Myths about Indian Driving Rules...

He who is loudest wins.
Urban traffic in India is a miasma of vehicular and non-vehiculartraffic, including such diverse things as cars, semis, motor-rickshaws(three-wheeled taxis), bicycle-rickshaws, motor scooters, elephants,goats, dogs, children, chickens, bearers, push-carts, camels, buses, etc.These things are all moving. If you want to pass anything, honk yourhorn. Everyone else will start honking too. If you don't have a horn,shout. He who is loudest gets the right-of-way. Everyone else moves over to the left (unless they are in a hurry; everyone in India is in a hurry). If the other vehicles and livestock don't yield to the loudest horn, that vehicle with the right-of-way enters the lane of oncoming traffic and passes those ahead. Especially on a busy street at rush hour. This especially fun when you are in a flimsy motor-rickshaw, with asemi bearing down on you.
Don't hit the cows.
In addition to the moving traffic, you have a number of stationarytargets, er, obstacles, including cows, beggars, street repair crews,double-parked cars and trucks and elephants. You are in the right as longas you don't hit the cows. The cows can be ANYWHERE in the street.Usually they sit on the median, but you can find them sitting in themiddle of the road. All traffic flows around the cow. Other animals orpeople are not so lucky.
Whether they need it or not. The state of road surfaces in India is a miracle of hand labor.Everything is done by hand, including the removal of old asphalt(burn a fire on top of the road until it gets soft), laying thestone underlayment, mixing concrete (usually right on top of thestreet), and leveling the surface. The tools are shovels and picks andbrooms. This insures that the maximum amount of work for the repair crews.This also insures the maximum amount of disruption of traffic, becausethe process of resurfacing a stretch of road will take a minimum offive years. When they are done resurfacing, the condition of theroad is nearly identical to previous, meaning full of potholes, very uneven, etc. And since most vehicles lack any sort of suspension, a shortride around town is a bone-jarring, exhausting, white-knuckled adventure.The process of building a one mile stretch of new road takes about ten years.

Teen Driving Accidents

The AAA Foundation has released the results of a recent study finds that from 1995 - 2004, considering the 30917 deaths caused by drivers 15 - 17. Teens made up 36% of the deaths--so the majority of those killed, 64%, were passengers, occupants of other cars, pedestrians and bicyclists. This supports our recommendations for teens not having passengers in the car during their first years of driving and for strengthening the graduated licensing laws. Everyone is at risk as teens learn to drive.

Welcome to Driving Safety

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