[Assam] Driving in New Delhi -a report from the LA Times

[Ram Sarangapani]

This is a real shame. Of course we have all known this for many
years. Unfortunately, it is not just in Delhi. In Guwahati, at one time it
was next to impossible to get a driver's license through legitimate avenues
- greasing palms was a pre-requisite. I am sure the situation may be much
different today, but then, am not holding my breath.

--Ram


*Corruption revs up perilous driving on New Delhi streets*

*Up to 75 percent use payoffs to skip test and get their licenses anyway*
**
*By HENRY CHU*
*Los Angeles Times*

NEW DELHI — It doesn't take a Harvard degree to figure out that driving here
is hazardous to your health. Near-misses, reckless weaving and cars blithely
going the wrong way are highlights of the daredevil derby known as New Delhi
traffic.
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But a recent study by economists from Harvard and other American
universities suggests that, indeed, a majority of this city's drivers get
their licenses without actually knowing how to operate a car. They ply the
roads because of a simple fact: government corruption.

As many as 75 percent of motorists in New Delhi obtain their permits by
hiring agents whose palm-greasing intervention saves them time, energy and
the hassle of learning the difference between the brake and the accelerator,
the report says.

Those with agents bypass long waits in dingy government offices and almost
never have to submit to the road test that's required of all would-be
drivers. In fact, when newly licensed motorists who participated in the
study were given a surprise driving exam, more than 60 percent flunked.

"We had five questions about how to start a car, how to change gears and how
they worked, which are very basic questions," said Marianne Bertrand, a
professor at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business and a
co-author of the report. "They couldn't answer them."

Evidence of such cluelessness is thick on the ground in India's capital,
where getting from point A to point B is a white-knuckle exercise and
traffic safety seems an oxymoron.

Law of the asphalt jungle

Each day, more than 4 million vehicles jockey for position along narrow
lanes that wind through ancient bazaars or boulevards originally designed
for the horse-drawn carriages and stately cars of India's British colonial
elite.

Rules of the road exist but mainly on paper. On the streets, it's the law of
the jungle.

Bus drivers cut off motorcyclists, truckers dodge cows, entire families
squeeze onto a single scooter, three-wheel "auto rickshaws" zip in between
everyone else, and those on foot utter prayers and curses in equal measure.

It's a raucous free-for-all where the most important piece of advice is
found painted on the backs of taxis and trucks: "Horn please."

"They drive like they're pedestrians. If it's faster to go the wrong way up
the street, they'll do it. They have no sense of danger," said one
exasperated British executive who ventures out behind the wheel only on
weekends. "You have to be vigilant all the time."

Extra danger in the dark

In 2004, Delhi Traffic Police logged 9,083 accidents, in which 1,832 people
died. That's an average of five auto-related fatalities a day in a city that
boasts 14 million people — but only 2.6 million licensed drivers, a
Transportation Ministry official said.

Many accidents here occur at night, when some motorists drive with their
lights off, in the belief that their car batteries will last longer.

The chaos on New Delhi's streets is at least partly explained by the
findings of the study published last month by economists from Harvard
University, the University of Chicago, New York University and the
International Finance Corp., an arm of the World Bank.

The scholars were commissioned to look into the effects of government
corruption. Their report, "Does Corruption Produce Unsafe Drivers?" (answer:
yes), has cast an unflattering light not just on the menace lurking on New
Delhi's streets but also on India's Kafkaesque bureaucracy and the
dishonesty it has spawned.

Clandestine payoffs or special favors smooth the way for buying property and
acquiring government ration cards, among other things. They secure places in
good schools for your children, ensure you prompt attention at the hospital,
provide you access to bank loans, exempt you from local building codes.

"The whole country is deep in corruption," said N.S. Venkataraman, an
activist in the southern city of Chennai, formerly known as Madras.
"Corruption is there from one end to the other."
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