india.next*

Have you ever noticed the amount of homogeneity that exists in the roads of the western world? I am pretty familiar with California and spotting a motorbike is as rare as spotting a mosquito. It seems like a vast majority of them are, in fact, on the same type of vehicle ( a car) and hence are most likely to take the same route/direction given two places. And so Google Maps, Yahoo Maps and all of these guys have just one type of route. Fair enough.

Bring India in and the equation changes quite phenomenally. Just like our people, vehicles on our roads are of various types. We have all the kind of Vehicles known to man kind running on our roads and each one of them is as important as the other. I would even think there are more (motor)bikes and scooters than cars on Indian roads.

Now, let me build a hypothesis on top of that previous statement. Arguably, The same person travelling between the same two given places may take a different route depending on the kind of vehicle he is on.

I, for one, prefer the side roads (gallis) and small roads that are less polluted and less crowded over main roads when I am on a motorbike. I am willing to ride a few hundred meters extra if I can skip a few junctions/signals which are a big bottleneck on traffic speeds. But when I am in a car, I would rather stick to the main roads because the condition of side roads are unpredictable. Plus, you never know if that big gravel truck is parked blocking the entire street. But, whenever I take the cycle, I really want to avoid main roads completely if possible, because, they are simply not safe.

There are very many ways to get to a place. Sometimes, you want to take the fastest route, Sometimes the shortest. But the kind of vehicle never used to play a part. But, now it does. At Yahoo! India maps. Search for a route and watch out for buttons on the right pane. Now Obviously, the single Search Box knows about all of this too. So, Type in "bike from anna flyover to parrys, chennai" and you get your (motor)bike directions. Or would you rather prefer a cycle around? Try "Cycle from Domlur bus stand to Yahoo egl Bangalore".

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