A friend on a recent visit to Delhi pointed out that traffic and people flow through the streets here like water. The teeming mass of cars, small and large, bicycles, rickshaws, auto-rickshaws, cows, goats, motorcycles and humans find their way to fill every possible niche the roadway has to offer. Its amazing. Sometimes, however, this leads to disastrous consequences. Allow me to illustrate.
a) A simple railway crossing, two cars approach from opposite directions. The gate for the approaching train descends. The cars kindly slow, stop, and patiently wait for the train to pass.
b) More cars approach as the train (this one happens to be either really, really long, or really, really slow passes). Cars in the back of the waiting line of cars, a little less patiently, decide that they might be able to squeeze ahead of the entire queue if they saddle up next to the front most car.
a) A simple railway crossing, two cars approach from opposite directions. The gate for the approaching train descends. The cars kindly slow, stop, and patiently wait for the train to pass.
c) Cars even further back don't know what is causing the traffic, don't see traffic on the other side of the road, and decide to approach the intersection on the wrong side of the road, only to find that they too, have to patiently wait for the train to pass.
d) The train passes. The gates rise, and the drivers are stuck, staring at each other, scratching their heads.
e) My favorite part: Chaos ensues.
(insert your own picture of chaos on the streets of India here)
Ah, and this was just with cars! Imagine trucks, buses, cows, motorcycles and bikes thrown in the mix. Real chaos! Gotta love it.
