july 18-19: shaking, rattling, and rolling

Above picture: The quintessential mode of transportation in Bangalore, the scooter.

Everyone rides a scooter. Businessmen in suits, ladies wearing expensive sarees, pregnant woman, old people, and most surprising, families.

The scooter is a very acceptable mode of transportation for the family in Bangalore. You will see a family of four piled onto a scooter at any given time. The kids will be smaller, but it's still a family of four riding a scooter.

The mentality of frugality and only needing what gets the job done run strong here.

Above picture: What I am almost get hit by on a nightly basis.

Every night after work I pick a new direction and start walking. Most streets don't have well-defined sidewalks, so you are constantly competing with pedestrians, scooters, auto-rickshaws, and other large vehicles. It seemed pretty unsafe at first, but now I totally have the hang of it.

You have to have a lot of confidence that the other modes of transportation aren't going to hit you. Once you build this confidence up, you must be ready to abandon it at anytime and jump out of the way.

To this date, I have been hit only once. By a bicycle.

Picture above: The scariest beast of them all.

Since 1995, Bangalore has gained 2 million more people. Bangalore is a reasonably small city, so the population explosion has meant only one thing, traffic. New roads haven't been built to meet the population explosion, so walking is a pretty fast way to get around.

Bangalore makes LA traffic look like a cool glass of water on a hot Summer day.

~

Because of all of this traffic, people do not drive very fast. This is good for me, because it makes it easier for me to shake, rattle, and roll. Also, less velocity will be good if I ever miscalculate a shake, rattle, or roll.

Lesson of the day: If a scooter works for the family, why spend extra money on a mini-van.

or

Lesson of the day: If you're going to get hit by a vehicle, get hit by a bicycle, not a bus. Less velocity.