The Numerous Daily Struggles of The Indian Motorcyclist

Caffeinated Thoughts
13 min readAug 29, 2024

Motorcycle commuting in India is not for the fainthearted

Photo by Puvvukonvict photography on Unsplash

Introduction

Commuting in India by motorcycle isn’t for the faint of heart. The roads are pathetic, the infrastructure is lacking, there’s civic apathy everywhere, there’s a huge class of vehicles, and driving licenses are handed out like candy at a kids Christmas fair.

Even for those who travel by car, commuting it isn’t a walk in the park either, but one is at least protected from the hostile environment in the relative safety of an air-conditioned metal cage.

One really has to possess balls of steel to be able to commute in the frustrating Indian traffic every single day; wide open main roads that tempt you to speed up, and narrow inner streets that force you to panic brake at every turn and junction. And because of the sheer discrepancy between the horsepower's of the smallest vehicles and the largest, having near death experiences are a daily affair here. You’ve probably come across those thrilling scenes in popular Indian movies where the hero is seen frantically zig-zagging his way through a busy road in a motorcycle in an attempt to catch the villain. There’s cars and heavy vehicles all around threatening to end his life at any moment, keeping viewers firmly glued to the screen and at the edge of…

--

--

Caffeinated Thoughts

No niche in particular. I am a keen observer of society and gain my inspiration for new articles from observation.