Driving in Chennai

Painting white lines on the road is a waste of money and labor.  The road is three lanes with 5 lanes of traffic.  There are large public buses, hundreds of cars, hundreds of yellow three wheelers that have a cab built around the driver,  thousands of scooters and small motorcycles, pedestrians, cows and flat bed carts drawn by beautiful, matched Brahma bulls - the kind with huge horns that go straight back from their head not out to the side.  The drivers use their horn to say "'I'm here'' so horns are going all the time.  It is a game of jockeying all the time just like 20 kids trying to push their way to the front of the line  in a space too small for 20 kids.  Sometimes a scooter will be going against traffic  What a nightmare!  The motorcycles are very small - none larger than 150cc.  They will put the whole family on a motorcycle and go.  I've seen dad driving, a 10 year old sitting in front of him, a 6 and 4 year old sitting behind and mom on the back holding an infant.  They will be weaving thru traffic just like everyone else.  Thank goodness top speed is 40.  You have to hire a driver to go anywhere.  They know how to maneuver in the madness, however, they don't use the gears.  They will be in 3rd when they should be in second and start to go in second when they should be in first.  All vehicles are standard transmission so there is a lot of pigging in the engine.  Sometimes I just close my eyes :)