Driving in India
Feb-April 2007
This is the first country in our trip so far, out of about 20 odd, that has provoked so much reaction and discussion from the three of us so I thought I’d write a small section for any would-be Indian travellers.
"Some" of the examples we've seen of Indian driving.
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One of the lesser hazards, but these can still can slow traffic which encourages reckless and impatient driving.
We all agree that India is well-worth a visit. We’ve were there for over two months now and enjoyed the majority of our time there. The plus points are that the people are very friendly and in general will do what ever they can to help you and cheaply at that-I can’t think of one real instance when somebody has clearly tried to scam us. The Hotels aren’t too expensive and you can stay at clean decent ones for between 400 & 2000 Rs per night. Normally about 1000 for a single and 1500 for a double. In English that is about £12 & £19 respectively for each room(82Rps to £1 at time of writing.). Food varies a lot and you soon learn that there are strict vegetarian restaurants and non-veg restaurants. The former don’t even serve eggs whilst the later are the only places where you are likely to find alcohol, providing you are not in a dry state or trying to get a drink on a dry day. (Normally Monday in our experience.) There are plenty of sights to see although in general the countryside itself is not that astounding for the areas we travelled through, which brings me to the main point for writing this section.
It isn’t interesting to ride here unless you do all your riding around the Himalayas, and we're not completely convinced of that. The roads are quite poor in general, driving is very very dangerous and I speak as one who normally takes most things quite easily. We’ve not driven anywhere in the World so far where it is in anyway as crazy and idiotic as it is and can be here. Please take this point very seriously. I love riding but it is hard to stay above 50 mph for too long as the roads and driving just aren’t good enough. If you’re lucky to find some bends you are constantly concerned that a lorry or a bus may be overtaking on a blind bend......and this is for real. We have regularly been faced with other vehicles, including tractors, lorries, cars and motorcycles driving against us also in the fast lane, on our side, of a dual carriage-way. Other hazards include the high level of very slow vehicles such as camel, oxen or horse drawn carts and tractors which slow everybody down and encourage even more reckless driving than normal. Some of the really annoying and more dangerous driving comes from Bus/lorry drivers who when driving against your riding directon will still pull out to overtake even though they can see you have no where to go other than the hard/soft shoulder and either slow to 5 mph or stop. Indicators in the main aren’t used and brake and any other lights rarely work so you have no hope of anticipating another drivers intentions. Roundabouts are driven around both ways and across. Sylvia and I were forced off the road one day nearing the end of our time in India on the oncoming hard shoulder as as we were overtaking a new-ish 4 x 4 he decided to drive on the wrong side of the road having been stationary just a few seconds before. In general, nobody waits for anything or anybody-if a lorry needs to do a three-point turn, traffic will drive round any gap they can whilst he’s half-way through the maneaver leaving the lorry driver blocking the road for everybody else who is also trying to squeeze through where ever they can. There are many many more examples but we hope this will give you an objective understanding of what it is like to drive here.
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A few of the sights we encountered on our travels.
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This was genuinely being towed by a tractor and trailer.
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It just isn’t fun biking here and your patience is tested every time you set off within a few minutes. Don’t let me put you off visiting-You will not be disappointed as I say but we’d recommend hiring a car/driver for a stay. You should be able to hire a driver and car for around £15-£20 per day which is far cheaper than shipping and using your bike here, and they will normally offer a lot of help in seeing and doing what you came for. If you still feel you’d like to ride here. Fly, use a driver as suggested and hire a Royal Enfield bullet 350 for a few days around Northern Indian close to the Himalayas-that’d be my way of doing it.
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The condition of your average Indian bus.
Finally, if we’ve not put you off riding here yet, we’ve complied six rules that we hope will help to keep you alive.
1-Don’t drive at night under any circumstances. Many vehicles have no lights, drive as if still day-time and worst of all, the bus drivers who are the worst by day, are also known to drive drunk at night. (we’ve heard this from more than one Indian person too.)
