Driving in New Delhi is a harrowing experience, especially for passengers. I think I've had several mini myocardial infarctions in the 16 hours I have been here (10 of which were safely spent eating and sleeping).
There are no traffic laws - at least none that are universally followed. To turn or cross a street, the edges fearlessly into traffic that is traveling at breathtaking speeds. If you are in a passenger seat, yogurt to look at cars, motorcycles, auto-rickshaws that are barreling towards you and do not appear to be breaking. Shelly assured me that they will always stop because the process and expense of having to bribe other drivers, witnesses and police are not worth getting into an accident. The process of merging or changing lanes is also harrowing, especially there are no real lanes. Vehicles get within inches of each other and travel in such proximity for several minutes. I fear that if a driver were to sneeze or hiccup there would be an accident!
As I write, we are en route to Agra. Although it is approximately 185 km, the driver estimates that it will take 5 hours! I will likely spend most of it reading since I may have a major myocardial infarction if I watch the traffi!
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