I just got back from my third India trip.

I ran into this video a while ago and now’s an appropriate time to post it: India Driving. Driving in India is crazy and I’m often shocked that traffic actually moves on a consistent basis. There really are few rules. If there does happen to be a traffic cop at an intersection traffic will tend to flow somewhat orderly. If there’s just a traffic light, traffic will tend to flow after it turns red until the other direction pushes it’s way through and starts blocking the intersection.

There really is no attention paid to lanes. Cars will cram into every available inch. If there is no divider between the oncoming lanes people will begin using the closest oncoming lane if traffic is lighter in the other direction.

Another interesting note is the existence of a definite heirarchy between vehicles, mostly by size I believe. A car will turn into a street and cut off lots of motorcycles and auto rickshaws. But, if there’s a truck or bus coming, they will yield. The rickshaws seem to be lowest on the scale.

Oh, and it’s fairly easy to convince airport guards to let you into the secure area without having gone through security. It was benign in our case, we accidentally left the terminal while looking for the shuttle to another terminal, but still a bit unsettling.