2- Do fit the loudest horn you can lay your hands on. We bought some from Nippy Normans, I think about 96 db, and they work very well. It is common practice in India to toot your horn whenever you are overtaking to let the driver you know you are there, and to let pedestrians know you are coming when driving through towns and cities where they have a tendency to walk on the road, sometimes in the middle !!.
3- Don’t drive about 50mph on any roads except the odd wide and clear dual-carriageway you may find. It is hard to convey to those of you who’ve not been here before but traffic circumstances change so much quicker here than you could ever anticipate at home, and Indians just don't seem to be able to anticipate the speed you are travelling at, mainly as other road users rarely drive faster than 50mph.
4- Drive as if everybody else is drunk as many of their manoeuvres are just not predictable or sensible. Indians drive under the premise that “Might is Right” so the bigger the vehicle, the less care the driver has to pay to other road users..in every respect. Always keep this in mind.
5- Drink plenty of water and don’t drive at all if you’re tired. Your concentration is your life line.
6-….and finally, expect the unexpected all the time. There is all manner of free and skittish wildlife waiting to add to the hazards I’ve already mentioned above.
If you think we’re a bit over-the-top in our description, read Chris Scotts’ section on India in Adventure Motorcycling and you will find the same observations there too.
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John trying to keep his cool on the way to Varanassi - One way of keeping your concentration in the heat.
We hope you find this helpful. I’ve included a few photos to give you some ideas of driving over here but wish to add that we normally see at the very least one, possibly two serious accidents a day. On one day we must have seen the aftermath of a good 5/6 serious accidents. We find it hard to believe that people don’t take these signs more seriously but they don’t.
Mike(John & Sylvia.)
p.s. If any of you who have ridden or visited India would like to add any useful/helpful comments, please feel free to do so.
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Ultimately take a tractor for safe happy stress-free motoring !!
Feb-April 2007
This is the first country in our trip so far, out of about 20 odd, that has provoked so much reaction and discussion from the three of us so I thought I’d write a small section for any would-be Indian travellers.
"Some" of the examples we've seen of Indian driving.
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One of the lesser hazards, but these can still can slow traffic which encourages reckless and impatient driving.
We all agree that India is well-worth a visit. We’ve were there for over two months now and enjoyed the majority of our time there. The plus points are that the people are very friendly and in general will do what ever they can to help you and cheaply at that-I can’t think of one real instance when somebody has clearly tried to scam us. The Hotels aren’t too expensive and you can stay at clean decent ones for between 400 & 2000 Rs per night. Normally about 1000 for a single and 1500 for a double. In English that is about £12 & £19 respectively for each room(82Rps to £1 at time of writing.). Food varies a lot and you soon learn that there are strict vegetarian restaurants and non-veg restaurants. The former don’t even serve eggs whilst the later are the only places where you are likely to find alcohol, providing you are not in a dry state or trying to get a drink on a dry day. (Normally Monday in our experience.) There are plenty of sights to see although in general the countryside itself is not that astounding for the areas we travelled through, which brings me to the main point for writing this section.
