Hurry Up & Wait!

Driving on Pune roads has been an exhilarating experience each year I visit India on vacation. There is no parallel… driving on the left side of the road while listening to Radio Mirchi or Bhoole Bisre Geet; a stark contrast to listening to NPR while driving on I-95 on the US East coast!

To many, India driving seems chaotic. Things seem to happen randomly and an apparent total disregard for traffic rules as we understand them in the US. However, there indeed is a subtle order under the apparent chaos.

In Pune (specifically and generally in India) the unwritten rule is: Larger vehicles in the right lane, smaller the vehicle, the more left it rides. As a result, buses, trucks, tempos, SUVs, Minivans and such hog the right lane. Smaller vehicles like rickshaws, compact cars, while they would like to be in the right lane, are actually relegated to the leftish lane. Two wheeler vehicles like bicycles, motorcycles, mopeds and such hog the left lane.

Lane speed is a completely independent and disjointed variable from vehicle speed. For example, the most nimble and quick are the two wheeler motorcycles & mopeds (thankfully there are no more many bicycles). The compact cars have much higher horsepower compared to the two wheelers but these fight for space constantly oscillating between the left and right lanes. The largest vehicles, buses, trucks, tempos are the slowest and least nimble. SUVs and minvans have the highest horsepower and are stuck along with the slowest and least nimble set.

Taking a birds eye view of traffic flow in Pune, it resembles laminar flow of fluid! Just as laminar flow streamlines curve around static objects in their path, so do the vehicles on the streets of Pune! It is eerily similar. If a large bus stops disabled in the middle of the street, the traffic will smoothly flow around it, just like streamlines would curve around a rock in its path! This insight helps when, for example, reversing from a parked space into traffic. If done slowly and incrementally, reversing into traffic is never a problem. Traffic streamlines will curve around.

The streamline model breaks down at traffic signals. At traffic signals, a percolation model kicks in. This is how it works: Larger vehicles (lets call them four wheelers) will stop essentially one behind the other as much as they can. Two wheelers will the percolate between the inter vehicle spaces between the four wheelers! They will hurry up, twist and turn to occupy all available free space and then, wait for the traffic signal to turn green. In the process no one gains any time but this hurry up and wait attitude is ingrained in the system!

As the light turns green, the percolated two wheelers expand out and again the streamline model kicks in.

In Pune, honking is a communication tool. Hardly anyone does a shoulder check or mirror check. There are tones to honks. A slight tap on the horn is an indication to the person in front that there is someone behind. An extended horn is an irritated get-a-move-on-already! This insight helps to understand that if someone honks at you, they have seen you! You have less to fear from the person honking. It is the person who has not honked that you have to be wary of because most likely that driver has no idea that you exist!

Now a days, there is some awareness on avoiding honking. In the true spirit of innovation, honking is being replaced by flashing of headlights! Here again, a single flash of headlights is an indication to the car in front that, hey, I am here! Multiple flashes mean an irritated get-the-hell-outa-my-way!

There are plenty of subtle clues that help anticipate the actions of other drivers: For example, a sideways over the right shoulder glance from a motorbike driver is an indication that s/he is going to cut in in front of you; A rickshaw driver’s right foot would subtly protrude out of the front which is his way of saying that a lane change is imminent! And then there is the lateral drift; This is when a vehicle in front of you gradually starts drifting leftwards. When this happens, you’d better follow the drift or else be prepared to come to a standstill!! A lateral drift is your savior from being caught in standstill traffic!

Cross roads have their own rules. Each cross road is a series of negotiations between which vehicle gets its nose in front of the other and hence is the first to pass! In such negotiations, inevitably both vehicles (coming from each arm of the cross road) come to a complete standstill. Again, Hurry Up & Wait!

Here is where the fluid flow streamline insight comes into play. Here is my playbook for negotiating cross roads: a) look ahead at the upcoming cross road; if it is open, drive straight through, b) if there are some vehicles in the process of nose-in-front negotiations, start a lateral drift into the leftmost lane; c) flow past the bunch of negotiating vehicles like water would flow past a stagnant boulder and voila, you are a winner 90% of the time.

Driving on Pune roads can be like a meditation in motion! The mind is fully engaged picking up subtle clues; reflexes are on high alert with peripheral vision being the most heightened. In such a state, if you can modulate your breathing such that the heart rate does not speed up, meditation happens! Driving then becomes an exhilarating experience! It has become so for me!