Gettin' Around

Hi,

In another shot of motivation to actually start writing this blog, I realized recently that my writing abilities had atrophied significantly while trying to do a literature review for work. But in order to give myself some motivation to actually update this thing, I decided to give some of my first few entries a sort of theme. One of my favorite other blogs is by a journalist formerly stationed in Liberia, who did a series of entries called “Getting By”. He details the economics of series of professions in Liberia, explaining how people make ends meet when official unemployment is 85% (Check it out, it is a GREAT way to spend some time: http://esteyonage.blogspot.com/search/label/gettin%27%20by). I’m not going to be as insightful as him, or as good a writer, but in the next few entries, I’ll try to give a sense of what it is like to be living in India as me.

Getting around in India can be a tricky business. India leads the world in traffic fatalities, a fact I learned when about five people sent me a New York Times article on roadside deaths to get me excited for coming over (thanks guys!). It’s pretty obvious why from spending even a few minutes in traffic: no one pays attention to the line dividers, I am yet to see a single stop sign, and making a turn is basically a game of chicken where you dearly hope the person speeding towards you will back down. A guidebook I received as a present warned me that I should always wear a helmet on a motorcycle and seatbelt while traveling in a car. I am yet to find any seatbelts. One car had the straps, but after difficulty finding the buckle, the owner laughed and said that they were probably just hadn’t been installed because the manufacturer figured no one would use them.

So what’s a car-less, motorcycle-less* person to do? There are many different conveyances you can pay to ride: in rapidly descending order of quality, metro , taxi, auto-rickshaw, bus, bike-rickshaw and oh-my-gosh-is-he-really-carrying-people-like-that?!! rickshaw. I’ve also heard of elephant rickshaws, and seen a camel rickshaw, but those aren’t as prevalent. Taxis are like in the US, except usually without air conditioning, but kind of expensive, so I’ve only ridden in one once. I’ve ridden on a few bike rickshaws and one of my favorite experiences has been riding facing backward on a bike rickshaw in Old Delhi. I had tons of people stare and wave at me (this happens a lot if you’re white), which was pretty amusing. Then I realized that the car behind me was maybe three inches from my foot for about five minutes straight, and it was less cool. People here definitely don’t obey the three second following rule.

But auto-rickshaws are by far the main way I got around: they’re basically tin cans on three wheels with as few safety features as probably possible. Here's a picture:



They theoretically are supposed to use a meter when taking you around, but most try to negotiate a fare far in excess of what the meter would give. In Chennai, I never even saw a meter turned on. They managed to rip me off for a little while, but now that I know what things cost, I’ve become a lot more aggressive and started actually laughing in driver’s faces when they cite ridiculously inflated figures. As part of an effort to make meter use the norm in anticipation of a major upcoming sporting event (Commonwealth Games), the Indian government has taken out advertisements on the radio and TV beseeching Delhiites to “please don’t spit on foreigners” (seriously) and reminding them that “foreigners are our friends and guests, don’t cheat them” for business owners/autorickshaws drivers. Today I got the only driver who I think actually paid attention to them: when requesting the meter, he said “but sir, we always use the meter”. I laughed a little, but even more when I saw him refuse the (Indian) person after me who asked him to use the meter.

There’s much more I could say and semi-amusing stories to tell, but this is already pretty dang long. I’ll try to include them more in later entries. For the economists in the crowd who might be interested in the industry, autorickshaw drivers charge about 6-8 Rs. per kilometer (20 US cents). From my discussions with auto drivers, it seems like they make at least what we pay our surveyors and data entry staff, so it’s a good job. However, the elevated risk of death and smog can make it unattractive. I’m very curious about collusion among drivers and other aspects of the industry (e.g. licensing), so will try to learn more about that as I’m here. Collusion is much more prevalent than I would expect, and I’m very curious to figure out why, but have a number of hypotheses.

* Though I am somewhat considering getting one. For now, I have a regular bicycle.