Three amazing Youtube videos that I have just been forwarded by email [although some of you may have seen them already]:
"Cool Dude" on a motorbike
www.youtube.com/watch?v=klteYv1Uv9A
Cameraman - brave or foolish?
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9DLlMMXhKg
Art of Merging in Turn
www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjrEQaG5jPM
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The laid back biker is superb jbif...
The Asian approach to dense traffic is in some ways preferable to ours. They drive a bit like that in Kuala Lumpur, I noticed, but without the horn-blowing and usually in tighter conditions.
That gentle, unaggressive fluidity is very engaging though. No one thinks it is 'their road', so everyone is cautious.
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It works so much better than traffic lights!
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The laid back biker is superb jbif... >>
I thought so too, especially as it was real - unlike many faked/staged youtube videos.
Heavy traffic, changing lanes without using handlebars, dialling and speaking on the phone, and all this while laid back!
Well, at least he was wearing a helmet!
Edited by jbif on 08/05/2009 at 22:38
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Something odd though. I emailed that video to a couple of people. When I tested the emailed version, the video was different. Started with the same biker and giggling guys filming him, then the giggling carried on but there was a series of people crashing on bikes, much darker stuff. Someone making I thought an unnecessary moral point in a sinister way.
Try it yourself. It may have mutated by now.
Weird place, the internet.
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When I tested the emailed version, the video was different. ..... Try it yourself. It may have mutated by now. >>
Just tested it. Still the same original one for me.
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Watching those and a few others, what strikes me is how romantic the Indian townscape can be. We watch these with rather rosy spectacles and I don't think we'd be so keen to remark favourably on similar driving practices in Cheam. Life's undeniably cheaper (and happier judging by the amount of smiling faces) in India but I just wonder whether, as I was tempted to, we'd scorn the motorcyclist who did that in Britain more than in India. Of course we would.
What I'm getting at is not the fact these videos were posted (I love all that), it's that I can't work out whether the driving is utterly horrific or whether "it's OK and nothing to worry about because that's how they drive in India" where, incidentally, 90,000 people a year die in road accidents. The population might be huge but this is still one of the most dangerous countries in which to drive.
...Now, just before I disappear up my own fundament from being such a crushing bore please let me apologise for my current mood which is "Extremely Earnest". I'll probably have changed my view by the morning...
Anyway saying that the video of filtering in India is better than traffic lights or is a better way of dealing with traffic than we do here is just daft imho. Re-watch this video and, at 0.36sec observe the wo/man trying to cross the road at 4 o'clock. That's not good, that's terrible and if that's the only way to cross a road then it shows very well just how cheap a life is.
Disgusted of Reigate
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it shows very well just how cheap a life is
It is true. If the killed person is a very poor person and the driver is a very rich one, one can often avoid a trial by providing some money to victim's family.
one of the most dangerous countries in which to drive
Again true. In fact, driving is so stressful in bigger cities that most people keep chauffeurs. In fact, I myself had a chauffeur there (and I didn't earn much).
But don't be in the impression that "drive as you like" attitude works better than traffic lights here. It causes severe chaos and average speed in mega cities just 10-12 km/h.
how romantic the Indian townscape can be
The country side is truly romantic driving - especially the Himalayas and southern coasts.
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Many years ago in a previous life I visited several cities in the Far East during a deployment on a Navy ship. There were times when we found it safer to flag down a taxi who would take us a way up the road and back just to cross one of these wide roads through the cities that they seem to favour. It would only cost us a few pennies between 3 or 4 of us so was worth it.
We did try a trishaw once, the type with the 'driver' behind the passengers. When he entered one of these roads and intended to drive against the traffic we got him to stop so we could bail out pdq! Very scary!
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