Traffic in Dehli

Last year, during my first year in graduate school, Vignesh, one of my friends and colleagues, shared with me a video of traffic in India. I was quite amazing to see an overhead view of traffic flow in Delhi. In the video, traffic followed its own rules, not the rules of the road that we are familiar with in the US. Once you had a chance to cross, you did so, and commonly 100 vehicles followed stopping the flow from the other direction until they edged in to stop the opposing flow. The video helped to prepare me for what I have experienced in India, but only slightly. Being in the thick of it all is much different than watching a distant video of the craziness that is Delhi traffic.

Traffic in Old Delhi seems to run like several schools of fish swimming through the sea; large metal encased fish that dart around with no regard to lane markings through smog nearly as thick as water. Horns blare frequently stating, “Here I am,” or “I am coming your way.” At night headlights flash constantly as a warning to get out of the way. It is not uncommon to have vehicles just inches from each other travelling at 40km per hour. I even saw one auto rikshaw driver place his foot on the rikshaw in front of his, seemingly to make sure he would not run in to it. Harsh glances are exchanged when you interrupt someone’s personal direction; words that I do not understand are often yelled, most likely condescending in nature; but I have yet to see a single rude gesture.

It is not uncommon to see an auto rikshaw packed with more than the comfortable 3 passengers to help cut costs. By the way, the meter only runs just in case the drivers are pulled over by the police, rates are agreed upon before the trip starts, usually at least twice the cost if it were metered. Motorcycles usually hold 3-5 people on what is intended to seat two. With the hectic traffic, you should buckle up for safety. Oh wait, did I forget to mention no rikshaw I have been in has a seat belt?

Even in all of this craziness, I have yet to observe one accident. We had a few close calls, stopping only inches from the vehicles in front of us, jerking us out of our seats, but not a single collision. No vehicles, people crossing the road sporadically, or the occasional oxen or cow have been struck. This is a good thing, as I have heard that a vehicle hitting a cow or human is typically mobbed, the driver pulled from the vehicle to be “roughed-up” a bit by the angry mob, and then the vehicle is incinerated. You read it right, incinerated. Burned. Set-a-blaze. Roasted. However you may want to say it, the vehicle is burned. And this is never a good thing when the majority of motorized transportation here runs on compressed natural gas. I bet it would make for quite the show though.

The rule of the road are a bit different in New Delhi, traffic signals are actually obeyed! Now it is most likely due to an office being stationed at most intersections, and traffic cams being installed, but hey, the lights make people stop and that is some improvement. Maybe the trickle-down effect will start to occur through the rest of the state, but I do not see that happening any time soon.

Traffic is a great, albeit stressful way, to wake up in the morning, or any time of the day for that matter. I wish you could be here to experience it. It is pretty mind blowing.