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I think in a lot of the situations, there's a simple rule that Indian drivers follow, which is like motor boats official rules: the biggest vehicle has priority
by vmarsy 8y ago
I think in a lot of the situations, there's a simple rule that Indian drivers follow, which is like motor boats official rules: the biggest vehicle has priority.
So when it comes to u-turns, cars won't do a u-turn if there's a van or bus coming from the other side, but a bus will have no problem starting a u-turn if there's only a flow of cars and motorcycles coming.
Motorcycles are just expected to flow around, make their u-turn small and fast.
Same thing when it comes to overtaking on small roads, or when there's those traffic police barricades at the entry/exit of towns, which reduces the road size to only one way. At those barricades, people will rarely have to come to a complete stop: they just look at how big the vehicle in front of them is, and if it's bigger they'll slow down to give it priority.
For overtaking, in Western countries we'd just consider whether there's enough space/time to safely overtake (unless you're a driver from the mountain regions), but in India they also consider who would win if there was a frontal crash, and the would-be loser will slow down if needed to make sure the bigger vehicle on the other side can finish overtaking.
The equivalent of the sailing boat in term of priority are the cows on the road: they get priority over any motor vehicle
- dsfyu404ed 8y ago>I think in a lot of the situations, there's a simple rule that Indian drivers follow, which is like motor boats official rules: the biggest vehicle has priority. This is how it works everywhere in the world. In any given ship yard small fork lifts yield to service trucks which yield to semis which yield to large fork lifts which yield to freight trains yield to ships. It generally works quite well unless you ask pedestrians and cyclists in wealthier urban areas in the west (and I say this as someone who rides trains and walks for my commute).
- alistairSH 8y agoPart of the issue with pedestrians, in the US, is they have priority over cars/buses/etc. I don't believe this is true in many other parts of the world. As the smallest, easiest to stop/start, and most likely to be injured, they probably should yield to other users.
- plussed_reader 8y agoIt actually depends on the locality; stepping off the curb in Vegas or NYC is your ass on the line.
- alistairSH 8y agoLegally, those cars should be yielding (to pedestrians in a cross-walk).[1] But, as you mentioned, it varies by state, and the laws are rife with "yield here, but not there, and only on Tuesdays after a full moon." Would probably be easier to just say "humans are fragile, cross only when it's clear." 1 - http://www.ncsl.org/research/transportation/pedestrian-crossing-50-state-summary.aspx http://www.ncsl.org/research/transportation/pedestrian-cross...
- truncate 8y agoAlso, if a crash does happen, it is by default fault of the person driving bigger vehicle. Particularly, between car and motercycle. To some extent, I felt it also goes with who is driving more expensive car when it happens between cars.