* Martin Senftleben [Thu, Jul 27, 2006 at 08:47:59AM +0200]:
> Am Mittwoch, 26. Juli 2006 21:28 schrieb Ravi Rao:
> > There are *plenty* of factors in play and I think one of the most
> > signficant ones is this -- driver awareness.
>
> Well, not only driver awareness. The other participants in traffic,
> namely pedestrians, need to be aware of the traffic as well. In
I was only talking about the "most significant" one, and I still think
it remains driver awareness, to me. Sure, like I said, I definitely
recognize and agree that there's several factors in play.
> Kodaikanal I had one accident (in which I wasn't injured heavily just
> thanks to the helmet I wore and that got a big hole in it): in spite
I don't think it is a fair comparison at all, to compare riding in
India versus riding in North America. The skills being tested are
*completely* different. I'd be an "expert rider" in India (at any
rate, was one, when I was there) but only a "medium" one out in North
America. Part of this is that my pedestrian/dog/pothole-detection
skills and swerving skills are so amazingly fine-tuned thanks to my 4
years of *daily* highway riding in peak-traffic in India that makes me
super safe on Indian roads but mean little out here, in North America
where you don't usually have to deal with pedestrians or dogs or
potholes and everything is so much more predictable ...
And helmets in India are one thing that really bug me. After I've
played around with Arais and Shoeis, I don't understand how the heck
the ones in India get passed through quality checks and what's even
more intriguing is that the new age "software engineers" breed of
folks working in India^W Bangalore end up spending thousands of $$ for
ipods and powerbooks but not the $400 for an Arai. I guess I value my
life more than most others I know (even on this list!) though
superficially it might sound otherwise, given that I'm the one doing
all the "insane" and "sportive" things that I do ... sigh.
--ravi.
--
Universities are places of knowledge. The freshman each bring a little
in with them, and the seniors take none away, so knowledge accumulates.
