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A comment on If no-one helps you after a car crash in India, this is why. Parent comment

Re:If no-one helps you after a car crash in India, this is why by overcast on Tuesday June 07, 2016 @04:38PM (#11857602)
I just spent a month in India, and the driving is COMPLETELY INSANE. Saying it's only insane to Westerners, is the same as saying it's only not insane to South East Asians. If you're not tied up in absolutely hellish gridlock for an hour and a half to go ten miles. You're flying down "highways", playing constant chicken with every single oncoming vehicle. There is no argument that complete anarchy on the road ways is less stressful than actual civilized structure. It's not even worth going out at night further than you can walk, because by the time you got there, the night would be over. Red light? Bah, I'll go through it. Car there? I'll run into it. People walking? Ahhh they'll move. Wasting hours of your life to drive across town everyday? Pfft, who needs a life. Want a car with a seat belt? GOOD LUCK.

Nothing about any of that says stress free. Even if the traffic was perfect, the streets lined with absolute filth is enough to stress anyone out.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:If no-one helps you after a car crash in India, this is why by sonink on Wednesday June 08, 2016 @12:43AM (#11860072)
Everything that you mentioned isn't hard for me at all. The hellish gridlock - I rarely venture out on the main arteries during peak time. The playing chicken - I do it almost instinctively and dont even think about it.

The anarchy that you talk about is simply a result of diverse driving platforms sharing the same space. Indian roads need to have a wide variety of vehicles (2/3/4 wheelers) because 95% of the country simply cannot afford the cheapest car that sells in the US. We can't have wide roads with speed limits because its just too expensive and India is a dramatically poor country.

This model works for now and hopefully India will skip the insanely high energy American model on the way to the next.

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Re:If no-one helps you after a car crash in India, this is why by overcast on Wednesday June 08, 2016 @09:58AM (#11862283)
Just because you're used to it, doesn't mean it's not completely insane and stressful for the rest of the world. You take two people who have never driven car before in their life, and throw one in a western driving scenario, and another in India. You tell me which one would be more stressed out.
[ Parent | on HN ]