[Assam] Driving in New Delhi - LA Times; India's Tom Sawyer's adventurous learning

Fri Aug 4 08:12:17 PDT 2006

Ram-da,

  You are right about the horrible experience - I'm told I would find it equally horrible when I return to India -mainly becos I have grown accustomed to wide open areas of US (which has ten times more space per citizen and fifty times more money). 

  Indian rural  popluation (mostly functionally illiterate -like the third of US popu. )  is spilling into cities at an unprecedented rate - and is unaware of traffic rules. Thus, even educated folks have to flow with the traffic :-)

  Like its driving skills in traffic -India is learning of unorthodox and even risky ways of getting ahead? 

Ram Sarangapani <assamrs at gmail.com> wrote:
    Umesh,

  That was pretty descriptive. My experience (as a passenger) was horrible in Hyderabad, Mumbai, Guwahati, Kolkatta, Indore and in Delhi.  In Hyderabad, I was amazed to see how the traffic flows. Basically it flows everywhere and in all directions. Even though the roads are divided, it just doesn't matter - it was like a huge chaotic blob moving nowhere. Compared to Hyderabad and Indore, Guwahti is better, but Delhi and Mumbai are definitely better than Guwahati. 
  I was pleasantly surprised to see cars being towed in Guwahati and released only after paying a fine (with receipt) from the police - didn't see any corruption there.

  --Ram da

  On 8/4/06, umesh sharma <jaipurschool at yahoo.com> wrote:       Ram-da,

  Now that they mention it I recall that I never took a driving test to get a driving license in India - though did face a quiz for reading driving signs. My father's regular agent took care of everythig  - i just followed his instructions. Delhi Traffic police is much much better and harsher than in other cities and its  roads (not of Old Delhi) are a pleasure to drive on - if you compare with those of other Indian cities -such as those of non metros. While at college I drove my motorbike for over six months without even a license (now I wonder how my father allowed me take it to Delhi ) - to impress a girl and to seek info about going abroad for studies. 

  I got caught twice - first time I had no papers on me -but also no money -- after much pleading the traffic policeman let me go. My father's advice about negotiating with traffic policemen seems to work even in US (as seen in cases of my NRI kid ex-roommate driving tickets last year - in the region of New York to Washington DC --only he was afraid of the Philadelphia police). 

  Despite being highly aware of the traffic rules - I did not follow atleast two of them. 

  One was -to follow the prescribed speed limits which are ridiculously low in city limits -generally 20 miles per hour - 30kms/hr - (nearly got caught many times by the traffic cop in my hometown even - sitting hidden - like in US - with the camera-enabled speed-reading gun) . Second, I did not drive in lanes (I drove a two-wheeler only -so like the bikers in US I did not drive in lanes-esp  in crowded traffic) . Sometimes the potholes on the road (due to corrupt contractors using substandard material -even on interstate highways) make you weave down the road - thus no lanes. 

  Unlike me - most also do not care which side of the road they are driving (like in US ) unless there is a traffic cop likely to catch them. USA police spends too much time on checking traffic rules (in India regular police on the beat generly cannot give a ticket - its the job of the traffic police -some changes have taken lace however in some cities) and too less on catching criminals of serious crimes  like the case of my getting robbed at gun point last November near my home in DC area-and lost my work permit in my wallet. The police were busy chasing some traffic far away and took 20 minutes to get there -hardly ever visit the area (a decent locality). 

  However, I never jumped the redlight and always wore the full visor helmet (you might be surprised to note that even in smaller cities like Jaipur, Bhopal etc wearing helmet is compulsory (unlike some US states I believe) and people are expected to follow streetlights signs. The traffic police has had a tough job - initially they just educated the public about importance of wearing a helmet (incuding some school children at streetlight corners) and of following traffic rules -- and only later start giving out tickets . 

  One of the reasons the Indian road traffic is chaotic compared to US is that unlike US its children and animals are not in chains ( I mean in US no 11 year old Tom Sawyer can hope to come up now -- till age 13 or 14 no child is allowed to roam free -thus a much larger number  end up watching TV at home and getting fat-neither is the dog [only cats]) thus I have jumped over piglets , scraped over dogs (many while barking and running after me) avoided bumping into calfs (and falling myself) and fighting bulls. 

   I have been driving in heavy city traffic since I was ten (in grade 5 I used to cycle to school - 5 miles each way -to downtown area-come hail, rain, sandstorm or hot winds). In US a child cannot do that adventurous thing-till s/he becomes a teenager -was Tom Sawyer a teenager? So much for "adventurous learning" in US as promoted by David Cohen and other "progressive" educators -when a child cannot leave for outdoors on his own (even outside the concrete jungle). 

  Comments are welcome?

  Umesh

  PS: Driving license not needed in US Many vehicle drivers do not need a driving license even in US I think - such as bicycle riders (I rode one at Harvard without helmet -all around Boston), the new three wheeled non-motored rickshaw drivers, any two wheeler under 50 c.c.  , while drving bullock carts or horse driven chariots :-) --same as in India . 
  Only lots more come from villages in India -illiterates -to drive without license. So the problem is more of ignornace, poverty and illiteracy than of mere corruption in traffic dept.

Ram Sarangapani <assamrs at gmail.com> wrote:
    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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Umesh Sharma
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1-202-215-4328 [Cell Phone]

Ed.M. - International Education Policy 
Harvard Graduate School of Education,
Harvard University,
Class of 2005

weblog: http://jaipurschool.bihu.in/   

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Umesh Sharma
5121 Lackawanna ST
College Park, MD 20740

 1-202-215-4328 [Cell Phone]

Ed.M. - International Education Policy
Harvard Graduate School of Education,
Harvard University,
Class of 2005

weblog: http://jaipurschool.bihu.in/

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