Asia's Dangerous Roads
 

An interesting new article in Time Magazine's Asia Edition about road dangers. Asia's roads are the most dangerous in the world. Asia has 16% of the world's vehicles but more than 50% of road fatalities.

The full article is here: http://www.time.com/time/asia/magazi...674826,00.html

-Scott

i definitely concur with the above post. india is populated by the biggest bunch of driving psychopaths on the planet, bar none. my vote for the worst road for driving: srinagar in kashmir to jammu.
ride safely,
ChrisB

Try riding your bike in Colombia...
They say the guerilla,s are dangerous... but the truck,s and busses are much more dangerous... Feels like India al over again http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/ubb/wink.gif

Maarten

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- www.maartensworld.com -
- Some photo's -

yeah,the worlds worst top three have got to be Tehran, Bogota and Calcutta. what do you reckon

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hi
just spent acouple of days in tehran the only place I have seen the army by trafic lights to make people stop at red lights I sure this is a taste of things to come pakistan next

nobby

I met a couple of expat kiwi's who live in Tehran, they told me Iran had 26,000 road deaths last year. Enough said.
Sean

I've never ridden in India, so I don't have an opinion about it.
But I found iranian way of driving really mad, the most dangerous I've ever experienced (much worse than the egyptian, the syrian, etc.).
The tacticts I choose, at the end, was riding just behind a pretty fast truck or travelling on secondary and minor roads, virtually without traffic.

India in my opion is much worse than Iran. One thing about Indian traffic though is that you should try to ride like people do there..sounds mad but if you try to obey too many rules you actually confuse people and they don't know how to react.. basically ride slowly and get out of the way of anything bigger than you. Pakistan is not so much of a problem apart from bicyles that seem to always wobble all over the place!!! http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/ubb/smile.gif

as spud said: there's only one rule in india: "might is right".

so on a bike you're at the bottom of the food chain. even if you hit a pushbike/pedestrian/dog (who are lower than you), there's still a high likelyhood that you're fuct...

so so drive like the pondlife you are and you'll be fine http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/ubb/wink.gif

I found traffic (or should that be 'the drivers') in Thailand to be very unpredictable. In town or city they are bloody crazy, out on the 'open' road they tended to be slightly (and I mean ONLY slightly) less so. Mind you, if confronting anything other than 5 or 6 young girls on one Suzi 100, you had at least a cat in hells chance. I've seen girls (young women) on their mobiles, adding war paint and even sharing a takeaway, the mind boggles. Truck and bus drivers are by far the worst culprits tho - they seriously believe the road is their own property - so look out!
Ride safe
George

I think the South East Asian countries must clearly rate up there. My favourite photo of all time was taken in Saigon, where I watched as a guy rode his 50cc moped with a large fridge strapped on the rear sear, all the while supporting the fridge with one hand, and with the other hand alternating between his mobile phone and the throttle.

Another dangerous place I found is NANNING in China. I have photos of a Honda Acty pickup (800cc) with a 10 meter lamppost hanging way out front and way, way out behind, with only a couple of inches groud clearance - NO lights, NO markers and NO sense of danger to others.
Also spotted was a Chinese Honda 90 (complete with trike conversion) carrying a complete set of DOUBLE iron gates (3 meters wide x 4 meters long) balanced nicely on a bicycle at the rear - again, NO lights NO signs and definately NO worries. But if you want a crash course in Chinese Traffic Regulations, take a look at the taxis - they grade them in order of road fitness. A new car will cost about 2.5 RMB /km.......so if the shed that you are about to trust your life with is only chargeing 0.50 RMB/km do yourself a favour.....walk! One taxi I got into have a lovely view of the road going past thru the holes in the floor and sills.
Take care people
George

Whilst we were in Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam) I saw a small motorcycle coming towards us carrying a pillion who had outstretched arms. On closer inspection the pillion was carrying a 4'x6' sheet of glass! But my abiding memories are of the daily 'battle' with traffic in India.....