Traffic in Chennai

Traffic in Chennai, originally uploaded by Lisa Tripp.

Traffic is hard to describe...

During rush hour, the traffic is so amazing. I feel like I'm at the Boardwalk playing bumper cars with totally new rules. You can't hit anyone or anything....but, you can do anything else to get where you are going.

And the players aren't just the bumper cars...they include: bicycles, pedestrians, buses, motor scooters, carts pulled by water buffalo, ambulances, motor rickshaws, and animals.

Then there are the stationary obstacles also: street poles, road dividers, rocks in the road, pot holes, cows sitting in the road or half on and half off of a street divider, and street vendors.

Everyone goes where ever they want in some truly magical way. It seems like each vehicle has some force field around it to keep it from hitting anything, and they all stop quickly when they get close to something. The space between vehicles is often just barely 3 inches. One attempt to describe this is that it feels like being part of a video game, where you can swerve all over the place and noone gets hit or hurt.

I thought of Jeremy and John and how much they would enjoy this scene. No rules...just go, AND don't hit anyone or anything. A true test of endurance, skill, cultural understanding, and determination.

Sometimes I would just laugh, as it all seemed so impossible and yet it seems to work.