Drivers in India are not that different from those in the US. I used to think, and still do, that there are fundamentally some things that are different about Americans and Indians. Overall courtesy, attitude toward hard work, attitude toward more vague concepts like freedom and justice etc. One difference I assumed existed was in driving attitude. In the US, people don't cut across lanes in a traffic jam, they don't honk incessantly just to express annoyance. But basically they're in a hurry and will anything they can to get to their destination faster. That's what Indians do too.
As I was driving last night (before the bug incident), I was squeezed in between a group of vehicles but a gap opened up between two autos which, if I could navigate through, I would hit daylight and be in the clear. At that very moment, the guy on the two wheeler on my right saw that gap too, and even though basically his front wheel was a few inches my front wheel, he accelerated through and cut in front of me. I managed to avoid hitting him but before I could shout at him, he had squeezed through the gap and was gone.
The thing is, this sort of a thing happened to me a lot in Houston - I am in my lane and I have left a decent gap between my car and the car in front of me. This gap is "mine", it comes from my discretion and it gives me the luxury of a few extra milliseconds to respond in case the car in front of decides to stop all of a sudden. But the guy in the lane to me feels that the gap is big enough to squeeze in and does so. Now I am forced to brake and move back to create the same gap here.
It's the same selfish principles at play. The difference of course is the level at which they actually affect you - ranging from annoying to even more annoying. The difference comes from things like the cost of a collision. In the US because of the prices of the cars and speeds of driving, it's much higher.
In spite of that I'll take the US any day.
As I was driving last night (before the bug incident), I was squeezed in between a group of vehicles but a gap opened up between two autos which, if I could navigate through, I would hit daylight and be in the clear. At that very moment, the guy on the two wheeler on my right saw that gap too, and even though basically his front wheel was a few inches my front wheel, he accelerated through and cut in front of me. I managed to avoid hitting him but before I could shout at him, he had squeezed through the gap and was gone.
The thing is, this sort of a thing happened to me a lot in Houston - I am in my lane and I have left a decent gap between my car and the car in front of me. This gap is "mine", it comes from my discretion and it gives me the luxury of a few extra milliseconds to respond in case the car in front of decides to stop all of a sudden. But the guy in the lane to me feels that the gap is big enough to squeeze in and does so. Now I am forced to brake and move back to create the same gap here.
It's the same selfish principles at play. The difference of course is the level at which they actually affect you - ranging from annoying to even more annoying. The difference comes from things like the cost of a collision. In the US because of the prices of the cars and speeds of driving, it's much higher.
In spite of that I'll take the US any day.
1 comment:
Next time you find a gap like that, just accelerate. I don't think I've similar experiences as you do here in US. So, you could be doing something wrong.
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