The System By Which the Indian Roadways Work

Not the worst stretch of pavement we've encountered

I have figured out the hierarchy of the roads in India.

1.       Cows.  They're sacred, they know it.  They have better things to do than dodge vehicles. You will go round them.

2.      Large trucks and buses.  They have cows to pass, timetables to stick to, people and goods to get someplace, and it doesn't seem to matter in what state the people and goods are delivered.  They will use every bit of the road, regardless of whether it's actually being used by something oncoming.

3.      Smaller trucks and cars.  They also have someplace to be and are bigger than the autorickshaws and motorbikes, and if a bus is passing a car, and the car wants to get in front of the autorickshaw or motorbike, it will pass simultaneously (now making a two-lane, two-direction road into a three-lane in one direction, one-lane in the other direction road of terror).

4.      Autorickshaws and motorbikes.  Autorickshaws are three-wheel taxis powered by small displacement two-stroke engines, and they putt-putt rather slowly, but still aggressively (I think they have an inferiority complex) everywhere.  They and motorbikes are often relegated to the shoulder to allow the bigger vehicles to pass the cows.

5.      Bicyclists.  Too slow to pass anything but a pedestrian.

6.      Pedestrians.  Lucky to survive at all.