How to drive in the city without losing your sanity...2

The horrifying incident of road rage in yesterday’s TOI (http://bit.ly/5fCbnu) has shaken me out of my slumber and compelled me to complete Part 2 of my post on the subject. Here are tips 3, 4 and 5 :


3. Refuse to get angry – Probably the most difficult of them all, but not impossible. The most compelling reason to not get angry is based on this simple question : If you get angry, who is the suffering? You or the other driver? She (I am just being politically correct!) has cut your lane and gone, blissfully unaware of your fuming state and expletives. Yes, but how does one control oneself?

All you need to do is to change your perspective. Truth is that you can control your reaction as long as you change your thinking. Let me demonstrate : what would be your reaction if you were standing in a crowded bus for the last half hour on a hot, sweaty afternoon – and someone behind keeps poking you with some stick of sorts.... I guess you would turn angrily and give that person a piece of your mind! Right? What if, you turn and find its a blind man with a stick trying to get ahead? Suddenly you are not angry anymore and you quietly move out of the way. Same discomfort in both cases, but totally different reactions. You regulated your response in the second case. So it is possible to control your reaction. You just have to think differently. Lets say a vehicle cuts your lane - Firstly, accept that the errant driver is ignorant and will meet her fate (refer Tip 1 – Have faith in Darwin). Second, think that the other driver is in a terrible hurry because of some emergency. Wouldn’t you give her way if you knew there was a patient in the car requiring to reach an hospital asap? So think that! If that too doesn’t work.... take a deep breath and let it go!

4. A dash of humour – You find a slow moving truck in your lane (right most) who refuses to give you side to overtake. Or you are stuck in a jam that threatens to put you 30 min behind schedule. Or some utility company has again dug up the roads and slowed down the traffic! Vexing situations that can drive you insane. Do just that – take a mad look at each of these situations – search for something funny. The message behind the truck for instance. Imagine the truck being driven by Dubya Bush! Verbalise the conversation that passengers are having in the car across yours – a plot to jam the coffee machines across the world and sell cutting chai! Think of George Mikes’ famous piece on ‘How to stop road traffic’ (BTW, if anyone of you have this text, please let me know). Keep a stock of some funny songs (One version of Living Doll by Cliff and Shadows always brings up a smile) or the podcast of BBC 4’s Friday Night Comedy Show. Recall scenes of your favourite comedy movie – Imagine Steve Martin in Pink Panther damaging a few cars around you and then reporting to you ‘Thee area eez zecured’ 

5. Plan your trip – In most cases, we know in advance our travel schedule. Be conservative in planning the time required for travel. The average speed of travel in Mumbai is 23 kmph. During rush hour it comes down to 15 kmph. Then visualise the journey and estimate the number of bottlenecks on the way – add 5 min for each bottleneck. Plan to reach 10 min before time at your destination. All this will ensure that you have adequate time to cover the distance and you don’t need to fret and fume at the slow traffic. Dont worry if you reach v early at the destination – in these times of blackberrys and laptops, you can catch up with some work anywhere.

Part 1 of this article is at http://bit.ly/6TKHeK . If you have more tips to cope with the pressures of city driving, please add to the above

Toll Charges and Confectionery Sales

These days, when you go on long drives you will invariably encounter a few, if not several, toll booths. In most cases, you dont mind paying the tab as it ensures a better ride for the stretch. There are of course stretches which make you wonder whether you are paying for building the road or for a cross-country experience complete with obstacles! But that is the matter for another post. This post concerns amount of toll charges and a possible explanation for their being an odd combination of numerals. Ever wonder why a toll charge is Rs. 84 instead of a rounded figure like 80 or 85. So while you dont mind paying the toll, what bugs you is the exercise of hunting for the right change and waiting in the line of vehicles while the toll collectors goes through his duties. Just look at the toll charges on the Mumbai-Pune Express way (inset picture) and you wonder why would anyone keep such odd numbers as the toll charges.

I dont think a bus would mind paying Rs. 250 instead of Rs. 247 OR the state would lose much money by collecting Rs. 410 instead of Rs. 411?! So then why? I have three possible explanations:

1. The toll collecting firm is bitten by the numerology bug. So by some strange calculation, 410 would have been unlucky and the traffic from Mumbai to Pune would have dropped 20%

2. The ministry for education realised that Indians are losing their image of being mathematical geniuses, and decided to tune up our brains by ensuring we did intricate calculations to get our right change back

3. Confectionery companies found this great way to beat the slowdown. So the toll booth hand out candies and mints instead of change. Everytime there is a shortfall in the budget, they promptly increase the number of odd digits in the toll charges across the country! (Imagine the surprise on the toll collectors face as my driver handed back the same chocolate on the return journey in place of the change!)

Do write back on which of the above is the main reason, or if you have any other explanation.

Solutions to Traffic Woes?

Posting after a long gap, I am deviating from the themes already started (and I confess pending completion) and attempting to throw some light on why India has such chaotic traffic.

In fact this has been prompted by another blog post by a good friend (http://sanjaymehta.me/2009/11/07/legacies-of-a-shortage-economy/) who attributes these woes largely to the genetic programming governed by generations of a shortage economy. He has described, rather convincingly and creatively, how the need to "grab what is in front of you, because it may not be there later" has led to the attitude on the road as well. While I would tend to agree that past programming may be the genesis, the solution does not lie in waiting for the legacy to be lost from our genes.

Several other factors have led to sustain, or even aggravate the chaos on the roads. Among them are :
- substandard road conditions leading to low average speeds prompting motorists to makeup time wherever possible. Good roads will automatically reduce the stress of driving and make motorists more tolerant. Given a choice most drivers would rather drive without breaking rules. Ofcourse there will a section of errant drivers (see next point)
- lax emforcement of traffic rules. Apart from a few cities like Mumbai, the traffic police in most places dont exert authority and often treated with contempt. If you see others breaking rules and getting away, there is little incentive for you to do so
- lack of knowledge of traffic discipline among motorists. This is a serious issue. A look at the casual process of giving the driver’s license is testimony to the lack of attention given to traffic rules.

A combination of carrot and stick can improve matters considerably.  Given good road conditions to enable people to drive well… and combined with a stringent check on errant drivers can make a big difference. There are other countries as well which have had a turbulent past.... most of the Middle East countries until the 1940s... were not exactly evolved economies. In fact they were even more chaotic. But the UAE has much better traffic discipline - and one of the factors that helped was the strict tests required to get your driving license.

We do see small improvements every time the Mumbai traffic police has its periodic enforcement drives - against drunken driving, honking, jaywalking, etc. How one wishes that these are not just periodic drives, but continuous enforcement!

Best Drives in India....1

India offers a wide range of driving conditions and surrounding natural beauty. You can zip through the desert in Rajasthan, or navigate the winding turns in Sikkim, coast the plains in MP or feel the rugged terrain in Leh... never a dull moment!

I would recommend the following 5 best rides (in no particular order):

1. Gangtok to Lachung : Its a 120 km ride of breathtaking scenic beauty and takes about 5-6 hours. The road, like most roads in North Sikkim, is constructed and maintained by the Border Roads Organisation - which does a great job given the rugged terrain and difficult weather conditions.

The route goes via Mangan (65 km) and Chungthang (95 km). From here the road bifurcates. The road to the left goes to Lachen and the road to the right reaches Lachung.

On the way there are lots of waterfalls, lush green forests and beautiful views of the Teesta river. Notable among these are the 'Seven sister waterfalls' (32 km from Gangtok). Also visible are quaint houses (shown here) which look straight from toy models. The view of the mountain tops on a clear day is just fantastic. The picture shown here was taken at 5.15 am in May.

Lachung (height of 8000 ft) is the entry point for the Yumthang valley (25km from Lachung). You find strawberries growing by the side of the road in the right season! (Road maps at http://sikkim-roadsandbridges.gov.in/). The picture in the background of the title 'Roads and Rides' is also from Lachung.

The other great journeys are :
2. Munnar to Thekady
3. Manali to Rohtang Pass
4. Bhandardara Lake
5. Almora to Kausani
(More on these in the next post)

How to drive in the city without losing your sanity!

It is not uncommon to have a conversation about the traffic in the city and more so the outrage over the frustrating driving experience. By the time, you are through with the week, the combination of bad roads, errant taxi drivers, long traffic jams, jay walking pedestrians, morchas and processions, prove to be a lethal cocktail which knocks you out for the weekend. Is there a way to combat all this and yet keep your cool? Can you drive in the city without driving yourself insane? Probably....

I wish I could say that the God of driving revealed to me the five magical solutions in a resonant, well-modulated voice! No, its not that dramatic. These are five ways that have worked for me. Here are the first two (in no specific order) :

1. Have faith in Darwin : Have you ever noticed how incensed we get when some other driver cuts our lane? We just want to overtake the driver and 'teach him/her a lesson'. Do we now? Are we really interested in teaching that errant driver? why take all that trouble and improve his driving? (especially if he has cut your lane!). Nah! Just let them be. I believe in Darwin's Law of Natural Selection..... people unfit to drive, will wind up losing their right to drive one way or another. So just smile and wish him good luck. Don't interfere with that process and try to upgrade their skills.

2. Select your Music : If you love music, your problem is half-solved. If you don't have an ear for music - develop one! Music has the power to influence one's mood - so selecting the right music is also important. The best option is to burn a CD or make an appropriate playlist on your iPod/MP3 player. FM stations tend to have a lot of chatter and less music.... some attempts at humour are actually counter-productive (observe the shenanigans of Ghanta Singh). Keep two playlists - one for easy listening (for tight traffic conditions) and other for when your mood is upbeat and you are on a clear road maintaining a good speed. I have a list of recommended songs for both lists for listeners preferring Indian and Western music. (Surprise find : AIR FM 107.1 has less chatter and more music - its just that the selection can be rather erratic)

Next 3 Tips follow soon......

The Genesis

There are many facets to Roads and Rides. The issues concerning the conditions of roads in cities, are starkly different from the pleasures of riding on the picturesque road from Gangtok to Lachung. Technology to build Autobahns and the issues governing the policies of speed limits at 180 km/hr, is a totally different ball game from the slippery mastic asphalt roads built over Mumbai's eastern express highway leading to speed limits of as low as 40 km/hr on some parts. So, what is this blog about? Well, it does concern Roads and Rides, but will focus on city roads and issues to start with.

Living in a metro implies that one would spend a lot of time travelling - whether on work or personal matters. For several years now, I, like many other city dwellers, spend over a couple of hours travelling to work and back every day. And this journey is on the road. i.e. if we agree that it is worthy to be called a road. Time and again I have wondered whether this is the best we can hope for. Everyday I have seen fellow travellers on the long road (I travel 36 km to work) - some driving and some driven - patiently drudging away, negotiating all kinds of obstacles on the way. Some of us travel much more than this and face greater difficulties and hats off to those who have been bearing these appalling conditions - and have managed to retain their sanity.

This blog is a forum to share our issues, experiences, knowledge and techniques to ultimately improve the hours we spend on the road. Will it make a difference? Will things improve? As long as it makes a difference in the lives of few travellers, the purpose is well acheived. Read on.....