two simple rules that govern driving here<\/a> – if you see a space in front of you that will fit your vehicle, you must fill it. \u00a0There is a little bit more to it. \u00a0You must fill that space fast. \u00a0 You see a hole, gun the motor, rush into that hole, and slam the brakes. This is how our driver does it, which I found puzzling, until now. \u00a0 If you don’t fill that space when you have the opportunity, somebody else will, which slows you down. \u00a0 Moreover, being decisive in that manner provides clarity to the vehicles around you. Remember, you are constantly surrounded by other vehicles, each confronting the same problems you are. \u00a0 Several times, I could clearly see my hesitation cause confusion in the other guy – he is forced to slow down and wonder what the heck is going on with me. \u00a0When this spreads to several vehicles, you have gummed up the works.<\/p>\n3 …. 2 …. same difference<\/h2>\n
I’ve driven on the Chennai Bypass a few times now. \u00a0 This is a 6 lane highway, 3 in each direction, with a divider in between. \u00a0 As you can imagine driving on this road is a little less challenging, but not entirely without the Indian touch. \u00a0 \u00a0I noticed that the larger vehicles rarely used the far left lane. \u00a0It would be largely empty, save for a few slower, smaller vehicles, like the two and the three wheelers. \u00a0 It is not like folks maintain any kind of lane discipline; they usually drift into whatever space is available, so that almost free lane was incongruous. \u00a0 I realized what the answer was this morning (we are on the road again this weekend).<\/p>\n
Some sons of India drive down your side of the highway, in the opposite direction. \u00a0That far left lane is the one they use. \u00a0You don’t mind that; you must leave room for bending the rules, because someday you will need to do that yourself.<\/p>\n
Even more interesting, at night, large, cargo carrying trucks simply park themselves on that lane. \u00a0We were on the bypass early this morning, and large stretches of the far left lane had become a rest area. \u00a0 Perfectly reasonable position, if you ask me. \u00a0 You take two lanes, and we’ll use one, for whatever. \u00a0Didn’t your Mom teach you to share?<\/p>\n
The problem isn’t the sharing. \u00a0The issue is that this is a violation of the promise that a ‘three lane highway’ makes to you. \u00a0When they built that highway, a civic contract came into being, which said what you could expect from a ‘three lane highway’. \u00a0Such promises are almost never completely kept. \u00a0These civic contracts are satisfied only partially. \u00a0If you cannot temper your expectations accordingly, God help you, and the people around you.<\/p>\n
So it goes.<\/p>\n
Done with the night<\/h2>\n
At night, I am okay as long as I am on one of those roads where opposing traffic is hidden from view by a divider. \u00a0 When I am forced to deal with the lights of the oncoming traffic, I am toast. \u00a0 Maybe my eyes have just grown old, or maybe the creeping diabetes has rendered them less effective than they could otherwise be. \u00a0I can barely see the road in front of me. \u00a0On a drive from Alwar Thirunagar, to Kelambakkam, through rush hour traffic, around 8:00 PM, my eyes became tired by the time we hit Vandalur. \u00a0 I have never felt that before. \u00a0 I had to fight the urge to shut my eyes, and lay my head back on the seat. \u00a0We still had about 15 kms to go.<\/p>\n
I went walking one night, on Vandaur road, which turned out to be exactly like driving at night. \u00a0 You don’t really have a sidewalk, and hence you are virtually part of the traffic on the road. \u00a0 I could barely see 5 feet in front of me sometimes. \u00a0 It was unsafe.<\/p>\n
I will drive at night only if I absolutely have to.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In the past couple of weeks, I have continued to drive on and off. Daytime driving has become significantly easier, while driving at night remains a lost cause. Don’t think, just drive During the day, driving has become almost instinctive. Naturally, the traffic has not changed, but it seems to bother me less. I am […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[14],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seonthemon.com\/wp351\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seonthemon.com\/wp351\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seonthemon.com\/wp351\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seonthemon.com\/wp351\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seonthemon.com\/wp351\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.seonthemon.com\/wp351\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":214,"href":"https:\/\/www.seonthemon.com\/wp351\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212\/revisions\/214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seonthemon.com\/wp351\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seonthemon.com\/wp351\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seonthemon.com\/wp351\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}