Traffic - 25th April, Sunday

Road - 25th April

I am starting to enjoy the Indian driving experience. This place isn’t as madly chaotic as I first thought. Although you don’t always drive on the correct side of the road, or travel the correct way round the roundabout, and turn right, near-side to near-side if you feel like it, I have yet to see an accident. A cross-roads, for example, is four lines of traffic heading in four different directions, in the same space. It's essential to realise that everything in India is a road user. Just imagine the mix. Pedestrians, tuc-tucs, motor cars, huge battered brown painted but decorated lorries, tractors and trailers, bicycles and bicycles and trailers, motorbikes with or without trailers, people pushing huge heavy hand carts, camel carts, bullock carts, stray dogs, goats, cows – in the UK a cow in the road would stop the traffic, here, a hundred cows in the road and no jams. And this is how it works – Ashford Borough Council with its ‘shared space,’ and Jeremy Clarkson please note. The space is shared, everyone is comfortable with the way things play out, no-one is precious about their space, no-one cares about being overtaken, or someone pushing in. There is absolutely no animosity or visible road rage between the road users. You push into a line of traffic, you ease up to let someone in or past. You look out for yourself and for everyone else, and avoid the livestock. Honking warns others you wish to come through, and they make way for you. Hand painted signs on the rear of lorries and tuc-tucs invite you to do just that. "Honk please". I suppose you could regard it as the members of the world’s largest democracy demonstrating the principal of ‘by the people’, and making their congested roads function by common consent.