City Driving

The only rule is: There Are No Rules!

Driving in Lucknow can be quite an adventure. A number of different types of vehicles must share the road. In order of "right of way," starting with the least likely to move out of the way and working our way down, we have:

• Buses
  
• Cars
  
• Motorcycles and scooters
  
• Motor rickshaws (sort of a three-wheeled, enclosed golf-cart looking thing)
  
• Bicycle rickshaws
  
• Bicycles
  
• Pedestrians
  
• And, the occasional cow (I suppose the cow should go at the top, being the least likely to move out of the way)
  

The larger main roads have three lanes each direction, with a large median separating the two sides. Well, I should say, there are painted lines dividing the road into thirds, but traffic doesn't really flow in single file lines the way we're used to. It has more of a Mario Cart feel – lots of lateral movement. Generally, faster moving vehicles stay to the right (traffic direction is reverse of US), and there is lots of weaving. Most people drive with one hand on the wheel, and the other on the horn. And they honk often. Honking seems to convey many things: "Move over, you're going too slow," "Look out, here I come!" (when driving through an intersection), "Don't hit me!" "Watch out, you're drifting!" and occasionally just to announce your presence. Most intersections do not have any sort of traffic light or signage – you just enter slowly, and make your way through, trying not to get hit. At big intersections, there are large round-abouts that somewhat manage to organize the chaos by getting all the vehicles to at least flow in generally the same direction.

Often times, bicyclists, motorcyclists, pedestrians (and the occasional car) ride/walk/drive the wrong direction on the divided roads. This leads to more honking, but surprisingly few accidents. In any given trip, we will experience several near-misses. But in general, people seem to be very aware of the other vehicles around them. And they communicate well through honking. The motor rickshaws even have "Honk Please" painted on the back of the vehicle. They top out at 40 kilometers per hour, so they would rather know you're coming when you blow by them on the road.

It gets really interesting off the main roads. These are two lanes, undivided – one lane in each direction. Drivers will frequently cross the center line to move around slower bikes, pedestrians, rickshaws, etc. Even if there is oncoming traffic! Just honk your horn to warn them you're coming over! I don't think we'll be attempting to take a spin behind the wheel anytime soon. Driving from the on the opposite side of the car (and a manual, no less!) would be enough of a challenge – but the traffic would be the end of me.

I'll see if I can get some pictures of the madness. It really is something you have to experience first-hand to understand.