Chaos traffic in India: the madness on Delhi's streets

A Driving a car in Delhi is life-threatening. At least if you are not used to this organized chaos. For fear of accidents, many car rental companies simply refuse to give their mobiles to foreigners. After the first few meters on the public slopes, it becomes clear why: There is war on Delhi's streets.

Ghost drivers, animals, overloaded mopeds

Cars have to cross the lane with pedestrians, horse-drawn carts, bicycles -Share rickshaws, tuk-tuks, cows, dogs and millions of mopeds and motorcycles. The rickety vehicles are usually totally overloaded and anything but roadworthy. Mopeds with two, three, four or even five people on the saddle are not uncommon.

If everyone adhered to the traffic rules, it might just be possible to survive the close combat on the streets. But in Delhi everyone just drives as they want. Wrong drivers on the autobahn - no problem. Not even at night. And of course without light. If so, because already.

Only 80 to 110 km /h is driven anyway. A cow could be lurking around the next bend. Or a wrecked car. Or a combination of both, with the cow mostly losing out. No halo helps.

No MOT, hardly any police

The lanes on the autobahn are mostly only used for rough orientation. Driving takes place where there is space. And that's mostly between the tracks. Or on the hard shoulder. There is hardly a car on the road without a battle trail. The horn and the fade-in lever are in constant use. It is pushed aside, cut, slowed down and driven up tight - the police are powerless. Fortunately, there is no traffic offender card.

Of course, the Indian has not heard anything from the TÜV. What is still driving is allowed to drive. And what no longer runs will be mended until it runs again. Some of the rickety oldtimers seem to date from the British colonial times. Given the high temperatures and the many rainy days of the year, it is a miracle that the old buckets haven't rusted away long ago.

Only driving with a chauffeur

Like most other journalists, they tackled the Formula 1 adventure in Delhi, we opted for the car plus driver option. The fact that the chauffeur sometimes had to wait more than ten hours a day in the parking lot in front of the paddock didn't matterRole. Wages are cheap. And with a free Formula 1 cap (from Force India, of course) the world will be all right again.

If you want to get an impression of the madness on the streets of the Indian capital, just click through our photo show.