"Not Land-Based, but Space-Based"
You need to be in India for about three minutes to reach the decision NOT to drive here. If there is order to the chaos, we have yet to find it. The only guideline is that the bigger you are, the more aggressively you can ‘go for it’. Honking, of course, helps and is so frequently deployed that it must offer indemnity from responsibility; ‘yes, I did hit the cow/sheep/bicycle/tourist, but I honked to let them know the impact was imminent’. Our driver put it far more eloquently, explaining that driving in India isn’t lane-based, but space-based. Even on the rather attractive, new six-lane highway that links Jaipur and Jodhpur, much of the traffic ignores the clearly partitioned lanes. Government signs urge that ‘lane-driving is safe-driving’ but no-one’s listening.
