
Traffic lights have an interesting twist here. In the US when the light goes from green to yellow many people rush across the intersection before the light goes red. Here traffic usually stops. So the people on the cross street, don't wait for the light to go green. The proceed across the intersection as soon as the cross traffic stops (or mostly stops). At some intersections the light goes red and yellow at the same time so that you can tell the light has gone yellow for the cross traffic.
The horn is used differently here in Bangalore. In the US the horn is used infrequently and generally means either "get out of my way" or "you #%@!, you violate my right of way". In Bangalore it means "I'm here." Since you are always "here" wherever that happens to be and there are always new vehicle to inform of that, fact the horn is used frequently. Many trucks and some auto-rickshaws have "Sound Horn" written on the back. When overtaking someone you sound your horn to let them know you are there. When entering an uncontrolled intersection you sound your horn to let cross traffic know your there. If you decide to drive on the right side of the road (usually we drive on the left here) you sound your horn to let people who many be coming at you know your there.

Two wheelers (the motorized kind) are the most common vehicle on the road. It is not uncommon to see a man driving a two wheeler with a child on the seat in front of him and his wife on the seat behind him holding another child on her lap. Sometime there is a third child holding on behind the mother. The driver of a motorcycle is required by law to wear a helmet and most do. Passengers are not covered by the law. I have never seen a passenger wearing a helmet. The only bicycle helmet I have seen in Bangalore is mine. There are several reasons two wheelers are so popular. One is the cost; to buy it, to maintain it and to fuel it. I'm not sure what the price of gas is here because my car is a diesel; diesel fuel cost about $3.50 a gallon.
Another reason they are popular is that a two wheeler is the quickest way to get around. The reason a motorcycle is so much faster that a car is its small size. While sitting in my car either dead still in traffic or moving at a few miles/hour I frequently see motorcycles come past the car in a space narrow enough that the handle bars nearly touch the vehicle on either side. If they can't continue straight to pass the car in front they may turn 90 degrees, cross in front of my car then turn forward into the next small space. If they need to fold your car's mirror back to get through, they will. Or some kindly drivers will do it for them.
The second most common vehicle is the auto-rickshaw (the yellow topped vehicles in the first two pictures.) These three wheel vehicles more closely related to a motorcycle than a car. The driver has handlebars with throttle and gear controls just like a motorcycle. Most are powered by two-cycle gas engines, although the government as a program to convert them to natural gas to cut down on pollution. When carrying a driver and two or three passengers they are so underpowered that I frequently pass them on my bicycle going up hills.

Donna's turn:
On the subject of honking horns, it didn't take me long to observe that the honks coincided almost perfectly with the entering the blind spot of the vehicle in front of you. Our driver told me one day that in some places it was considered rude to honk, but in Bangalore it was rude (and often dangerous) NOT to honk. It's like vehicle sonar. You hear rather than see what's behind you. The larger the vehicle you are going past, the longer you have to honk, until he can see you out his window. That is why the trucks have the sign instructing people to sound their horn. Since drivers are so close together, and constantly changing lanes, your horn lets them know you're too close behind them for them to move into the lane in front of you. It's noisy, but it actually works extremely well. An American we ate lunch with thought that the U.S. could learn a lesson from their driving!
Another thing you don't see in the U.S. is signs on vehicles proclaiming that they are air conditioned, and some other words that basically indicate that therefore they will not use hand signals.
While walking Luna this week we encountered a herd of 5 horses grazing in a weed covered lot. Luna didn't phase them as they walked closer to me to see if I had food. I noticed one had a large semicircular cut on it's shoulder that had been stitched. I asked a man standing across the street whose they were, and he just shrugged. Someone I talked to saw them on the opposite side of the development later on. And I was told that often when horses are no longer useful for pulling carts, etc, they are just released to fend for themselves. Animals in America are so lucky.
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