Lane Driving

Lane driving means different things to different drivers. For autorickshaw drivers, it means driving with the front wheel on the line dividing two lanes, effectively blocking traffic in both lanes. For motorcycle drivers, it means cutting in from the left lane and then cutting in from the right lane, scraping your car evenly from both sides. For bus drivers, it doesn't mean anything, except on the BRT bus corridors, where it means they have a lane to themselves and can test the speed limits more easily. For drivers of cars with a red light (लाल बत्ती) on top, it means they can drive in the lane meant for cycles on the BRT bus corridors. For the traffic police, it means even less, because they don't know the first thing about driving anyway!

Postscript: New observation. The right lane is not for overtaking as we once thought. It is for cruising along at 20kmph, cell phone in one hand, cigarette in the other, a finger lightly on the steering wheel ...