Mumbai traffic

This, my friends is a TYPICAL street in Mumbai (Bombay). THIS is why I will never drive here and I think those that do (including my beloved FIL) are crazy. The basic rule is if the vehicle/person fits, that's the way they go. Now granted, there are some roads that have actual center dividers and some sort of order to them, but those are the main roads, not the millions of miles of side roads in the city. The average speed is SLOW. If my FIL happens to be driving and gets the car above 30 km/hr (18mph) she is pleading for him to slow down that he is going too fast.

I will admit that when I first started visiting here, the disorder and congestion of the traffic would drive me crazy and leave me with a sore jaw. You see, I did not want to appear to be visibly stressed and have a death grip on that little handle thing above the door, so I resorted to constantly moving my right foot (imaginary break) and clenching my back teeth. Over the years I have learned to relax and could even fall asleep in the back of the rickshaw if tired enough.

Regardless if you drive a Honda Hero (popular motorcycle here) or a BEST bus (city bus) one thing you have to be aware of is every last inch of your mode of transportation and just how close you can get to the next guy (usually within 6 inches) without hitting him. Rickshaws are a very cool mode of transportation as they are cheap, you can usually find one to take you where you want to go, and they are small enough to maneuver through traffic/people. Despite their small size, we can easily fit our family of 5 in the back of one. However, my real respect and admiration goes to the BEST bus drivers who drive all over the city on streets large and small. You could not pay me enough to drive a bus in Mumbai!