It isn’t interesting to ride here unless you do all your riding around the Himalayas, and we're not completely convinced of that. The roads are quite poor in general, driving is very very dangerous and I speak as one who normally takes most things quite easily. We’ve not driven anywhere in the World so far where it is in anyway as crazy and idiotic as it is and can be here. Please take this point very seriously. I love riding but it is hard to stay above 50 mph for too long as the roads and driving just aren’t good enough. If you’re lucky to find some bends you are constantly concerned that a lorry or a bus may be overtaking on a blind bend......and this is for real. We have regularly been faced with other vehicles, including tractors, lorries, cars and motorcycles driving against us also in the fast lane, on our side, of a dual carriage-way. Other hazards include the high level of very slow vehicles such as camel, oxen or horse drawn carts and tractors which slow everybody down and encourage even more reckless driving than normal. Some of the really annoying and more dangerous driving comes from Bus/lorry drivers who when driving against your riding directon will still pull out to overtake even though they can see you have no where to go other than the hard/soft shoulder and either slow to 5 mph or stop. Indicators in the main aren’t used and brake and any other lights rarely work so you have no hope of anticipating another drivers intentions. Roundabouts are driven around both ways and across. Sylvia and I were forced off the road one day nearing the end of our time in India on the oncoming hard shoulder as as we were overtaking a new-ish 4 x 4 he decided to drive on the wrong side of the road having been stationary just a few seconds before. In general, nobody waits for anything or anybody-if a lorry needs to do a three-point turn, traffic will drive round any gap they can whilst he’s half-way through the maneaver leaving the lorry driver blocking the road for everybody else who is also trying to squeeze through where ever they can. There are many many more examples but we hope this will give you an objective understanding of what it is like to drive here.
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A few of the sights we encountered on our travels.
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This was genuinely being towed by a tractor and trailer.
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It just isn’t fun biking here and your patience is tested every time you set off within a few minutes. Don’t let me put you off visiting-You will not be disappointed as I say but we’d recommend hiring a car/driver for a stay. You should be able to hire a driver and car for around £15-£20 per day which is far cheaper than shipping and using your bike here, and they will normally offer a lot of help in seeing and doing what you came for. If you still feel you’d like to ride here. Fly, use a driver as suggested and hire a Royal Enfield bullet 350 for a few days around Northern Indian close to the Himalayas-that’d be my way of doing it.
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The condition of your average Indian bus.
Finally, if we’ve not put you off riding here yet, we’ve complied six rules that we hope will help to keep you alive.
1-Don’t drive at night under any circumstances. Many vehicles have no lights, drive as if still day-time and worst of all, the bus drivers who are the worst by day, are also known to drive drunk at night. (we’ve heard this from more than one Indian person too.)
2- Do fit the loudest horn you can lay your hands on. We bought some from Nippy Normans, I think about 96 db, and they work very well. It is common practice in India to toot your horn whenever you are overtaking to let the driver you know you are there, and to let pedestrians know you are coming when driving through towns and cities where they have a tendency to walk on the road, sometimes in the middle !!.
3- Don’t drive about 50mph on any roads except the odd wide and clear dual-carriageway you may find. It is hard to convey to those of you who’ve not been here before but traffic circumstances change so much quicker here than you could ever anticipate at home, and Indians just don't seem to be able to anticipate the speed you are travelling at, mainly as other road users rarely drive faster than 50mph.
4- Drive as if everybody else is drunk as many of their manoeuvres are just not predictable or sensible. Indians drive under the premise that “Might is Right” so the bigger the vehicle, the less care the driver has to pay to other road users..in every respect. Always keep this in mind.
5- Drink plenty of water and don’t drive at all if you’re tired. Your concentration is your life line.
6-….and finally, expect the unexpected all the time. There is all manner of free and skittish wildlife waiting to add to the hazards I’ve already mentioned above.
If you think we’re a bit over-the-top in our description, read Chris Scotts’ section on India in Adventure Motorcycling and you will find the same observations there too.
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John trying to keep his cool on the way to Varanassi - One way of keeping your concentration in the heat.
We hope you find this helpful. I’ve included a few photos to give you some ideas of driving over here but wish to add that we normally see at the very least one, possibly two serious accidents a day. On one day we must have seen the aftermath of a good 5/6 serious accidents. We find it hard to believe that people don’t take these signs more seriously but they don’t.
Mike(John & Sylvia.)
p.s. If any of you who have ridden or visited India would like to add any useful/helpful comments, please feel free to do so.
<IMG SRC="http://pic4.picturetrail.com/VOL784/4062504/16704495/257539359.jpg" border="0" alt="Image Hosting by PictureTrail.com">
Ultimately take a tractor for safe happy stress-free motoring !!
