Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How to drive in India (2015)

theforeignchallenge.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 82 posts

Re: How to drive in India (2015)

#61

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

maDdj wrote: post #53

People bend traffic rules all over the world. At some point of time even the ones commenting has broken a traffic rule or two. With 1.3 billion population and 1/3 sq ft area to that of US, yes space is a commodity in India. I had been to Italy and driving there is chaotic as well.New york is another classic example. People in overpopulated areas develop a sense of competitiveness which evolves and pushes them to the…

> New york is another classic example

New York driving experience: 90% of the trouble is caused by Uber drivers (T&LC plated), 9% is caused by yellow cabs. 1% is caused by everyone else. Those 99% are overwhelmingly immigrants importing their subpar driving culture into the US.

Driving through the blizzard earlier this year was a dream primarily because the Ubers were gone.

Re: How to drive in India (2015)

#62

Post by truncate »

gwbas1c wrote: post #31

The author didn't mention anything about seat belts. The first time I got in a car when I landed in India, I had to insist that my driver pull out the seat belts. I don't think he even knew what the seat belts were for!

I'm mainly lived in Delhi, and haven't been any other big city. Although it is common in smaller towns/cities to not wear seat belts, but in Delhi you definitely do, and there is fairly good chance you will get caught.

Re: How to drive in India (2015)

#63

Post by truncate »

kelvin0 wrote: post #35

Road rage must be rampant? Or is there a (implied socially) hierarchy which prevents this most of the time?

Power matters more than money I believe. Considerable number of people are tempered on road (correlates with education background and kind of jobs they do). So if they think they can harass you, they probably will. You may be rich, but if you don't look that physically strong or they feel you probably don't have support of goons or police (which most regular engineer like me wouldn't), be ready to exchange bunch of verbal abuses or potential fist fight.

Re: How to drive in India (2015)

#64

Post by mlboss »

NTDF9 wrote: post #51

This really is a great opportunity for an enterprising youngster or a foreigner to start a consulting company to bring rules into the driving system. The way to approach this is: 1. Create a company, build a small DB of rules in UK (the closest road cousin to India), Australia and US. Maybe Hongkong to understand dense cities 2. Get estimates of costs required to stripe lanes, put traffic lights, green road signs 3.…

I am not sure if you are joking. There are road signs, stripe lanes and everything else that you mentioned in India. There are laws for everything. The problem is nobody follows them. What is missing is enforcement of those laws. No startup can do that. It has to come from government.

Re: How to drive in India (2015)

#65

Post by subashp »

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #61
maDdj wrote: post #53

People bend traffic rules all over the world. At some point of time even the ones commenting has broken a traffic rule or two. With 1.3 billion population and 1/3 sq ft area to that of US, yes space is a commodity in India. I had been to Italy and driving there is chaotic as well.New york is another classic example. People in overpopulated areas develop a sense of competitiveness which evolves and pushes them to the…

> New york is another classic example New York driving experience: 90% of the trouble is caused by Uber drivers (T&LC plated), 9% is caused by yellow cabs. 1% is caused by everyone else. Those 99% are overwhelmingly immigrants importing their subpar driving culture into the US. Driving through the blizzard earlier this year was a dream primarily because the Ubers were gone.

Its survival my friend. Try running your family driving a taxi. May be your opinion changes then?

Re: How to drive in India (2015)

#66

Post by alistairSH »

plussed_reader wrote: post #54
alistairSH wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Part of the issue with pedestrians, in the US, is they have priority over cars/buses/etc. I don't believe this is true in many other parts of the world. As the smallest, easiest to stop/start, and most likely to be injured, they probably should yield to other users.

It actually depends on the locality; stepping off the curb in Vegas or NYC is your ass on the line.

Legally, those cars should be yielding (to pedestrians in a cross-walk).[1] But, as you mentioned, it varies by state, and the laws are rife with "yield here, but not there, and only on Tuesdays after a full moon." Would probably be easier to just say "humans are fragile, cross only when it's clear."

1 - http://www.ncsl.org/research/transportation/pedestrian-cross...

Re: How to drive in India (2015)

#67

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

subashp wrote: post #65
kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> New york is another classic example New York driving experience: 90% of the trouble is caused by Uber drivers (T&LC plated), 9% is caused by yellow cabs. 1% is caused by everyone else. Those 99% are overwhelmingly immigrants importing their subpar driving culture into the US. Driving through the blizzard earlier this year was a dream primarily because the Ubers were gone.

Its survival my friend. Try running your family driving a taxi. May be your opinion changes then?

That's no excuse to threaten other people's safety.

Re: How to drive in India (2015)

#68

Post by NTDF9 »

mlboss wrote: post #64
NTDF9 wrote: post #51

This really is a great opportunity for an enterprising youngster or a foreigner to start a consulting company to bring rules into the driving system. The way to approach this is: 1. Create a company, build a small DB of rules in UK (the closest road cousin to India), Australia and US. Maybe Hongkong to understand dense cities 2. Get estimates of costs required to stripe lanes, put traffic lights, green road signs 3.…

I am not sure if you are joking. There are road signs, stripe lanes and everything else that you mentioned in India. There are laws for everything. The problem is nobody follows them. What is missing is enforcement of those laws. No startup can do that. It has to come from government.

I'm not joking. A major part of reckless driving there is just that no one knows what lanes are meant for. Having more striped lanes, better traffic lights and yes, better enforcement on wheels would help.

But an entire population wouldn't learn what it means to drive in a lane unless there are real lanes. Simple as that.

Re: How to drive in India (2015)

#69

Post by nilsocket »

NTDF9 wrote: post #51

This really is a great opportunity for an enterprising youngster or a foreigner to start a consulting company to bring rules into the driving system. The way to approach this is: 1. Create a company, build a small DB of rules in UK (the closest road cousin to India), Australia and US. Maybe Hongkong to understand dense cities 2. Get estimates of costs required to stripe lanes, put traffic lights, green road signs 3.…

I don't think it ever works out.

The problem is with people and everybody are in a hurry.

Following traffic rules makes it slow, building bigger roads is not possible because lot of shops from streets are to be closed, even though the land belongs to government's.

People follow traffic signals only when there is a traffic police, rest of the time they don't.

Accident rates are much normal, they don't happen in high rate considering such a huge population.

Re: How to drive in India (2015)

#70

Post by manquer »

truncate wrote: post #60
vivekseth wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are drivers in India limited to just the upper class? Whenever I visit India it feels like anyone who’s not lower class can afford to hire a driver.

I'm from a middle class family in Delhi, and we never had (or could have) afforded a driver full time. Maybe now, my father can, but it is still expensive and not worth it. Most middle class families don't have a driver IMO. Much more common with upper middle class. However, we did hire driver for couple of days in rural areas every now and then.

if you rent a car, getting the drive is never that expensive. Getting a FT driver for your own car is of course different. Rental cost + driver cost is not that much higher even without uber/ola
Post reply on HN