Traffic in Mumbai

Being here for almost 2 weeks, I had lots of experience with traffic in Mumbai

First, there are few ways of public transportation: bus (cheap, but you never know the exact route, it is changing constantly, so for now I don’t use it (until I get to know city more)), taxi, rickshaw (the fastest and cheapest way of transport, they can navigate easily through city traffic, but of course, it has its flaws , suburban railway (the most important way of transport, 120km long railway connecting furthest villages in Mumbai area to the city center).

That was theory, now the practice! I live in Powai area, near Chandivali roud. From there, each morning I get rickshaw to the train station (it takes about 30min when it’s not traffic, when it’s traffic…well…simply said…so help me god!). Rickshaw takes me to Andheri station, where I catch a train for Churchgate.

It all looks very simple in theory, but practice is a different story. Essentials you need to know before using any mean of transport are:

Mumbai is very very very big city
Drivers in most of the cases don’t know the exact route (usually they know only their area, but that’s insufficient for transport around Mumbai)
There is no such thing as street number! Navigation is done by landmarks (buildings, major junctions, etc)
As said in 1) Mumbai is extremely big city! Prepare for rivers of people!

Now, when you got the right expectations, let’s see how it goes!

Driving by rickshaw is quite good. It’s cheap and you can drive everywhere (It’s small so they can ride and turn where cars usually can’t). Only bad side of this ride is pollution and gases coming from bigger vehicles. As you can see in the picture, it is opened on the side, so dust; gases, etc come directly in. Also, most of the rickshaw drivers don’t know English, so it is quite hard to communicate, if you are lost or don’t know exactly where you need to meet someone.

First day I came, we went to cinema by rickshaw. Final result -> 3h ride in the worst traffic ever, rickshaw driver drove us on the opposite direction of the cinema (so in stead of having 1h ride, we had about 3h), we crashed into another rickshaw, managed to evade (with extreme F1 driving skills, respect to the driver ?) one heavy truck and big bus. And this is how it goes with them; each ride is a new adventure.

Also, they sometime don’t know the where is the exact place you want to go, so they ask for directions to other rickshaw drivers. So, what happened to me? I was going to meet with other TCS trainees in front of Regency hotel. Rickshaw drove to the area I knew hotel was in, but we didn’t knew exact location. He stopped on one junction, and started asking colleagues about exact location. As I can understand their body language and very poorly Hindi, I understood that we need to go straight, then turn left, then right, etc. When we were starting to go, Marc Andre (intern from Canada) approached and I realized that we are in front of the hotel (Because rickshaw is low, I cannot see properly what is around me)! If we only departed, who knows where I would finish ?.

Rickshaw

Then I get to the train station. My god, that many people you didn’t saw in your life! It is literally river, highly packed river of people, going to work. I have few pictures, and will try to record small clip of exiting the train. You have 3 types of compartments. Man and Woman are divided, and man have 1st and 2nd class (only difference is in seats, 1st class has cushions, 2nd only wood).

Trains are over crowded, that means people are hanging (but literally hanging!) out of the doors, some even sit on the top of the wagon (there is a lot of accidents due that, they just fall of the roof). Entering the train is adventure of its own. First day I got elbow in the nose, just for not being fast. They are exiting while train is moving, and you need to be very fast in positioning and entering. This kind of flexibility and speed I saw only in kung fu action movies. I’m still learning how to enter properly (because, believe it or not, there is a system!). Or if you are not such adventurer, just go for the slow train that is emptier (but takes 20 min more to the work).

One striking thing is “family relations” of those people in the compartment. Usually they travel for 1h or even more, so they arrange that each day someone else buys food/drinks, so for them it’s a big restaurant and a place where they socialize (some even play cards, chess, etc). In woman part, as I heard, you can buy everything (you have people that are bringing groceries, makeup, accessories, etc and selling in side the train! It’s like a big bazaar, so you can finish your shopping during that train ride). Train is like a city itself!

Map of Mumbai

One thing I mentioned about Mumbai is size. It’s huge! 22milion people, overcrowded. Look at the picture. I work at Nariman Point (south, called as old Mumbai, this is tourist and corporate area), and live in Andheri (east), upper part of the map, where you have airport logo. It is about 30km from Nariman Point?. Imagine amount of vehicles you have on the road. I have clip about it, just watch it and you will get the picture of how they drive and what crazy house it becomes!

You can see some pictures: