First impressions of India – CRAZY TRAFFIC.

Olivia and I arrived later than the rest of the group and took a “taxi” from the airport at 2:30 am. The car was extremely small, and most of our luggage had to ride on the passenger seat, which put Professor Rajan crowded into the small back seat with the two of us. 

Example of our taxi!

The ride was “Burnout2″ come to life! The developers of the game must live in Bangalore! Vehicles, people, and animals of all kinds are on the road ; Trucks, Busses, Cars, Auto Rickshaws, Motorcycles, Scooters, Bicycles, People, Cows, Dogs… No one stays in a lane, everyone just crowds in wherever they can fit – sometimes on the other side of the road, sometimes in the sidewalk.  Drivers honk their horns and flash their lights and weave in and out and through traffic, seemingly ignoring the other pedestrians, animals, and vehicles on the road.  Suprisingly we have not witnessed a single accident, nor have we seen many scrapes or dents on the cars.  Wow!

To experience the excitement of Bangalore traffic on a more intimate level, a group of us took auto rickshaws back to our living quarters after shopping the other day – a few short clips of our ride will be posted shortly.  Of the five rickshaws that we took, only two found there way back to the service apartments without much trouble.  Two others dropped their passengers several blocks away.  Our driver tried to get us to get out before we got to our destination, but because we had not walked around and did not know our way around we REFUSED to get out until we knew where we were.

Vicki